Clients want their home pages to be simple. This is often translated into "has to hold as few links as possible."
Jared Spool from UIE argues that exposing people to the content of a site enhances simplicity. With a good design, the upper limit of links is much higher than one might think. Sites with up to 700 links on the home page have proven to work very well for its audience.
But populating a page with every possible keyword won't do the trick. The secret is clustering:
"Users look at each cluster and quickly decide whether the cluster is likely to contain their content or not. By focusing on just one or two clusters, the user winnows down their choices to just a handful of links."
If we don't make the clusters right, user won't succeed. Learning how users think about the content requires research, iterative design, and testing.
Links:
- Lifestyles of the Link-Rich Home Pages

Henrik Olsen
- June 15, 2006
See also: Tips and guidelines (95) Simplicity vs. capability (7) Home pages (9) Navigation (63)