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When it comes to optimizing your website for ranking on search engines, the home page should be on top of your SEO checklist. And it deserves to be because it is perhaps the most important and authoritative page on your website. While your service and product pages get you rankings on specific keywords, the homepage is the essence of the website. Moreover, it has the keywords that are the most important ones to make your business visible to the target audience. Therefore, you need to pay extra attention to the content of this page and make sure that it is fully optimized with the relevant keywords. Apart from the basics, here are some more tips and tricks to optimize your homepage content to get the best SEO results for your website.
Substantial content
As a rule of thumb, your homepage must have substantial content in terms of word count and quality. Stick to a minimum of 400-500 words that should present relevant and valuable information that matches the intent of the user. Moreover, it should cover facts about your brand and offerings as well. Further, the content should build a storyline naturally and it should be compelling enough to drive the user further into the website. Elements such as user-generated content pieces (such as user reviews and product stories) have the potential to make the homepage content more engaging and enhance the trust factor for the audience.
Highlight your value proposition
As a part of your content, you should highlight your value proposition prominently. The products and services should be visible right when the user lands on the homepage. A strong banner does the job well because it immediately connects with the visitors and tells them about your offering. One thing that is important is to create a good value proposition that every visitor is able to understand and relate with as soon as they come to the site. Adhere to the same messaging through the site and you will be able to keep the users hooked.
Use keywords judiciously
While the homepage content should create a compelling narrative, you cannot pay less attention to including the requisite keywords in it. However, you must make sure that every single keyword is used judiciously. Keyword optimization is to be done naturally, without blatantly inserting them with the intention to drive results through organic searches. Moreover, keyword-stuffed content is most likely to repel the users and they may leave your site without converting. The best content would be the one with the use of relevant keywords with more variations. Therefore, your focus should be on semantic search and conversational keywords that the users are more likely to use as a part of their online searches.
Utilize link building smartly
Besides being clever with the choice of keywords and variations, you need to be extra smart when you use them as anchor text. While implementing the homepage SEO strategy for your website, you need to optimize the anchor text by using variations that are contextual. For example, rather than using generic anchor text such as “Click Here” to navigate the user to an inner service page, make it more service-specific such as “Know more about our service”. This is beneficial from the SEO perspective as the terms are optimized for organic searches and improve the accessibility of the site for users relying on voice searches.
Include compelling Call-To-Action (CTAs)
Besides the story and keywords, CTA statements are a content element you cannot ignore. A strong, action-oriented CTA is vital to drive the visitor to take action and move a step ahead in their buying journey. The action could ask them to explore an inner page, fill out a form or talk to an expert. A CTA at the close of the homepage is mandatory while you may have more of them within the page, depending on its lengths and your requirements. However, make sure that they are placed naturally and contextually. Bombarding the visitors with too many CTAs can irritate them to the extent that they may leave the site. Having too few of them on a lengthy page may, on the other hand, make the audience miss out on taking action.
Mix content with visual elements
Homepage optimization goes beyond just creating amazing content but is more about having a compelling user experience. A good UX not only builds trust and connection with the audience and wins the favor of Google as well. Google prioritizes UX while ranking websites and you can sure ace the game if you are good enough on this front. A viable mix of content with visual elements makes a winning UX for successful results. When it comes to visual pieces, you can use a mix of banners, sliders, click-through images and CTA buttons. While the images should be clear and relevant, they should blend seamlessly with the story of the brand.
Mobile optimization is the key
Your homepage may have the best content and visuals and may be optimized with the right keywords while adhering to the anchor text optimization rules, but you may still not be getting the desired results. The reason could be as simple as the absence of mobile optimization for your website. This is a key element of the homepage SEO that you cannot miss at any cost. Firstly, when your site does not render seamlessly on mobile devices, you are likely to miss out on a massive customer base. Secondly, the recent mobile-first indexing update by Google has, in fact, made mobile optimization all the more important for websites.
Now that you know the A to Z of homepage content, you can reassess your website and identify the gaps. Further, take an opportunity to realign the homepage SEO strategy by starting with the evaluation of the content first and then moving on to the other aspects of technical SEO. Content is the foundation that must be strong enough to keep the game going. If you are developing a new website, you must stick to these content rules as well.
