Despite what some experts across the industry think, such a thing as homepage SEO does exist and, what’s more, it is an important element of online marketing. Although it is pretty similar to general website SEO, many people find it confusing as homepages are usually dedicated to representing the brands rather than keywords.
A properly optimized home page can not only boost your brand awareness and visibility but also make your site more trustworthy in the eyes of omnipresent Google. Taking the main page of your site to the next level of SEO-friendliness is a surefire way to success – and here is how you can do it.
Introduce Your Brand in Style
The home page of your web-based venue is where you greet all the newcomers, hence make sure you provide them with enough information on what you do and why they have to choose you over the competition. To introduce your business in the best possible light and explain why you stand out from the crowd, consider splitting up the entire content into easy-to-read sections, each dedicated to a certain aspect of your activities. Just a heads up, avoid too comprehensive explanations, they should be brief yet enticing, otherwise, visitors won’t feel the need to continue browsing your site.
Keywords are Still Key to Success
As a rule, ranking for non-branded keywords (those that do not have your company’s name in them) makes the home page of your website more SEO-friendly. That is why you have to take advantage of a winning combination of one branded keyword and a range of theme-based keywords. This way you will help search engines recognize the subject matter of your site, which means you will raise the quality level.
Create Smart Meta Description
Do not understate the importance of smart meta description. Along with the title tag, this can boost your home page click-rate and drive traffic to your website. When creating your meta, keep in mind that sentences should be well-structured and contain some info able to grab visitors’ attention.
At this point, it is also essential to know your target audience, so you can write a couple of lines about your business or services that would appeal to your potential clientele. Do not forget to include your brand name, as well as some words from the title tag in your meta description. It is also a good idea to end it with an unfinished sentence and three dots to kindle your would-be customers’ imagination and make them wonder what is coming next.
Write SEO-Friendly Headers
Oh yes, headers are also important. When you decide on the content you’re going to put on your home page, do not forget to write H1 and H2 headers that make sense and help Google better understand what your home page is about. It is okay to let headers break up small blocks of text, if anything, it is a home page that gives a snapshot of the entire site. For better results, always include in your headers some of your keywords or you can even write one header (only one!) the same as your title tag, of course, if you find it appropriate.
Use Internal Links
Think of your home page as a crazy busy hub that is a starting point not for every visitor, but his majesty Google too – and act accordingly! Do not be shy about making internal links to help users navigate your site and let Google figure out its architecture. One of the frequently used tricks to direct customers to certain pages is to add internal links in the footer as a kind of extra menu. These links should be natural and useful, never create misleading links as it is not what people call SEO-friendly.
Build Quality Backlinks
It’s hard to find a website owner who hasn’t heard of backlinks and how valuable they are for SEO. In short, backlinks to your site are a sign to search engines that others trust your content. The more sites link to the same page or website, the more reliable that destination is in the eyes of search engines. If you want Google to consider your home page as worth surfacing on a SERP, make sure to earn backlinks to get a higher ranking position.
With a plethora of opportunities to get both free and paid backlinks, it is very important to develop a strategic plan and build your infrastructure wisely, of course, if you want to reach your goals. As explained by Adam White at https://seojet.net/blog/backlink-strategy-that-works/, if you want Google to trust your brand as they trust big names, you have to take full advantage of your home page link building. First of all, avoid targeting key phrases in your link building most of the time to your homepage, but feel free to include key phrases in your on-page SEO. As you build links to your homepage, 90%-95% of your backlinks will be either branded anchors or some form of URL as the anchor text.
If you wonder how often you should build links o your home page, there is no all-size-fits-all-solution, hence a lot depends on your budget and circumstances, but generally, it is recommended to have at least several every month.
Add Testimonials
As incredible as may seem, people do love to read reviews of other customers and often make their decisions taking into account the opinions of others. That is why you shouldn’t hesitate to ask satisfied clients for a couple of written sentences and put them on your home page. Setting up a highlight reel that simply bursts of positive reviews, eye-catching quotes, case studies, or just names of companies is a brilliant move that can significantly increase the volume of conversions.
The importance of Search Engine Optimization is hard to overestimate. SEO -friendly home pages get more traffic, have a higher conversion rate, and as a result, delivers more revenues. While SEO is far from being the easiest practice to master, making your home page more SEO-friendly is definitely worth a shot as your efforts will pay off very quickly.
