What the Text on Your Website’s Homepage Should Be Like
The homepage is the most crucial component of your company’s online presence. It’s what users see first when they visit your site. Besides, the homepage succinctly reflects your business concept and tells clients about it. Therefore, it deserves special attention, and it’s important to learn all the requirements and recommendations.
The SEO Role of the Homepage
The homepage carries the most weight and is the top-level page in your site structure. It plays a significant role in promotion.
Search engines analyze text, audio- and video files, images, and, after this process, display the most relevant results. Therefore, you need to clearly understand how various actions can influence your site’s rankings.
Text Factors Affecting Site Positions
Text is the most important element on your homepage. Your website’s positions will directly depend on compliance with the parameters listed below.
Semantic Core
When selecting a semantic core for your homepage, aim to find words that most accurately describe your niche. The service Serpstat can help streamline your work:
- Select the “SEO Analysis” section;
- Next, click “Keyword Selection”;
- Enter the keyword most suited to the direction of your web resource;
- After the service provides options, select the most appropriate ones.
Also, pay attention to the frequency and competitiveness of your chosen keywords. Ideally, there should be keywords with varying frequencies. Introduce these keywords naturally into the text, ensuring they are evenly distributed.
Intent
Intent is the primary user intention when entering a search query. Its match with your site’s content directly impacts results. Intent is categorized as follows:
- Informational – the user’s desire to find specific information (e.g., “What is iambic?”);
- Navigational – the user’s desire to find a specific store or any organization. Queries typically follow this pattern: company name + “site/address/store/salon”;
- Commercial – the user’s intention to find a product or service to purchase. The query structure is as follows: product/service name + “order/buy/discount/promotion/budget/inexpensive”.
The most suitable type of intent will be the one matching your site’s theme. It’s best to have navigational queries on the homepage, as informational and commercial queries are primarily relevant to their respective pages.
For instance, for a women’s clothing site, the query “buy women’s coat” will lead to the section on outerwear. For the homepage, the best option is “buy women’s clothes.”
LSI Semantics
When evaluating, the search system also uses the LSI method. It involves checking contextually similar words. For a legal services site, LSI words may include:
- team,
- support,
- situation,
- issue,
- solution,
- individually, etc.
Keyword Density
When evaluating the site for relevance, the search engine considers the density of keywords as a percentage of the total text. If this indicator is above 1%, the site is relevant; over 3%, it is deemed spammed.
Additionally, when analyzing in special services, sometimes there is an indicator called “nausea.” It is the average density of all keywords, which should not exceed 7.
Text Wateriness
One key metric is wateriness. It is the ratio of words without semantic load to the total words in the text, expressed as a percentage. “Meaningless” words may include:
- conjunctions,
- particles,
- introducing words,
- pronouns,
- forms of address,
- prepositions,
- abbreviations,
- adverbs,
- adjectives,
- other words used to increase text volume.
Wateriness should not exceed 60%, as removing all these elements would result in a very dry and boring text. You can check this index in thematic services.
Text Structure
Structured text is easier for users to perceive and makes information visually appealing. A considerable number of people will immediately leave your site if they see a large block of text. These rules will help you properly format your text:
- Use lists (numbered or bullet points);
- Use at least two h2 headings;
- Avoid paragraphs longer than 500 characters, including spaces;
- A sentence should be no more than 250 characters.
Text Volume
When writing text, authors should focus on:
Unveiling information about the company, its features, and advantages;
Integrating keywords.
Approach the calculation of character counts responsibly, as text volume affects the wateriness and spam index. The ideal range for a homepage text is 1500 to 4000 characters, including spaces.
Uniqueness
Text uniqueness indicates your content wasn’t copied from other sources and should be 100% for the homepage. Many services are available for checking this metric. Among the most popular are:
- Text.ru – online checking with a link;
- Advego – available for PC, even for larger documents.
Matches can occur even without text copying from other resources. In this case, these practices can help you increase uniqueness:
- Choose synonyms for words;
- Alter order of list items;
- Change phrase formulations;
- Add epithets or clarifications.
Even after creating a unique text, ensure it remains unique. Don’t copy it into your other social networks and web resources. In such cases, write new articles with uniquely expressed material.
Presence of Errors
Proper grammar should be an essential element of every online source. The presence of errors of any kind causes distrust among users, with some quickly leaving the page to find another site with the desired information.
Ensure professional editors proofread your text to eliminate even the smallest errors. If your site is translated into other languages, closely monitor the text in each version. For this, native speakers are best suited.
What to Write on the Homepage
Text on the homepage depends mainly on your company concept. If it is a large company or brand, you can write about:
- Your organization’s values;
- Your features and advantages;
- The team and corporate culture;
- Professional achievements.
- For an online store’s homepage, include:
- Information about the range;
- USP;
- Quality text about your products;
- A list of your advantages over competitors;
- Calls to action.
In Conclusion
High-quality text affects the search engine’s determination of your site’s ranking in results. For better homepage ranking, text must comply with these indicators:
- Even distribution of keywords throughout the text;
- Matching intent (informational, navigational, commercial);
- LSI words in the text;
- Keyword density – 1-3%;
- Wateriness – no more than 60%;
- Uniqueness – 100%;
- “Nausea” – up to 7;
- Volume – 1500-4000 characters with spaces;
- Absence of errors in the text;
- Good structure (headings and lists available).
You can orient yourself towards other companies in similar niches, thus developing a sense of observation, inspiration, and idea selection. But remember, your content must be unique, interesting, and externally appealing, as the homepage gives users an impression of your organization and its activities.