Link the logo to the home page on every page of the site, including any shop or blog on another system. Visitors use it as the way back, and a logo that goes anywhere else strands them.

The way back that is not there

A visitor is three pages into a website, reading about a service. They want to start again from the beginning, so they click the logo at the top of the page, as they do on almost every site.

Nothing happens. Or the same page reloads. Or they land on the web designer's site, a head office's site, or the front page of a separate online shop.

Few people would call it a mistake. They simply feel, for a moment, that this site does not work the way websites work.

That moment is often enough for them to press back until they reach the search results again.

Conventions visitors rely on

The first is the oldest and the most relied on. A visitor who uses the logo to go home does not look for another way back; they decide the site is awkward.

Why a broken convention costs more than it looks

Conventions work because nobody has to think about them. A visitor moves through your site on habits learned on hundreds of others.

Each time a habit fails, they have to stop and work out what this site does instead. One stop is small.

Two or three on a single visit add up to a feeling that the site is hard to use, and the feeling attaches itself to the business.

Nobody writes to say the logo did not go home. They leave, and analytics records a short visit.

How logos end up going elsewhere

A logo placed as a background image, or as part of one large header graphic, is not a link at all, and some themes offer no way to make it one.

Some designers link the logo to their own website as a credit. Some franchises link it to head office. A theme copied from an earlier project can keep the old project's address.

And when a site is split across systems, each part has its own idea of home. The blog, the shop and the booking pages each send the logo to their own front page.

A worked example

A wig boutique on a quiet side street sells wigs, hairpieces and accessories, and offers private fittings by appointment in a separate room.

Its main website described the fittings and the ranges it carried. A small online shop for caps, brushes and care products ran on a separate hosted system, at its own address on the boutique's domain.

On the main site, the logo was part of a header image and linked nowhere. In the shop, the logo linked to the shop's own front page.

The owner had never noticed. She reached the shop through its admin screens, never by browsing from the main site the way customers did.

Visitors who wandered from the main site into the shop had no easy way back. Clicking the logo in search of the fitting page returned them to the shop, and some phoned to ask how to book.

The fix took an afternoon. The logo on both systems now goes to the main home page, the shop's menu matches the main site's, and both include a link to book a fitting.

Make the logo a real link

The logo should be an image inside a link to the home page, at the top of every page, with alt text that names the business so screen readers announce where it leads.

On a phone it should still be there and still tappable, not shrunk to nothing or tucked behind the menu icon.

Point it at the home page's main address, the same one everywhere, rather than a variant such as index.html or an old http address.

Keep a Home link as well

Not everyone knows the convention. Some visitors never click a logo and look for the word Home instead.

A Home item at the start of the menu costs one word and serves them. It also makes the way back obvious on pages where the logo is small.

One home for every part of the site

Where a site is spread across systems, every part should behave like the same site: the same logo, the same link home, the same main menu.

Shops, booking systems and blogs hosted elsewhere usually let you set the logo link and the menu. It is rarely the default, so somebody has to ask for it.

Check the pages people reach after doing something, too: the order confirmation, the booking confirmation, the thank-you page after a form. Each should offer a way back.

A test order or test booking, placed once in a while, is the only reliable way to see those pages as a customer does.

Other small conventions to check

While testing the logo, test the rest of the habits in the list above.

Links should look like links, usually through colour and underlining, and buttons should look as though they can be pressed.

The back button should work on every page, including after a form is sent. And Contact should be called Contact, not Get in touch in one place and Reach us in another.

The counter-case

A one-page site has nowhere else to go, and a logo that returns to the top of the same page does little harm.

A landing page built for an advertising campaign may deliberately have no menu, so visitors focus on one action. Even there, the logo should not lead anywhere unexpected.

Some businesses, such as artists and design studios, break conventions on purpose and accept the cost. That is a choice, and it should be a conscious one.

Everyone else should let the logo go home, on every page and every part of the site.

Testing the way back

  1. Click the logo on five different pages.
  2. Repeat the test on a phone.
  3. Follow links into the shop or blog.
  4. Click the logo there and note where it lands.
  5. Check confirmation and thank-you pages.
  6. Add Home to the menu if it is missing.
  7. Ask for the logo link on every system.

Step four finds most of the problems. The main site is usually fine; the parts that run on other systems are where home goes missing.

Small details that tell visitors nobody is minding the site are covered in the footer still says copyright 2013.

Frequently asked questions

Where should the logo link go?

To the home page, on every page of the site, including any shop, blog or booking pages that run on another system.

Why does a small convention matter?

Visitors move through sites on habits. When one fails they stop to work out what this site does instead, and repeated stops make the business feel awkward.

How do logos end up linking elsewhere?

As part of a header image that is not a link, as a designer's credit, as a franchise link to head office, or as each system's own front page.

Do we still need a Home link?

Yes. Some visitors never click a logo and look for the word Home instead. One menu item serves them and costs nothing.

What about our separate online shop?

Set its logo link and menu to match the main site, so visitors can always get back. It is rarely the default, so ask for it.

Is breaking conventions ever acceptable?

Sometimes, for one-page sites, campaign landing pages or deliberately unusual designs. It should be a conscious choice, and the logo should never lead somewhere unexpected.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

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