A home link used to be a an essential item in a menu and always had to be first. Top left, where you can’t miss it. Over time, it’s become more and more common to link the logo, which is almost always in the top left of the page to home.
Now, that it the convention. Which is great, because you can use the space for better things.
We did a quick review of the Top 25 Australian sites as a August 2013 and found that only 20% had a home button. In 2011, a review of Alexa’s top 500 web sites worldwide also found that the majority did not (63% in that case). While not directly comparable (we are too lazy to look at 500 sites), over the last 2 years, it’s been a pretty rapid decrease.
All sites we reviewed did place their logo in the top left corner and link it to their home page.
If you still have a home link in your menu, go get it removed right now. It’ll only take a couple of minutes. Then think or how much easier it will be for people to use your site!
While you are there, have a look at the rest of your menu. It’s recommended that common pages all use simple-easily recognisable menu names such as: About, Blog (or News), Products, Services Pricing and Contact. They are concise, universally recognised and will make your site easier for people to get around your site.
There is in interesting discussion on StackExchange about it if you want to read further.
