Your home page

Your home page is the first thing most visitors see, so it should show them straight away what your marketplace is about and get them searching. Three things shape it:

• which page is the home page at all,
• which listings appear on it,
• and the theme’s home page sections, set in Theme options.

Choose the page visitors land on

By default your address opens the home page. You can open a different page instead:

1. Go to Settings › General.
2. In Your site, choose a Landing Page:
   • Home page — your theme’s home page, with search, categories and listings (recommended).
   • All listings — the full list of listings, like a category page for everything.
   • Users — the directory of member profiles, for marketplaces that are really a directory of sellers or businesses.
3. Click Save changes.

Choose which listings the home page shows

1. Go to Listings › Settings.
2. In Listing pages, choose Listings on the Home Page (see the table below).
3. Click Save changes.

Option	What it shows
Latest Listings	The newest listings first. A good default while your site grows.
Random Listings	A different random set on each visit, so older listings get seen too.
Featured Listings	Only listings that are featured.
Features Listings Randomly	Featured listings in random order, so every paying seller gets a turn at the top.
Popular Listings Last Month	The most viewed listings of the last month. Only offered when Count Visits Listings is on (same page, Listing details).
None	No listings row on the home page.

The number of listings in the row is a theme option: in Nova, Number of ads in the main homepage row under Design › Theme Options › Homepage.

If you choose a featured option and no listing is featured at the moment, Nova hides the row rather than showing an empty box. Turn on Show a “Just listed” row in Nova’s theme options so new listings still appear.

When a visitor has picked a location (for example with auto-locate), the home page row only shows listings from that location, and its name appears under the row’s title.

What’s on Nova’s home page

From top to bottom, and where each part is set:

Section	What it is	Where to change it
Hero	Headline, a short line of text, the total number of listings, and a search form with What, Category and (if you have more than one top-level location) Location. Under it, links to your five busiest categories.	Design › Theme Options › Homepage: headline, text and background image.
Header banner and home page HTML	Your own HTML, for an announcement or an ad.	Theme Options: Header banner (every page) and Homepage Only Header (home page only).
Map	A map of your listings, at the top or bottom.	Homepage Map in Integrations › Google Maps. See Maps.
Categories	Your top-level categories as tiles with icons and listing counts.	Enable categories section. in Theme Options; icons in Categories.
Listings row	The listings chosen above, with a See all link.	Listings › Settings and the number in Theme Options.
Just listed	The newest listings, when the main row shows something else.	Show a “Just listed” row in Theme Options.
How it works	Three steps for sellers and three for buyers.	Show the “How it works” band. and the step texts in Theme Options.
Popular locations	Your busiest locations.	Show the most popular locations. in Theme Options.

The sidebar widgets don’t appear on Nova’s home page. To add something of your own there, use Homepage Only Header, allows HTML in Theme Options.

Edit the hero: headline, text and buttons

The hero is the big area at the top of the home page. In Nova you can change its words and picture in Design › Theme Options › Homepage:

To change	Use
The big title	Homepage headline
The line under it	Text under the homepage headline
The picture behind it	Hero Background Image

Nova’s hero has a search form rather than buttons, so there are no button settings in Theme Options. What you can do:

• Rename a built-in button, such as Search, Post an ad or Sign up now in the “How it works” band: change its wording under Settings › Translations › Edit texts. The new wording is used everywhere that text appears. See Language and translations.
• Add your own button or link under the hero: put it in Homepage Only Header, allows HTML, for example <a href="/contact.html" class="nv-btn nv-btn-primary">Contact us</a>. It shows on the home page only, just under the search area.
• Hide parts you don’t need: the category tiles, the “How it works” band and popular locations each have a Yes/No setting in Theme Options.

In Marketplace, the hero has a Buy and a Sell tab. Primary Hero Action chooses which one is shown first, the two Buy subtitle fields set the buy and sell texts, and the sell side has a Start Now button that opens the posting form. Rename the button the same way, under Settings › Translations.

Hide some categories from the home page

You may not want every category on the home page, for example a “Wanted” or “Other” category.

1. Go to Listings › Categories.
2. In Hide from the home page, select the categories (hold Ctrl, or ⌘ on a Mac, to pick several).
3. Click Save.

Hidden categories still work everywhere else: listings in them can be posted, searched and browsed. In Nova they also stay out of the hero’s category list and the popular category links.

Other themes

Older themes have their own home pages, often with a slider of listings at the top. Its listings follow the same Listings on the Home Page setting, and the number of slides is set in Theme Options with Numbers of ads to display in home slider.

Related guides

• Theme options — every Nova home page setting.
• Featured listings and promotions — fill the featured row by selling promotions.
• Categories — the tree behind the category tiles.
• General settings — the rest of Settings › General.