How to Change Your Homepage on Chrome: A Simple Guide

Need to learn how to change your homepage on Chrome to one that you frequently visit? It’s quite easy to do and eliminates the hassle of searching for a page you know you need immediately. Every time you open up your Chrome browser, it can be annoying to have it redirect you to a blank page when there’s a website or page you frequently visit. If you choose to set a new homepage or start-page in Chrome, the moment you open up your browser, it can redirect you to your email, a news website, or even your company portal so you can get to your work tasks quickly.

The Chrome settings are quite easy to find and navigate, and the more you familiarize yourself with the page and learn how to customize the Chrome start page, the better it will look to you when it opens up. Let’s dive straight into the details of setting a new homepage on Chrome.

How to Change the Homepage on Chrome—A Step-by-Step Guide

Unlike a few other browsers that redirect you to their news page or tab of their choice, Google’s default settings typically open up into a new tab from where you can navigate to the content you want to see. If you add shortcuts to websites you frequently visit, you can just tap away to a link of your choice, which is a great convenience. What’s even easier is to just set a different default start page on Chrome, so you always open up your browser to the page you need.

First, let’s learn how to set up a new homepage in Chrome. Just follow along with these steps.

• Launch your Google Chrome browser from your desktop or taskbar
• Click on the three vertical dots you see on the top right corner of your screen. If should be visible under the “X” sign to close the tab
• In the Chrome settings page, click on “Appearance” on the panel on the left side
• A new settings menu will open
• You can turn the “Show home button” on here if you want it to redirect you to the page of your choice
• The “New Tab page” is selected as the default option for the homepage. Click on the “Enter custom web address” section below it
• Open the desired homepage link from a separate tab and paste it into the space provided

You have now successfully changed the homepage on Chrome. To test it, click on the home button on the left side of your URL bar on top of your screen and it should redirect you to your preferred homepage.

How to Set a New Start Page in Chrome

Now that your home button has been customized, it will take you to your desired page with a click of a button. If you want to customize your Chrome browser even further to launch with your preferred list of websites every time you open the browser, that is possible as well. 

• Launch your Google Chrome browser from your desktop or taskbar
• Click on the three vertical dots you see on the top right corner of your screen. If should be visible under the “X” sign to close the tab
• In the drop-down menu that appears on your screen, find the Settings option at the bottom of the list and a new tab should open up
• Look on the left panel of your Settings page and you should see the “On Start-up” option. Click on it
• Click on the “Open a specific page or set of pages” option
• Then click on the “Add a new page” option
• In a separate tab, open the website or page you want as your default homepage on Chrome
• Copy the URL from the link bar or the top of the tab
• Return to the Chrome start page settings tab and paste the link in the “Site URL” box. Then select “Add”
• If you want more pages to open up in separate tabs when you open Chrome, click on “Add a new page” again and follow the previous steps to add more links

You have now successfully changed the tabs that come up when you open your Chrome browser. To test it, launch the browser again and check if all the links you added to the Chrome start page settings launch immediately in separate tabs. 

You’ve now learned how to set a specific page as your start-up tab using Chrome and you can change the URL of the pages that you want to open on launch, whenever you want.

How to Customize the Chrome Start Page with Shortcuts

If you don’t want to change your homepage on Chrome but still want shortcuts available to tabs that you visit frequently, this is possible as well. When you open up your Chrome browser, it typically opens a new table with a Google search bar in the middle of the screen. The area under it is reserved for shortcuts. You can add in multiple shortcuts to the pages you want to visit frequently right there.

• Open up a new tab on Chrome
• Under the search bar in the middle of the screen, click on the “Add Shortcut” option
• In the box that opens up, add the link of the page you want as a shortcut under the “URL” option
• In the “Name” section, type in what you want the link to be identified as, whether it’s the name of the website, the title of the Google Sheet you want as a shortcut, or anything else
• Click “Done” and you should see the shortcut icon on your screen with the name you assigned to it
• Add in more shortcuts according to your needs and you’re now good to go

If you want the shortcuts to automatically change to show your most frequently visited websites, that is possible as well.

• Open up a new tab on Chrome
• Click on the edit “Customize this page” icon at the bottom right side of your screen to open the settings page
• You should see various options to customize the appearance of your Chrome start page, including the background and theme
• Scroll to the bottom to the “Shortcuts” section
• Ensure the “show shortcuts” toggle is on, pushed to the right side
• Click on “Most visited sites” and your shortcuts should automatically switch to the websites you visit the most

Over time, depending on your activity, the shortcuts should automatically update to the websites you visit most often.

How to Change the Chrome Homepage on Android

Changing the Chrome homepage on your Android device is even easier than it is on a PC or laptop.

• Copy the link/URL of the website you want to set as your homepage
• Open the Chrome browser on your smartphone
• Click on the three vertical dots in the top right corner
• Scroll down to find the “Settings” option at the bottom
• Scroll down to the Advanced section, find the “Homepage” button under it, and click on it
• Under the “Open this page” section, select the second option to set a custom address
• Paste the URL there

Now when you click on the home button, it will take you to the webpage of your choice every time. 

Now you know how to change your homepage on Chrome or customize the Chrome start page to suit your convenience. If you have any more questions on how to set a page as your homepage using Chrome or any other browser, leave us a comment and we’ll tackle that topic next time. 

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