SaaS Landing Page Copy

[Studio33]

Hi

We have a SaaS online invoicing software website.  We want to optimize our landing page for conversion.  Everything we read about conversion says

1. Big H1 Copy, short, precise and catchy.
2. 3 bullet points

and thats it.  Very very little copy.

Question is is this bad for our SEO.  Will google rank our home\landing page if we do not have lots of natural keyword copy?

SEO and CRO are conflicting here aren't they?

Thanks

[Chris.Menke]

Studio,

The kinds of landing pages you're likely reading about are PPC landing pages, which aren't tailored for organic rankings.  If you're talking about an organic landing page, you do need to treat it like any other page you want to earn traffic from search--and you have to optimize for conversions too.  That's one of the reasons squeeze pages became popular--they contain a lot of content and draw the visitor in to convert them.

When you think about Moz's home page, and factor in the number of links there are that point to it, there is probably no amount of on-page content that could outweigh the forces of the anchor text in those links.  That's to say that moz doesn't have to rely on content to provide relevance for its home page.

[IOSC]

Essentially, I think you are asking is, let say... moz did an a/b test on their homepage with a as the page left as is and made the b page with more copy, then which one would rank higher for the main keyword? (assuming they could compete against each other for ranking? and the extra copy is not necessary related to the keywords?)

I don't think B would rank better, but it is impossible to say for certain

I would think that eventually the page that converts better would develop stronger signals to google than the on-page copy to separate it from the worse converting page -- more conversions, better metrics, (maybe more links?) etc. that also get folded in to the algo.

[Studio33]

Thanks.  This is my point though if you look at www.moz.com there is hardly any copy at all.

If for example Moz and "another site" where equal in all other way links PR etc.  They had the same amount of keywords on thier landing page.  But the "other site" had more copy, would google rank Moz or the "other site" higher?

[IOSC]

I think that when ppl say very little copy on landing pages is because you want the landing page to be all about conversion as to not distract the visitor from the task at hand.  For instance, if you have a landing page geared towards email sign-up, you don't want 5000 words and then a box at the bottom to capture the email.  You want as simple as possible -- maybe just the email capture box.

Obviously if your home page is used for conversion there are ways to maximize SEO -- good title tags, you need to include copy - but always keep in mind the goal of the page, and if you have good user metrics that gets folded in as well.

I don't think it is one or the other: SEO vs. CRO.  You can learn a lot just by looking at the Moz.com homepage.