diff --git a/docs/index.md b/docs/index.md
index 2be5f256f..51d0ed791 100644
--- a/docs/index.md
+++ b/docs/index.md
@@ -4,11 +4,13 @@
   :alt: SpatialData banner
 ```
 
-# An open and universal framework for processing spatial omics data.
+# An open framework for spatial omics data
 
-SpatialData is a data framework, a schema and a serialization format for uni- and multi-modal spatial omics datasets. It is supported by a growing suite of software libraries for performant access, manipulation and analysis in multiple languages, including Python, R and JavaScript.
+SpatialData is an open framework for working with uni- and multi-modal spatial omics datasets. It defines a common data model and storage format, supported by software libraries for accessing, manipulating and analyzing spatial omics data in languages including Python, R and JavaScript.
 
-This page provides documentation on how to install, use, and extend the core `spatialdata` library. See the links below to learn more about other packages in the SpatialData ecosystem.
+This site documents how to install, use and extend the Python `spatialdata` library. For language-independent definitions of SpatialData datasets and their on-disk representation, see the [SpatialData specifications](https://scverse.org/spatialdata-spec/).
+
+See the links below to learn more about other packages in the SpatialData ecosystem.
 
 - `spatialdata-io`: load data from common spatial omics technologies into `spatialdata` ([repository][spatialdata-io-repo], [documentation][spatialdata-io-docs]).
 - `spatialdata-plot`: Static plotting library for `spatialdata` ([repository][spatialdata-plot-repo], [documentation][spatialdata-plot-docs]).