Should you have a homepage navigation button?
Turns out this is more controversial than I expected. I ran a LinkedIn poll, and the results bounced back and forth all week between yes and no. In the end, yes just edged ahead with 54% versus 44% for no.
So is it just a matter of opinion? Or can you actually test it?
Obviously, as an analytics geek, I had to find a way to test it.
No time to read? Download the tutorial so you can test your own site
Should websites include a home link?
But before I started working out how I was going to test, I asked expert web developers and marketers what they thought.
Here’s what they told me…
The case for no home button
Does removing the home link hurt UX?
I had my first website built over 20 years ago. Back then, a five-item main menu was standard.
Websites have grown since then. And so have menus.
If you’ve ever tried to find your account switcher on Amazon desktop, you know how frustrating bloated menus can be.
The answer is simplicity. Make it easy for people to find what they need. That’s what navigation is for after all.
One way to simplify is to move less important items into the footer. Or even remove them completely. Do you really need a home link in the menu and one in the logo too?
Kevin from Leadflow thinks not:
“The homepage should serve as a welcoming intro and guide, but the main navigation is better reserved for core offerings, your story, and ways to connect. Adding ‘Home’ to the menu doesn’t add much value when the logo already does the job.”
Kevin Lee, Leadflow
Which raises another question: do people even want to go back to your homepage once they’ve started their journey?
Home links feel outdated
Sometimes I feel like that out-of-touch aunt at Christmas, the one still saying “Information Superhighway” while sipping sherry.
I know clicking the logo takes me home. But do I actually do it? Rarely.
I do like a good old-fashioned home button though, the same way I still enjoy vinyl records. But that doesn’t mean it belongs in your menu.
As Khara points out, it depends on your audience:
“Base your decision on your target audience. While it may seem obvious that the logo takes you back to the homepage, you’d be surprised how many people in older generations don’t know to click the logo.”
Khara Wolf, Websites by Khara
Fair.
Lucy O’Reilly agrees it’s old-school:
“I’ve always thought it was outdated to include ‘Home’ in the main nav and tell my clients it’s a sign of a DIY site! Do the big brands have ‘Home’ on their navs? I don’t think so. By all means put it in the footer, but not in the main nav.”
Lucy O’Reilly, Designs for Growth
The case for a home button
Do users expect a home link in navigation?
This is the biggest argument for having one.
Some people expect it.
If you take it away, you risk frustrating them.
As Sandra puts it:
“Including a clearly labelled ‘Home’ link ensures a more intuitive and user-friendly experience, particularly for those less familiar with web conventions. It’s a simple addition that builds trust and reduces friction.”
Sandra Hennessy, Be Dynamic
But then, are savvy users judging you for duplication?
The role of homepage links in user experience
How do users return to the homepage?
There’s one way to find out: watch them.
Tools like Microsoft Clarity let you record user sessions so you can see what people actually do on your site.
That squiggly line is someone moving their mouse around my site.
As Shane says:
“It’s really enlightening when you see users on your site. You constantly feel like shouting ‘It’s right there!’ when they’re hunting for a button. A lot of people don’t realise the logo is also a link, just like they don’t know the hamburger icon hides a menu.”
Shane Gray, Nebule
But what if you haven’t launched yet?
That’s where audience research comes in.
“I weigh up whether to include a ‘Home’ link depending on the client and their audience. Clear navigation helps both users and search engines understand the site structure, which is always a good thing.”
Lee Mowlem – Remarkable Pixel
Home link vs logo navigation – which is better?
Even after talking to experts, I’m none the wiser. I just can’t decide…
Time for a test
I’m running an experiment using Google Analytics and Tag Manager to find out.
Here’s how you can do the same.
How to measure home button clicks vs logo clicks
No time to read it now?
Download the full printable and saveable tutorial here
You’ll need:
- Google Tag Manager installed
- Google Analytics installed
Then follow this process:
Step 1 – Enable click variables
Variables are little packages of information that stick to your tags. You need to add the click variables so we can see these packages.
Click Variables on the left-hand side menu.
Are: Click Classes, Click Element, Click ID, Click Target, Click Text, Click URL there?
If not you need to add any missing variables.
Click Configure at the top right-hand side.
Select all the Click options.
Step 2 – Create a trigger
Triggers fire when something happens on our website, when someone visits a page, scrolls a page, watches a video, or in our case, clicks a link. You can attach triggers to all sorts of pixels. We’re going to create one that attaches to Google Analytics
Let’s create a trigger that fires when someone clicks a link on your website from anywhere on the site.
Click Triggers on the left-hand side bar
Click New at the top of the screen
Click in the box to choose a trigger type
Select Just Links from the menu that slides in
Give your trigger a name
Save
Step 3 – Set up a tag
The tag connects your new trigger with Google Analytics
Click Tags in the left-hand sidebar menu
Click New
Give your tag a name
Click on Tag Configuration
Select Google Analytics and Google Analytics: GA4 Event from the slide-in sidebar
Add your Google Analytics measurement ID (find this in your Google Analytics, Admin/Data Streams/Data Stream)
Give the event a name. I’m going with all_clicks so I can use it with other click events for different experiments.
We need the click event to send some extra information along with it. This will help us break down the report into different clicks later on.
To do this, add parameters. Here’s how:
Expand event parameters.
Add click_text in the first box, and then choose the {{Click Text}} variable under value, then Click Add parameter, then add click_url and {{Click URL}} in the next line
Repeat the process and add click_class and {{Click Classes}}
Now add the trigger you created earlier.
In the trigger section, choose the JL – All Clicks (or whatever you named it)
Click save
Step 4 – Test it
Click Preview at the top left-hand side of the tag manager screen
Click Connect and add the URL of your website.
This will open your website in a new tab. A window will appear to tell you the site is connected.
Click on the home button in your navigation
Return to the tag manager window (it should be flashing blue) – It will show you the different tags at the top of the window, select your Google Analytics account
Do you see the all_clicks event in the window below? If you do, good news, you’re set up correctly.
Click on the tag to check that the:
Click Text, Click URL, and Click Class are registering
Repeat the process for a logo click. With any luck, either the click class or click text will be different to the first click. Repeat again for wherever else (e.g. breadcrumbs or footer) the Home link appears on your site.
Step 5 – Register parameters
Although you’ve created your custom parameters in Tag Manager, they won’t show up in reporting unless you add them in your Analytics account.
To do this:
From Admin, select Custom definitions under the Data Display menu
Click Create custom dimension at the top right-hand side of the screen.
Give it a descriptive name (I’ve gone with Click Text, Click URL, and Click Class). These will be the names that show up in your reports.
Add the new parameter name you’ve created
Repeat the process for each of the parameters you added to your event.
Now you’re all set to start measuring. The final stage is to create a report that will show you the results.
Step 6 – Build your report
In Google Analytics
Click on your reports tab
Click on Library at the bottom left-hand side of the screen
Click on Create new report
Then Detail report from the drop-down menu
Select the Blank template
When it opens, there will be two sections waiting for you to take action: Add dimensions and Add metrics. After you add them, you’ll have a report waiting to populate.
First, click Add dimensions
Click inside the Add dimensions box in the right-hand side bar and start typing the name of your custom dimensions, they will show up in a drop-down menu.
NOTE: It can take time for your newly registered dimensions to show up here. If they don’t appear yet, come back in 24 hours and try again
Next, click Add metrics
Inside the Add metrics box in the right-hand side bar, add Event count and Total Users
Great, we’ve got a report, but right now it’s showing you all the clicks on all the things on your site. To make it useful, we need to filter it down to just the clicks on the homepage.
Click Add filter in the right-hand sidebar
Under Dimension, select the Click URL dimension you created
For Match type choose exactly matches
Select your home page URL from the drop-down menu
Now we need to narrow down the report to just click events.
Click Add new condition
Under Dimension, select Event name
For Match type choose Exactly matches
Select all_clicks from the drop-down menu
Click Apply
Don’t worry if the report is blank for now; it will start to fill out once people engage with your site.
Finally, click Save at the top of the screen and give your report a name.
When to make a decision
If your site gets low traffic, you might need to wait until you’ve collected around 100 clicks. As you can see, I’m not there yet.
If you have high traffic, you can base your decision on a time frame, a week or a month perhaps.
The Result – Is your homepage navigation button essential for usability?
So what’s the verdict? Should websites include a home link?
There’s no one-size-fits-all answer. Your best bet is to test.
Homepage link usability best practices suggest keeping things simple and intuitive. And while website navigation design standards evolve, clarity never goes out of style.
If the data shows hardly anyone clicks the home button, try removing it from the nav and see what happens.
Just make sure your users still know how to get home.
Setting this up can seem like a huge chore. Wouldn’t it be cool if you had someone who could do it all for you? Find out more about my done-for-you Google Analytics set up service here.
