How many buttons should a homepage hero have?
How many buttons should a homepage hero have? Two at most: one primary button for the person you most need and one quieter secondary one. A row of equal buttons makes visitors stop and choose, and on a phone it pushes your message off the screen, so move everything else into the navigation.
A homepage hero should have two buttons at most: one primary call to action for the person you most need, and one quieter secondary option. Everything else belongs in the navigation.
It's one of the most common patterns I see on startup and small company websites. The hero carries a row of equal buttons, one for the company, one for the product, one for the team, one for a feature or award, and none of them stands out. Each one is a reasonable thing to show. Together they ask a visitor to stop and decide before they've understood what the company does. Everything is there, and the reader has to sort it out, which is exactly what I warned against in Designing for the Laziest Reader in the Room.
Why equal buttons stall people
More equal choices, slower decisions. Hick's Law comes from two reaction-time studies: William Hick's On the Rate of Gain of Information (1952) and Ray Hyman's Stimulus information as a determinant of reaction time (1953). Both found that people take longer to respond as the number of possible options grows. Treat that as a principle rather than a prediction about your page.
Too much choice can stop people choosing at all. In the well-known jam study, Iyengar and Lepper (When choice is demotivating, 2000) found shoppers offered a large display of jams were less likely to buy than those offered a small one. It's a study about shopping, not websites, so I'd read it as a warning sign, not a law.
Equal weight means no hierarchy. Nielsen Norman Group describes primary, secondary and tertiary button styles: the primary gets the most visual emphasis for the most important action, and the others step down. Their piece on visual hierarchy explains why that ordering helps people see what matters first. When every button looks the same, the page hasn't told the visitor where to go.
What happens on a phone
On a phone, a row of buttons doesn't stay a row. The buttons stack one under another, and a hero that looked tidy on a laptop becomes a column of choices that pushes the next section off the screen. Each button still needs room to tap: the W3C's accessibility guidance sets a minimum target size of 24 by 24 CSS pixels, with spacing, so you can't simply shrink them to fit. Fewer buttons is the only real fix.
The fix: one primary, one secondary
Pick the one person you most need. For a startup that might be an investor or partner. For a service business it's usually a new client. Give them a solid, obvious button with a plain label, such as "Book a call" or "Investor enquiries".
Add one quieter route. A secondary button, usually an outline style, for people who want to understand what you do first. "How it works" does the job.
Move the rest into the navigation. About, team, news and features still matter. They just don't need to compete with your main action on the first screen.
Check it on your phone. Can you see the headline, the proof and the primary button without scrolling? If not, cut again.
The buttons are only one part of the first screen. I covered the headline and the proof strip in Why does my biotech homepage lose investors in seconds?, and why visitors give that screen so little energy in Your Homepage Has One Cup of Energy Too. If your hero is carrying more buttons than it needs, that's an easy thing for me to look at with you.
FAQ
How many call to action buttons should a homepage have?
In the hero, one primary and at most one secondary. You can repeat the primary action further down the page, but the first screen should make one choice obvious.
What is the difference between a primary and secondary button?
The primary button has the most visual emphasis, usually a solid fill, for the most important action. The secondary has less, often an outline, for a useful alternative.
What is Hick's Law in web design?
The idea that decisions take longer as the number of equal choices grows. It comes from 1950s reaction-time studies, so use it as a guide to keep key choices few and clear.
How many buttons should a biotech or deep tech startup homepage have?
The same: one primary and one secondary. Science companies often have several audiences, such as investors, partners and recruits, but the hero should serve the one you need most right now and send the rest to the navigation.
What should the main button say for investors?
Something plain and specific, such as "Investor enquiries" or "Talk to the founders", rather than a vague "Learn more". The label should tell an investor exactly what happens when they click.
Where should other homepage links go?
In the navigation, the footer or later sections of the page, where they're available without competing with your main action.
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