Homepage

Overview

In most cases, you’ll only need to create your homepage once. It serves as the main landing page of your website. It’s ideally the starting point where visitors can learn about your site and navigate to other sections.

Creation

The _index.md file inside the content/ folder is automatically recognized by Hugo as the homepage.
You can create it with the following command:

hugo new content --kind home _index.md

Layout

Home layout is intentionally empty to give you full creative control. You’re expected to build your homepage using Alpha’s shortcodes inside the _index.md file.

Note: The home layout is meant to be used exclusively with shortcodes. If you want to add plain text content, use a text-related shortcode to wrap it. (e.g. text-snippet, text-content)

Recommended Homepage Structure

For a clean, informative homepage that works well as both a landing page and content hub, Alpha suggests the following structure:

1. Introduce your site with a large visual block or headline using the Hero shortcode .
2. Showcase a key post directly below the hero section with the Featured article shortcode.
3. Add a short introduction or mission statement with the Text Snippet shortcode. If you feel wordy use the Text Content shortcode
4. Help visitors discover more content without navigating away from the homepage using the Recommended articles shortcode
5. Close the page with a prompt link to your contact page, newsletter, or another important section, by using the Call-to-Action (CTA) shortcode

Quick Note on Layout Philosophy

Alpha’s homepage layout philosophy follows a “do it as you like it” approach. It’s structured but leaves everything in your hands through shortcodes:

• Beginner-friendly: You can copy the recommended layout as-is, and add your content.
• Flexible for advanced users: Rearrange, remove, customize shortcodes—or create your own. Why not?

Frontmatter

The homepage uses the following frontmatter if it was created with --kind home flag.

+++
# Content Identity
title = "Welcome to My Site"
description = ""

# Dates
date = "2006-01-02T15:04:05-07:00"
lastmod = ""

# Publication Control
draft = false
layout = "home"

# Advanced SEO
seo_type = ""
seo_image = ""
twitter_username = ""
+++

Reference¹

Content Identity

title

title = "" — (string, recommended)

Populates metadata.

LiVa error if omitted.

Default: Automatically filled at creation.

description

description = "" — (string, recommended)

Short description for SEO and social sharing.

Recommended length: 50–160 characters.

LiVa warning if omitted.

Dates

date

date = "YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZHH:MM" — (string, recommended)

Used for SEO metadata and page ordering. Must follow ISO 8601 format.

Hugo error if misconfigured.

Default: Automatically set by Hugo at creation.

lastmod

lastmod = "" — (string, optional)

Sets the last modified date. (used in metadata).

Use the same format as date.

LiVa warning if precedes published date.

Publication Control

draft

draft = false — (boolean, optional)

Marks the page as a draft if true.

Default: false.

layout

layout = "home" — (string, optional)

Forces Hugo to use Alpha’s home layout.

LiVa warning if value is invalid.

Advanced SEO

seo_type

seo_type = "WebSite" — (string, optional)

Overrides Alpha’s default @type value in schema.org structured data.

Default homepage value: WebSite

seo_image

seo_image = "filename.png" — (string, optional)

Image shown when sharing the page on social platforms. Recommended size 1200x630px

Place images in assets/img/ folder.

Fall back to seo_default_image from config/_default/params.toml if omitted.

LiVa warns if the file is missing or has incorrect dimensions.

twitter_username

twitter_username = "oxypteros" — (string, optional)

Sets the twitter:creator value in Twitter cards.

Enter the username without the @ symbol.