Are Homepages Very Important for Google?

One question frequently arises: how important is the homepage to Google? There has been some debate in the SEO community about whether homepages still matter as much as they used to in the early days of SEO. With shifting trends in link building and the rise of quality content on inner pages, are homepages still a priority for Google’s rankings?

In this post, we’ll analyze statements from Google representatives and look at the evidence around how Google views and utilizes homepages today.

The Evolving Role of Homepages in SEO

In the early 2000s, homepages were undisputedly the most important pages for SEO. Directories and reciprocal linking resulted in sites primarily garnering backlinks to their home pages. This homepage authority flowed through websites.

However, as on-page optimization and quality content became bigger ranking factors, inner pages grew in prominence. Today, for many websites, key landing pages around topics, products, or services are the most linked to and, therefore, powerful pages SEO-wise.

So, with this evolution, there’s been uncertainty around whether homepages retain their supreme status in Google’s eyes.

Signals That Homepages Remain Highly Important

While the role of homepages has evolved, statements by Google representatives indicate they are still weighted highly in rankings and crawling by Google:

In a 2020 video, John Mueller explained how homepages provide a starting point for Google to crawl websites:

“On many websites, the home page is the most important part of the website. We re-crawl that fairly often, and from there, we try to find new, updated, or important pages.“

He added Google sees value in pages linked from the homepage:

“That pages linked directly from the home page are important is fairly well known but worth repeating. A well-organized website will link the major category and other important pages from the home page.“

This aligns with how Gary Illyes described Google’s reliance on homepages for crawling:

“From Google’s perspective, the homepage is the most important page on the site, and the homepage is a little vague here because it can be the page where users are landing when they enter your domain name or hostname.“

Illyes stressed the effort Google makes to crawl and index homepages:

“We, as in Google, will try very hard to index or crawl and index that. If that’s not indexed, then you probably have some problems.“

John Mueller also referenced homepages as insightful for page authority:

“Especially if your homepage is generally the strongest page on your website, and from the homepage, it takes multiple clicks actually to get to one of these stores, then that makes it a lot harder for us to understand that these stores are pretty important.“

So, Google appears to place a high priority on homepages for crawling and inferring page authority.

How Google May Utilize Homepages

Based on Google’s official statements, here are some of the key ways homepages likely factor into their systems and rankings:

• Crawling: Google starts crawl sessions from homepages to discover new pages. Ensuring homepages are crawlable is critical.
• Page Authority Flow: Homepages pass authority to linked inner pages. Pages farther from the homepage may be deemed less important.
• Site Architecture: The homepage links provide Google insight into a site’s structure and which pages/topics are most important.
• User Experience: Homepage experience gives signals about overall website usability and quality.
• Trust indicators: Design elements and branding on homepages can convey website credibility.

In many ways, homepages remain a vital gateway page for search engines in understanding and ranking websites.

Best Practices For Optimizing Homepages

Given their prominence for Google, businesses should ensure their homepages are optimized:

• Make homepages easily crawlable and indexable. Avoid restrictive robots.txt directives, no index tags, or excessive page load times.
• Homepage links should align with the site structure and priority topics/categories. This helps Google effectively crawl the site.
• Feature excellent user experience and branding on homepages to build trust and authority. Leverage quality design, content, and page speed.
• Drive links to homepages from quality directories, branded social accounts, and press mentions to reinforce homepage strength. Don’t solely rely on inner pages for links.
• Using separate domain homepages or geo/language versions, use hreflang tags and internal linking to indicate relations.
• Set up tracking and analytics to monitor the homepage experience. Continuously optimize based on real user data.

The Verdict: Homepages Retain Importance

In conclusion, while inner pages have grown in SEO influence, evidence indicates that homepages remain highly valued by Google in 2023. Homepages provide search engine critical signals about websites. By optimizing homepage crawl ability, user experience, and authority-building links, brands can reinforce the foundations of their SEO success.

Matebiz Pvt Ltd – a data-driven digital marketing expert, brought you this post. Reach out if you need help with technical SEO audits or strategically optimizing your online presence.