Should your homepage target your most important keyword?
-
I was looking at the title tags/keywords of the top ranking sites for my most important keyword phrase, and I noticed all the pages that were beating us were homepages. Our homepage is not optimized at all. It's very generic, because 1, my boss wanted it that way, (but she's not married to it) and 2, I built out landing pages for all our keywords. For the really, really competitive keywords, I can't get my landing pages high enough. My homepage however, according to OSE, is on par with the other sites, especially the page. I included the screenshots of it, just in case, my analysis was way off. But, those are the top 4 sites and I'm on page 3.
Here's my questions: Should I optimize my homepage for the keyword phrase, if it's our most important one? If I do that, what should I do with the landing pages? Lastly, if you look at the screenshots, is my analysis correct that we aren't woefully behind all four of these people (we're kempruge.com)?
I know I'm asking on a lot on this one, but it's a pretty big decision for us. I could really use the help making sure it's the right one.
Your time is much appreciated,
Ruben
-
Alright, thank you all for your time. I appreciate it!
- Ruben
-
I think you have got the site hierarchy down just fine. However, taking a look at [what I presume to be] your landing page, I think that you could improve your search position by providing more information on the page here.
Start with your company USP's, maybe include a short explainer video? Then work on your written content. Make your page better than your competitors page and you should be rewarded.
I have a site in a very competitive industry with a landing page that ranks within some huge business homepages, and our domain authority is about half of theirs! You just need to keep working on that page.
Dont be tempted to throw too many links at it either. Work on weeding out only the best links from your competitor profiles.
-
Hi
I would say you have done it correctly, optimising the most useful pages for the best user experience.
This key phrase that you are considering putting on your home page - instead of that, why not simply spend more time building links to that page. Instead of focusing links to your home page, focus relevant links to the specific page.
Think of a customer, do they want to land on your homepage and then have to navigate to the correct page to find the information, or do they want to land on the correct page and don't need to navigate away.
There is a really good article (sorry I can't find it), but it talks about the more steps you make a customer make to find the product the less they are likely to buy - I know your not exactly selling a physical product, but you still want the person to sign up and get in contact. So the more difficult steps you make it the less chance you have.
I hope that helps.
-
Which niche you decide to target on your home page is up to you, but in general, the better user experience leans towards broader terms. You can focus deeper on internal pages, but be welcoming to a large crowd (an important, more general key phrase) on your homepage.
Why I say it's up to you, is because it's important to know the risk vs. reward, there is no definite answer. Going too broad will have you fighting against giants you can't yet compete with. Focusing too narrow will limit your demographic scope and traffic. As the SEO, it's up to you to do the research and discuss the levels of risk and reward with your client. What will take longer, what kind of results can they expect from each, etc.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Using keywords instead of brand name on G+ to rank for local terms.
I noticed something this morning, when performing a search on Google UK for "Intensive driving courses southend" the first position is awarded to a driving school that is using exact match keywords instead of brand name on their G+ page to rank for local terms. See this for yourself here: https://www.google.co.uk/#q=intensive+driving+courses+southend Until then, my site had held position 1 for this term for well over a year. Every gut instinct I have tells me that this will not work forever and its not something I should implement, however I'm interested to hear if anyone else is using this tactic, and how its working for them? How can I compete with this "grey hat" tactic?
Branding | | Silkstream0 -
Importance of Google+ name?
Greetings Mozzers, I'm working on some Google+ profiles currently and have one interesting case where I'd like some advice. The name of one of my clients' web addresses, company name, and Google+/Google Local verified local business names all reflect the same thing. [Name] Surgical Associates However, on Google+ it looks like it has a limited number of characters so it reads: [Name] Surgical Ass... How important is it to keep the name identical to everything else on the web? Could I get away with just changing the name on Google+ to [Name] Surgical I appreciate in advice on this matter and what would occur if I changed it here. Thanks.
Branding | | MonsterWeb283 -
Slow loading Homepage - loads twice (Pingdom)
Thanks for looking. Site is: www.vintageheirloom.com My homepage seems slower than the rest of my pages, & erratic load times, 2 -6 secs. It looks like it loads twice when run through Pingdom tools (http://tools.pingdom.com)? On the results page I can see the html script object at the top http://www.vintageheirloom.com/ and then reappears at the bottom again. Load time 1st is approx 761 ms then 1.35 seconds. I've looked for images that might be loading the site, I saw this as a reason, but I can't see this being the problem. I've seen mention of looking in my .htaccess file if that is the cause. I've removed chunks of code to see any changes but couldn't spot any, still loads html script for www.vintageheirloom.com twice. Thanks Kevin .htaccess file details: <code>RewriteOptions inherit # 1.To use URL Alias you need to be running apache with mod_rewrite enabled. # 2\. In your opencart directory rename htaccess.txt to .htaccess. # For any support issues please visit: http://www.opencart.com Options +FollowSymlinks # Prevent Directoy listing Options -Indexes # Prevent Direct Access to files <filesmatch "\.(tpl|ini|log|ds_store)"="">Order deny,allow Deny from all</filesmatch> # Prevent Direct Access to files <filesmatch "fbcindex"="">Order deny,allow Deny from all</filesmatch> # Use PHP 5.3 AddType application/x-httpd-php53 .php # SEO URL Settings RewriteEngine On # If your opencart installation does not run on the main web folder make sure you folder it does run in ie. / becomes /shop/ RewriteBase / RewriteRule ^sitemap.xml$ index.php?route=feed/google_sitemap [L] RewriteRule ^googlebase.xml$ index.php?route=feed/google_base [L] RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !.*\.(ico|gif|jpg|jpeg|png|js|css) RewriteRule ^([^?]*) index.php?_route_=$1 [L,QSA] ### Additional Settings that may need to be enabled for some servers ### Uncomment the commands by removing the # sign in front of it. ### If you get an "Internal Server Error 500" after enabling any of the following settings, restore the # as this means your host doesn't allow that. # 1\. If your cart only allows you to add one item at a time, it is possible register_globals is on. This may work to disable it: # php_flag register_globals off # 2\. If your cart has magic quotes enabled, This may work to disable it: # php_flag magic_quotes_gpc Off # 3\. Set max upload file size. Most hosts will limit this and not allow it to be overridden but you can try # php_value upload_max_filesize 999M # 4\. set max post size. uncomment this line if you have a lot of product options or are getting errors where forms are not saving all fields # php_value post_max_size 999M # 5\. set max time script can take. uncomment this line if you have a lot of product options or are getting errors where forms are not saving all fields # php_value max_execution_time 200 # 6\. set max time for input to be recieved. Uncomment this line if you have a lot of product options or are getting errors where forms are not saving all fields # php_value max_input_time 200 ## INCREASE PAGE SPEED HTACCESS MODIFICATION ## <ifmodule mod_headers.c="">Header set Connection keep-alive</ifmodule> AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html text/plain text/xml text/css text/javascript application/x-javascript BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4 gzip-only-text/html BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4\.0[678] no-gzip BrowserMatch \bMSIE !no-gzip !gzip-only-text/html <ifmodule mod_headers.c="">Header append Vary User-Agent</ifmodule> ## END INCREASE PAGE SPEED HTACCESS MODIFICATION ## ## DIVERT NON WWW TO WWW http://www.seomoz.org/q/is-there-an-easier-way-from-the-server-to-prevent-duplicate-page-content ## <ifmodule mod_rewrite.c="">RewriteEngine on RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\. [NC] RewriteRule ^ http://www.%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]</ifmodule> ## END DIVERT NON WWW TO WWW http://www.seomoz.org/q/is-there-an-easier-way-from-the-server-to-prevent-duplicate-page-content ## # BEGIN WordPress <ifmodule mod_rewrite.c="">RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L] RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d RewriteRule . /index.php [L]</ifmodule> # END WordPress RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^.*$ RewriteRule ^authentic\-preowned\-designer\-handbags$ "http\:\/\/www\.vintageheirloom\.com\/authentic\-second\-hand\-designer\-bags" [R=301,L]</code>
Branding | | well-its-1-louder0 -
Webmaster tool's "Content Keywords" advice needed
I am looking in my webmaster tools and under the "Optimization Tab" >> "Content Keywords" and I find my website's list of what I assume words Google notices mentioned frequently. I want to know how I can better manage this and get more relevant key words to show up. Because the website I am referring to is a college lifestyle magazine we have various topics that range and I could see confuse Google.The top word is college which is great but some of the others seem a little random and could definitely be more relevant. Any tips on how to improve this? webmaster-tool.png
Branding | | CEOLaser0 -
Google+ Vanity Urls: Brand vs Keyword
We have recently been assigned a Google+ vanity URL for our Google page. By default, Google has assigned to us our top performing non-branded keyword. (Probably roughly twice the highly targeted search volume of our brand) My question is: Should I go with my BRAND NAME as my Google+ vanity url, or should I go with my TOP KEYWORD as my Google+ vanity url?
Branding | | Czarto0 -
Value of Keyword Twitter and Facebook accounts
This is just a general discussion on your thoughts on the value of obtaining keyword Twitter & Facebook accounts ( especially if you have a brand name not connected to your primary keywords) For Example: What do you think the value/benifits are of obtaining accounts such as:
Branding | | James77
http://twitter.com/#!/keyword
http://facebook.com/keyword Thanks0 -
Should I redirect a direct keyword url?
We are a manufacture of a product and we own the url of our business/product name (samples) "www.thewafflemaker.com" and our company name is "The Waffle Maker". We do all of our business on "www.thewafflemaker.com" and rank #1 for about 16 of the top 20 keywords related to "Waffle Makers". However, we also own "www.wafflemaker.com" without "The" in the URL. Right now we have it set up as a single page that contains information about the product and a link to our sales site. Should we build this site up or have it just redirect to "www.thewafflemaker.com"? Any help is appreciated. Thank you!
Branding | | LBike0 -
Domain Name Masking Redirect for Brandname to Keyworded Domain
Hi mozzers I have 2 domain names, brandname.com and keywordname.com and but have a question related to web vs print marketing on deciding which domain to use or redirect. We already have established unique content first on the Keywordname.com site over the last 6 months and it has started to climb well in google rankings. But now we'd like to do some print advertising and think it would make more sense to use Brandname.com when refering to our website. So the 2 question are: Should I 301 redirect brand.com to keyword.com (preferred as all content and rankings on keyword.com) or vice versa, as I realize I can only have one site to avoid duplicate content. And is it possible to use domain name masking on brand.com if redirecting to keyword.com to avoid risking our rankings, or is masking bad for seo? Thanks!
Branding | | emerald0