The homepage is the main page of your website. It is mandatory in Drupal, as you can’t have a website without it.
Your homepage should help users understand 3 key things:
- who you are
- what you offer
- where they can find the content they need
All content on the homepage needs to meet content standards and follow the style guide.
See examples of all the available content types and components on the Cambridge Web Platform showcase site.
How to use this type of page
On your homepage you need to have:
- an introduction to your service and what you provide (rather than your team)
- links to key sections and web pages on your site only
- at least one call to action, to tell users to complete a task. This should be an important task you want most users to complete. Find a course, for example.
On your homepage you do not need to have:
- lots of content such as images and video. Remember that most people use this page to help them navigate your site. Having to scroll past lots of information in order to navigate to the next page can irritate users.
- detailed information and content. Use bite-sized information on your homepage. As above, remember that most people will be using it to navigate your site. It’s not the place for lengthy, detailed content.
Create a content-first homepage by following advice from the Content Community
Editing the homepage
1. Sign in to your website, navigate to the homepage and click "Edit".
2. Add a meta description.
Meta description helps users decide if the page in the search results is something they want to read.
Meta descriptions must be between 50 and 160 characters
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be unique for each page on the site
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be clear and descriptive so that users can distinguish if it’s the right content for them
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describe why users would find the content on the page useful
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include words that your users would search to find the page. Find out how to research your users’ language
Meta descriptions must not:
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have jargon, acronyms, Cambridge-only terminology or your department’s name. Use plain English words instead
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be duplicated elsewhere on the page, for example as an introduction in the banner
3. Select "+ Add" button in the "Main Content" section.
4. There are 6 different components that you can add to the homepage:
Featured links: Use this component to link to 2 to 6 important web pages on your site and an optional image. All the links should be related and about the same topic.
Please see the instructions on how to add Featured links.
Image cards: Use this component to link to 2 or 3 web pages on your site. Do not use icons as an image.
Please see the instructions on how to add Image cards.
Link grid: Use this component to add 3 to 12 links. Add links to the most popular pages on your website so that users can get to them quickly.
Please see the instructions on how to add Link grid.
Text cards: Text cards are a way to link to 2 to 4 important web pages from your homepage. Use this if you don't to add images and just want to use text.
Please see the instructions on how to add Text cards.
Teaser cards: Use this component to link (signpost) to 1 or 2 web pages on your site. The links should relate to each other.
Please see the instructions on how to add Teaser card.
News: You can display a list of recently published news articles directly on your homepage. This list is automatically populated with the latest news content from your site.
You must have at least 6 published news articles on your site for the list to display correctly. If fewer than 6 exist, the block will not display.
To add the News list, click the "+ Add" button in the Main Content section. From the available options, select "News".
Once the News component is added, scroll to the top of the page and click "Save".