I think a great idea would be if the latest postings(maybe 10 or so) from the “Ideas for Ardour” and “Made with Ardour” sections were posted on the front page.
I think the the left sidebar would be a good candidate since it’s very empty and needs some loving…
This would give people an immediate idea on the active development of Ardour and maybe they’ll be more encouraged to dig in(and maybe even contribute).
In general, I think that new visitors to many webpages rarely look at all the sections of a website inside-and-out. In many cases, they don’t even get past the front page.
Speaking of people not digging very deep into the web site, it appears you haven’t taken notice of the little section in the right side bar of the front page titled “New forum topics”.