Optimizing your Homepage for search engines and conversions might be something you don’t believe in or might seem confusing for you, but it is something you should believe in. Don’t get confused. If you know how to optimize other pages this is very similar.
If you aren’t considering your site’s SEO and don’t want to put any effort into making it stand out, you are completely missing out on a major opportunity.
SEO for the homepage will ensure that your website is authoritative and will rank better in the search engine ranking pages (SERPs). It is worth mentioning here that though the website will rank better in Google results, SEO for the homepage will also ensure that you are creating brand awareness, resonating with your audience and optimizing for conversion.
The homepage is a central navigational hub of your website, and that is why all of your important links, such as the services you offer, should be on it. On top of that, it should add links to the testimonials from clients and case studies. We will talk about all of this in detail.
If you are wondering what to put on your homepage to rank higher in SERPs, here are eleven ways to optimize your homepage.
Keep in mind that these are tried and tested methods, and you should go all-in while adopting these techniques and should not back down, even if the method is lengthy and takes time to complete.
1. Craft a Perfect Header
A homepage is a 30,000-foot view of your business and the first thing visitors notice is the headline.
You’ll want to come up with a headline that is appealing and obvious enough for users to know they’ve arrived in the correct location.
Your bounce rate will likely go up if your homepage is a dead object; therefore, you need to add details about the kind of products and services that you offer.
Once you’ve lured visitors in with your headline and subhead, you should include a call-to-action (CTA) at the bottom of the subhead so they can act immediately.
2. Show off Your Products & Services
Next, you’ll jump right into what you’re offering. There’s no need to make the customers wait.
What are the main goods or services that you provide? When consumers go to your homepage, make sure they know what they’re searching for and how to get there.
The goal is to make sure your descriptions are precise and straightforward, and that links lead customers to the correct sales page. Remember, a homepage simply sends people to other webpages.
Start with a heading that introduces the products or services.
Then, beneath the primary heading, begin listing your items or services. For each product or service, provide a short description and don’t forget to include a CTA to go to the page.
Repeat the sections and CTAs as many times as necessary to list all of the categories of items you offer. Each of these items or services will require its own sales page, but much later.
This area is all about assisting your visitors in comprehending what you have to offer and getting them to the answer.
3. Highlight Your Brand With ‘Call Outs’
Your homepage is the perfect spot for you to make up your brand’s image. It’s a good time to fill in any additional vital information about your company’s items or services after listing them. These are referred to as “call-outs.”
They can include:
- Unique benefits you offer
- A Guarantee
- Different customers you serve
- Office locations, or areas served
Include a section title, a feature or benefit name, and a short description.
Rival firms provide the same products, but added features or benefits might entice more customers to choose you. Demonstrate that you’re their best option to them.
This will allow you to create brand awareness among people who visit your website.
4. With a ‘About Us’ section, you can build customer trust.
Remember, the client is concerned with other issues and not you. Don’t make the mistake of talking too much about yourself. However, including this in context may help build trust by showing who is behind the goods and services that customers are considering purchasing..
“About Us” sections can explain who you are, what you believe in, and why you should choose you over other applicants.
Let your visitor know that you’re in it together. Remember, most consumer behavior is influenced by emotions – is there anything you can do to connect with them?
Write your section title and any subheads you need. The description should include all information you’d want a potential customer to know. A simple paragraph is the most common “About Us” format.
Finally, if applicable, include a call to action. It is not necessary for this section, especially if the call to action does not fit the context. Some businesses with a longer backstory will include a “About Us” page on their website that links back to this one.
5. Use Social Proof to Build Trust
Internet is becoming the second most popular booming place for the exchange of information and shopping. These days’ people give more value to the reviews of the clients and care less about anything else.
Customers who are researching your company on Google and reading as many reviews as possible before purchasing your products or services is a strong possibility. Over 90% of consumers read evaluations, and 84 percent of them trust them as much as if a friend had recommended them.
If you can clear your stance and demonstrate that your clients are happy with your services and products, you can surely gain the trust of the new visitors.
We recommend that your homepage shouldn’t be a static page, and you can set up a highlight reel that will show verified reviews of your customers. These reviews can be quotes, case studies, or simply the companies that you worked with.
6. Work on your Call-to-Actions
Call-to-action, or CTA’s, is another factor that will allow you to drive more visitors to your site and then generate leads later on. You may be thinking that CTAs only belong on the landing pages, but the homepage should be a central hub for achieving high conversion rates.
Although CTA’s don’t give a guarantee that the homepage ranking will be better in terms of SEO, it will allow you to retain the users that are visiting your website and will also allow you to gain more customers while developing your website authority and enhancing your brand identity.
7. Add Blog Posts
A question was brought up to us whether you should add blog posts to your home page or not. Well, we can assure you that it’s a good idea.
Blog post section is only advisable if the homepage has more than one page of blog posts on your website. It will help you to engage users and show them how frequently content updates take place on your website. However, many websites don’t have any blog at all.
Often your home page carries the most weight so having some of this weight transfered to them can give them the head start they need.
Other Important Factors
Use keywords wisely
Keyword stuffing doesn’t work anymore. Therefore you shouldn’t spend all of your arsenal of keywords on your homepage. Rather you should target specific keywords on your homepage. Keywords with your company name inside will most likely help you boost your homepage for SEO. These keywords will act as branded keywords and will help you rank better in SERPs.
The Meta description must be straightforward
If you want your homepage to rank for SEO, then you should work on your Meta description. It will ensure that you are getting a high CTR and people are driving from SERPs to your website. Effective Meta descriptions and to-the-point descriptions can work as a traffic booster for your website if you can catch people’s attention even before they have reached your page.
Implement SEO-optimized website headers
You shouldn’t at any cost forget the importance of usage of headers for SEO. H1 and H2 headers are dominant in smoothing out the user experience, as they will allow the people to scroll through your homepage smoothly and will help Google in indexing and crawling the website. Google makes use of headers to understand and predict what your homepage is about and ranks it accordingly. On top of that, usage of headers will keep your bounce rate down, as people will skim through your webpage easily.
Carefully use internal links.
Your homepage is the best place for you to use internal linking. It will allow the users to navigate from one page to another and will also allow your website to establish a hierarchy. The homepage is the main hub of your website, and Google needs to properly sort it down to understand basic site structure and site hierarchy. Internal linking in the footers can look like an additional menu that allows directs visitors to other useful pages such as the about us page and the contact us page.
Add media to your homepage
Media on your homepage is instrumental to your website’s success. Therefore you cannot leave media and shouldn’t focus just on the text. Consider adding your company logo and add a favicon on your website. A company logo will help in solidifying your brand, and it needs to have a prominent position on your homepage to help you build brand identity. Just keep in mind that if you are optimizing the homepage for SEO, you shouldn’t use fuzzy or pixelated images, and should only use high-quality photos, and should only use the popular file types like JPEGs.
Make your home page design simple
According to WEBFX, homepage design must be simple and shouldn’t overcomplicate things. Consider adding a simple homepage design and don’t overcomplicate items. A simple and elegant design will impress your users and will be easier to digest by your users. On top of that, if you are thinking about how to optimize your homepage for SEO, you should consider using popular fonts and color choices and should make use of spacing and buttons. Since fonts are a consistent element throughout the homepage, it is worth considering that you should focus more on optimizing these for SEO.
SEO Considerations For Your Homepage
Customers frequently struggle to determine which keyword they should rank their homepage for.
Another disadvantage is that multiple items and services are offered, which makes it difficult to optimize your home page for only one key phrase.
So what should you do instead?
We actually advise against concentrating on improving your home page’s rankings.
Use your homepage to promote your business, then create separate sales pages for each of the items / services you wish to rank for.
Breathe Some New Life Into Your Homepage
Follow these ideas to create a fantastic homepage that correctly welcomes visitors, builds trust, and leads them to where they need to go.
If you’d like some help writing your homepage, check out Snap Web Copy where we can write it for you! Or our conversion rate optimization services.
