In terms of SEO, your home is the most powerful, authoritative page on your website. While optimized service and product pages are also important for your rankings and conversions on specific keywords, your homepage carries the most authority and the content on your homepage plays a huge part in its success.
Below are some tips on how to write and optimize your website’s homepage content to boost your search engine rankings.
Substantial content
Your goal should be to have at least 400 words of quality content on your homepage. Now, I underline that this should be quality content. This should be informative and relevant content that provides real value to your users, telling them who you are and what you offer, and leading them further into the site.
While you should strive to include your keywords in your homepage content, don’t force it! If you are targeting effective, relevant keywords, this should flow naturally. A homepage composed of unappealing, keyword-stuffed content will actually hurt your SEO rankings (not to mention, nobody will want to read it).
Use keywords wisely
Make use of the natural opportunities to insert your keywords. For example, a home builders website could swap out the term “new communities” for a more powerful term that shows up in more search results, like “new home development communities in Toronto,” and so on. Keyword optimization can be done in a natural way, without blatantly keyword-stuffing, to drive success through organic searches.
Beware of the difference between terminology that you use every day in the industry, and the words that searchers use to find you. You may build “freehold properties,” but even with improvements in AI intelligence and semantic search, this won’t connect you with potential customers searching for a new build home. In order to use your keywords wisely, you must first learn what those keywords are. Conduct extensive keyword research to discover what people are searching for, what your competitors are ranking for, and what keywords are ripe for rankings opportunity.
Also, make use of keywords in any hyperlinks you include on your homepage (and all landing pages). Instead of directing people to your services page with generic anchor text reading, “click here,” take the opportunity to incorporate your primary and secondary keywords, optimizing the anchor text to read, “View our Toronto model homes.” This will provide SEO benefit, as these terms are now optimized for organic searches, but this also improves the accessibility of your website for those that are visually impaired and using screen readers.
Make your value proposition clear and prominent
All of your products and services should appear prominently near the top of your homepage. When visitors land on your homepage, they should know immediately what you are offering them – and how you stand out from your competition. A good way to make your value proposition obvious on your landing page is by incorporating it into a slider or banner image on your homepage.
The most important factor in developing a good value proposition for your website is clarity. Your value proposition has to be clear and easy for every visitor to understand as soon as they land on your website. This could be that your product provides the best value for your investment, your product offers the best quality on the market, or perhaps you offer more bonus incentives than any of your competitors. Don’t make it complicated. Simplify your homepage content and messaging for clarity, and make sure visitors see it immediately.
Optimize your headings
Your headings and subheadings are powerful for search, so make sure you are making the most of them. Incorporate primary and secondary keywords and phrases that are likely to drive organic searches, as well as draw the viewer in as soon as they land on the page. For example, instead of “Founded in 1985,” it is stronger to write “Building Quality Homes in Toronto Since 1985.”
When implementing your homepage content, be sure to use your headings format function for your titles. Using the headings functions helps search engine distinguish the hierarchy of content on the page. Your homepage should include only one main H1 heading and each other subheading should be an H2, H3, or H4, in accordance with their prominence in the hierarchy. Note that the H1 heading should be very relevant to the content on the page, otherwise it will not rank well.
Include strong call-to-action (CTA) statements
Include a strong, action-oriented CTA at the bottom of the page, or numerous CTAs throughout the page if this is natural, that will take the user on their next natural step. If a visitor has read all the way to the bottom of your homepage, they are likely interested in your product or services. So, include a CTA button at the bottom of the page that will lead them further into the site, ideally to an organized landing page.
Optimize your CTAs by making them more descriptive, as opposed to the generic “Click Here.” Make your CTAs succinct and clear. Put yourself in the customer’s shoes and give them a reason why they should click through for more information. Don’t be afraid to get creative! For example, instead of “Learn More,” your CTA button could read, “Take a Virtual Tour of Toronto Model Homes”. These are much more descriptive and will lead to more clicks.
Consider visual elements, composition, and mobile optimization
Break up text into sections that are easily digestible by the user. You can separate sections throughout the page using headings and different visual elements like banners, sliders, CTA buttons and click-through images of your products and services. These visual elements create a better user experience that will draw prospective customers deeper into the website and convert more leads.
Make sure all visual elements on your homepage (and each landing page on your website) are fully responsive, optimized for quick loading speed and mobile browsing. Recently, mobile surpassed desktop searches for the first time ever, which means mobile has to be a priority if your business is going to remain competitive.
Google’s recent mobile-first indexing update has made mobile optimization even more important for businesses. Google will now be primarily crawling the mobile version of your website in order to index it in search. If your website looks amazing on desktop, but has formatting issues or only partial content on mobile, you will want to update this as soon as possible to improve, or even to maintain, your website SEO.
With the latest Google algorithm updates, creating quality content for your website is more important than ever in terms of your search engine rankings. While you may have an attractive and dynamic-looking homepage designed with high-quality images and unique design components, search engines don’t see this. Search engines see words, meta titles, and image alt tags. Keep this in mind in order to craft homepage content that will draw in new customers.
