Link to the Homepage

What It Is

To improve usability, link back to the your website's homepage or to another appropriate, logical starting point, from each page. This is a best practice for managing your agency’s website.

Why It's Important

Visitors often need to access a website's front page to choose other paths and to have another way of knowing where they are within a website. This helps both those who get lost and others who drill deeply into a website from a search engine or other source.

OMB Policies for Federal Public Websites require agencies to (#1A) “disseminate information to the public in a timely, equitable, efficient and appropriate manner” and (#2A) and “maximize the quality, objectivity, utility, and integrity of information and services provided to the public.” By providing a link back to the homepage from each page on the website, you'll make use of your website more efficient and useful to the public.

How to Implement

• Make sure that your link to the homepage is clearly marked. Many people do not recognize that an organization's logo links to the homepage. If you use a graphical link to your homepage, it's a good idea to include text indicating that it links to the homepage.
• If your website is for a subordinate bureau, division or section of your agency, you may choose to include a link to the homepage of your parent organization. For example, the FBI may choose to link to its parent organization, the Department of Justice.

Examples

• Department of Justice - "home" link in the top navigation
• Social Security Administration - "home" link in the top navigation