Is Your Homepage SEO Friendly?
01-05-2017
Homepage content should be pretty straightforward for the average Affiliate, but if you’re new to lead generation, how do you know if your homepage copy is SEO friendly enough?
To be fair, Google clearly stated multiple times in their Terms and Conditions that all websites should be geared towards benefitting the consumer, not Google bots. In fact, websites that try to bypass the bots by over-optimising for SEO often ignores the readability of the content, which lowers the quality of user experience and oftentimes gets penalised by Google. So, we are not advising you to create an overly optimised homepage that focuses primarily on pleasing the SEO algorithm. Instead, we suggest that you strike a balance between having enough SEO optimisations and still providing the consumer with the highest website experience.
But how do you do that?
Well, you’re in the right place to find out. Your homepage is arguably your most authoritative page, which means that your website might not even be discoverable on the search engine results pages if your homepage isn’t up to par with competitors. Of course, homepage design and copy has to also reflect the rest of your website content. If you want to learn the best approach on how to kill two birds with one stone (optimising your homepage for both your users and your search engine), then keep reading!
Your Homepage Should: Tell Visitors What Your Website is All About
Think of your homepage as a book cover. It should include just enough information to intrigue the visitor, but not the entire summary of what your website is about. It’s a cover page, not an About Me page. Rather than simply laying out every major section of your website on your homepage, just make sure your major sections are easily discoverable. Don’t hide those buttons. When it comes to the actual text on your homepage, don’t stuff it with paragraphs of keywords. Anything overwhelming to the visitor will not be helpful to you in the long run. Instead, focus on only a few important keywords to establish yourself as a brand. Also, use images and other visual designs to organise your content hierarchy and keep your page interesting to visitors. Every aspect of your page should give the visitor a better idea of what your website offers and what your professional values are.
Your Homepage Should: Have a Clear Call to Action
Rather than trying to cast out a net to catch all types of visitors from all walks of life, focus only on the most critical visitors and their main needs. For example, if your target audience falls in Generation X, you wouldn’t use age-inappropriate designs that cater to a younger audience. You would make your call-to-action the most prominent aspect on the page without making the visitor hunt for it. Knowing your target audience is the key to having the right call-to-action placement. To be safe, simply follow these steps:
- Put your call-to-action in a visible, high-activity area, such as at the top centre, top left, or top right of your page
- Make your call-to-action stand out by using contrasting colours
- Experiment with different button texts
- Use strong verbs in the call-to-action title (i.e. “Sign Up Today!”)
- If you apply these tips, your call-to-action should be clear, concise, and high-converting.
Your Homepage Should: Prioritise the User’s Convenience First
Ironically, in order to make your homepage SEO-friendly, it has to prioritise the user’s convenience first. Google’s algorithm was built to favour genuine, high-quality websites that benefit the visitor. Therefore, if you simply focus on making your user experience top notch, you will also be favoured by the search engine algorithm. A great way to ensure top quality user experience is by making your homepage load faster. Google and its competitors have been known to prioritise fast-loading websites on SERPs because it gives visitors a better web browsing experience. To do this, simply use smaller or lower resolution photos. You can also limit your redirects and take out unnecessary plugins. You can also include click-to-call on your homepage to increase your user’s convenience. This might not have significant SEO value, but it will definitely help you with those conversion numbers.
We hope that these tips will help you rank on the first page of your desired keywords! To start generating an income with your traffic today, join T DOT UK as an Affiliate!
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