Role of Home Page Text
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My company operates a commercial real estate web site in New York City. We are competing against brands that can spend hundreds of thousands of dollars per year on marketing and SEO. I am an independent without employees.
I am trying to replace generic home page text (my web site is ww.nyc-officespace-leader.com) with more engaging language that will differentiate the site.
In terms of SEO best practices, what constraints exist on home page text? Must it discuss the brand in a general way? Must it specifically describe the interior pages of a site?
For new home page text, I wanted to take a practical approach and provide visitors with a checklist that would be useful for their search. The check list would be in the form 500-800 words or very practical advice, specific items they should be aware of before commencing a real estate search. No other site is taking this approach and it could save tenants time and grief. I am attaching a very rough mock up of the new text (forgive the grammar, really needs to be edited!).
Is there any thing wrong with this approach? I may have stumbled on a good idea, however maybe nobody has taken this route because it is inappropriate for a home page.
I would very much appreciate any comments or guidance anyone may have.
Best, Alan Rosinsky
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Hi Alan, you've received some excellent responses. Did any of them help answer your questions? We'd love to hear from you!
Christy
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Blueprint shared a lot of excellent resources. I'll add one other - http://moz.com/blog/what-should-i-put-on-the-homepage-whiteboard-friday - a Whiteboard Friday post published in January of this year.
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To be honest I have a good idea about real estate from the marketing point of view as I have worked as an in-house digital marketing consultant for a big real estate firm and the only thing that matter to them when it comes to home page content is how they are solving their real world problem of the targeted audience.
If you think that your new content is helping your target audience in anyway and they probably will share it and recommend to others within their circles. As far as SEO is concern, yes you need to target few keywords in the home page and your content should do justice to it as well but what matters to be the most is a content that help targeted audience in anyway because, if you will find it useful they will not only convert themselves but also help others do the same.
Hope that helps!
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HI Alan,
I like the idea of solving people's problems.
Instead of spouting off about how wonderful you compared to everyone else same industry.One of the best things available on the web content creation and how to do it right is here.
http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2011/06/home-page/https://www.distilled.net/content-guide/
If can make some suggestions the Hemingway app is a fantastic way to get visitors to read what you've written.
I also recommend using
It is a fantastic to tell you. Using proper grammar as well as telling you are somehow plagiarizing somebody
Everything else you can send it to be proof read by experts who will correct any mistakes made. This takes less than 24 hours is inexpensive.
Check out http://contently.com/strategist/
&http://www.copyblogger.com/good-copywriting/
https://blog.kissmetrics.com/75-copywriting-resources/
http://tools.quicksprout.com/analyze/www.nyc-officespace-leader.com#!/
I think anything that put together thinking of you customers problems and the best method of solving them.
The Homepage can show people that you want to solve their issues right away.
Link to your blog.
Show updates made too your blog on your Homepage.Thomas
PS I have taken the liberty of posting your photograph below ( Imgur is requiring you add the file type .PNG .JPEG .GIF etc. In order for it to show up) http://i.imgur.com/0d76Iv2.png
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