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.
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 page description.
Page description helps users decide if the page in the search results is something they want to read.
Page 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
Page 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 3 different components that you can add to the homepage: featured links, image cards and link grid.
- 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.
- Image cards: Use this component to link to 2 or 3 web pages on your site.
- 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:
Get help
If you need help with your Drupal website, contact the Drupal team via webmaster@admin.cam.ac.uk.
Content editors around the University can get guidance and advice from the Content Community.