Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
SEO strategy for conversion-optimised home page
-
I'm working on a very conventional-type site with a home page (why come to us), methods we use, pricing, reviews, FAQs and contact us.
After reading the Moz case study at (http://www.conversion-rate-experts.com/seomoz-case-study/), I have been working on a conversion-optimised home page that consolidates much of content in all these pages.
At the bottom of the home page, I then plan to add a list of blog posts "Want to read more? We have a lot of useful information on our blog. Here are the most popular articles:" with articles that explain more about the methods we use for example (content that was formerly on our methods page). Obviously this new blog will also have more interesting information (but a lot that could actually be converted into pages)
This radically changes the site into just a home page full of selling points and calls-to-action and a blog.
I have some questions about this strategy:
- How do we keep our search engine ranking for keywords such as "[our service] prices" or "[a particular method] London". We rank quite well on Google for these and it goes straight to the relevant page. Shall we keep the pages active somewhere even though the information is also on the home page?
- Is a blog actually necessary here (SEO wise)? The things I'm planning to write could easily be made into more pages.
- Am I going about this completely wrong by trying using the CRO guide? Should this sort of page be reserved for landing pages? The reason why I'm considering making a conversion-generating home page is because we only sell one service pretty much (although there are differences in how we do it on children vs. adults) and because we are quite niche so most of our traffic comes from organic sources.
Thank you
-
My first suggestion after reading your question, is to create a plan before making any changes to the website architecture. I have seen on numerous occasions, websites lose up to 90% of their organic traffic after a website redesign due to poor planning. Every page holds value, and each link on that page passes value to the page being linked to. For instance, if you are planning on removing links from the navigation menu on the home page, that page is in jeopardy of losing rank.
Look at Your Top Pages in Webmaster Tools
You will see a link in the left menu, "Search Traffic." That will expand, then click on the first item below it, "Search Queries." Once you have clicked on it, you will see a tab over the graph labeled "Top Pages." Once you have clicked on that, you can view your most popular organic landing pages. If the page is receiving enough traffic, there will be a toggle arrow next to it. By clicking on the page link, it will expand with a list of search queries used to find that page. Take a look at each page's keyword list and look for semantic patterns or correlations they have to that page. You may not think that every keyword you see is relevant for that page, but that doesn't mean that keyword shouldn't be there. The keyword in question may pass semantic value to the primary keyword your page is ranking for.
Take a look at one of Rand's slide decks he posted, Cracking the SEO Code for 2015. Focus more on topic association rather than keyword matching. You may also find a blog I posted on Semantic Search useful. It covers some evaluation techniques you could use.
Check Your Backlinks Using Open Site Explorer
If you plan on removing pages that are ranking well for high converting keywords (which I would not advise), you may be losing important backlinks to that page. Remember, even though those backlinks are directed toward that specific page, doesn't mean that it won't affect the rankings for your entire website. Any link on that page is passing authority to the pages they're linking to.
If you decide for sure that you have to remove a page, make sure you at least create a 301 redirect pointed to the page taking its place. If that page happens to be the home page, then direct it to the home page.
Think about every SEO factor and content asset
When it comes to Organic Search, there are many variables that come into play. Here are just a few that come to mind:
- Semantic Structure of each page
- Number of pages indexed by Google
- Backlinks passing juice to each page (even nofollow links should be considered as a factor)
- Internal Link Structure of the Website
- Keyword Specific Anchor Text
- Structured data
- Indexed PDF files
- Self-Hosted Video assets
- Images and alt text (consider universal search)
- Keyword Specific URL aliases
Conclusion
One of the reason's Moz did so well was because they told a great story about the brand and it was easy to digest. I would keep your blog as well. Moz definitely didn't get rid of their blog. Instead, I would think of some new ideas to make your blog interesting and engaging.
As far as the pages are concerned, I would keep them where they are at, and I wouldn't remove any links that are currently directed toward them. Instead, since they are already ranking well and garnering traffic, leverage them as an asset you can build into your conversion strategy. Somehow funnel them to your landing page. Set up Google analytics events and goal funnels to evaluate what works and what doesn't.
I'm not sure if that answers your question, but at the very least, I hope it helps guide you in the right direction.
-
I think one of the best takeaways from Rand's work with Conversion Rate Experts is the understanding Rand got from talking about his services in person and how well such conversations "converted" versus how Moz was talking about what it did and offered on the site. For your specific case the solution is probably somewhat similar, how would you first describe and introduce your product (home page, very well crafted) and then how you would address specific examples and use cases (blog post, referencing your core service) or other pages.
Home pages can often rank for a robust set of terms so you might be alright in ranking with the smaller site format, still spend the time going through your Analytics carefully to see what pages you should keep and redesign versus what pages you could most likely redirect to the higher converting new ones. Also, test test test. Make sure you're making improvements with the changes you're making. Optimizely should be able to help you in that regard: https://www.optimizely.com/statistics
If you're very local, spending time seeing how your referrals and leads arrive via sites like Yelp, Google Local and others would be good too. It sounds like you're on the right track though and just need to tie things together with Analytics.
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
-
Fresh page versus old page climbing up the rankings.
Hello, I have noticed that if publishe a webpage that google has never seen it ranks right away and usually in a descend position to start with (not great but descend). Usually top 30 to 50 and then over the months it slowly climbs up the rankings. However, if my page has been existing for let's say 3 years and I make changes to it, it takes much longer to climb up the rankings Has someone noticed that too ? and why is that ?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seoanalytics0 -
CDN for SEO (or not)?
Does CDN impact on SEO or not? There seems conflicting ideas as to whether they impact positively or negatively, I realise that if the page loads quicker this is a good thing for SEO and usability of course. Does Google see CDN as just cheating and a get-around for not doing the work from the ground up and using good hosting etc? Do you have any direct experience? All constructive input much appreciated!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seoman101 -
Google indexing only 1 page out of 2 similar pages made for different cities
We have created two category pages, in which we are showing products which could be delivered in separate cities. Both pages are related to cake delivery in that city. But out of these two category pages only 1 got indexed in google and other has not. Its been around 1 month but still only Bangalore category page got indexed. We have submitted sitemap and google is not giving any crawl error. We have also submitted for indexing from "Fetch as google" option in webmasters. www.winni.in/c/4/cakes (Indexed - Bangalore page - http://www.winni.in/sitemap/sitemap_blr_cakes.xml) 2. http://www.winni.in/hyderabad/cakes/c/4 (Not indexed - Hyderabad page - http://www.winni.in/sitemap/sitemap_hyd_cakes.xml) I tried searching for "hyderabad site:www.winni.in" in google but there also http://www.winni.in/hyderabad/cakes/c/4 this link is not coming, instead of this only www.winni.in/c/4/cakes is coming. Can anyone please let me know what could be the possible issue with this?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | abhihan0 -
I have a lot of spammy links coming to my 404 page (the URLs have been removed now). Should i re-direct to Home?
I have a lot of spammy links pointing at my website according to MOZ. Thankfully all of them were for some URLs that we've long since removed so they're hitting my 404. Should i change the 404 with a 301 and Re-Direct that Juice to my home page or some other page or will that hurt my ranking?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | jagdecat0 -
Is it a problem to use a 301 redirect to a 404 error page, instead of serving directly a 404 page?
We are building URLs dynamically with apache rewrite.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | lcourse
When we detect that an URL is matching some valid patterns, we serve a script which then may detect that the combination of parameters in the URL does not exist. If this happens we produce a 301 redirect to another URL which serves a 404 error page, So my doubt is the following: Do I have to worry about not serving directly an 404, but redirecting (301) to a 404 page? Will this lead to the erroneous original URL staying longer in the google index than if I would serve directly a 404? Some context. It is a site with about 200.000 web pages and we have currently 90.000 404 errors reported in webmaster tools (even though only 600 detected last month).0 -
Should my back links go to home page or internal pages
Right now we rank on page 2 for many KWs, so should i now focus my attention on getting links to my home page to build domain authority or continue to direct links to the internal pages for specific KWs? I am about to write some articles for several good ranking sites and want to know whether to link my company name (same as domain name) or KW to the home page or use individual KWs to the internal pages - I am only allowed one link per article to my site. Thanks Ash
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | AshShep10 -
Are there any negative effects to using a 301 redirect from a page to another internal page?
For example, from http://www.dog.com/toys to http://www.dog.com/chew-toys. In my situation, the main purpose of the 301 redirect is to replace the page with a new internal page that has a better optimized URL. This will be executed across multiple pages (about 20). None of these pages hold any search rankings but do carry a decent amount of page authority.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Visually0 -
Will having image lightbox with content on a web page SEO friendly?
This website is done in CMS. Will having lightbox pop up with content be SEO friendly? If you go to the web page and click on the images at the bottom of the page. There are lightbox that will display information. Will these lightbox content information be crawl by Google? Will it be consider as content for the url http://jennlee.com/portfolio/bran.. Thanks, John
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | VizionSEO990