Optimum Word Count for Home Page Text
-
We operate a commercial real estate web site (www.nyc-officespace-leader.com) in New York City. Our home page text is about 500 words. Currently the home page text is of a promotional nature and not very engaging.
We are attempting to write a check list for companies that are seeking to lease commercial space and make the text very useful, practical and engaging. However we are having difficulty covering all the bases with less than 1,000 words. If the home page text has 1,000-1,300 words is that detrimental from an SEO point of view? On the plus side I would think this would allow us to include several secondary keyword terms and to add plurals and variations of the two or three top phrases.
Any thoughts or suggestions?
Thanks, Alan Rosinsky
-
I'm in agreement with Chris on this one as well.
That said, your checklist is an excellent idea, just don't put it on the home page. Instead use the home page to explain why your company is different from all the competitors you have alluded to, and direct them to a separate page with the checklist. Make it compelling. "Get real-world, practical advice in the form of a checklist" or "Avoid over-spending using our requirements checklist" or something else that clearly states what's in it for them.
-
I like your checklist approach and think it adds value for users of your site. Could you use it to generate leads? A "call to action" widget of some type that would send your checklist to users who leave their email. It's a pretty common scheme and maybe worn out, but I still go for it if the information sounds intriguing enough.
I know that doesn't answer your keyword question but I tend to agree with Chris that too much text on a home page can be overwhelming and cause a viewer to check out. I think you use the homepage as an overview an to "set the hook".
Nice site!
-
Thanks.
Curious about your reasoning. If the new text is useful and incorporates the right keywords what is the down side of replacing the existing content?
In terms of brand I can't very well compete against companies that are spending a million dollars a year on SEO and have a staff of 25.
Offering some very practical advice in a general sort of way on the home page may be a way to differentiate myself as no one else is taking that approach.
I would think if the new text is useful rather than generic it would increase engagement. However I am a real estate broker, not an SEO expert so I can't say.
Any thoughts???
Thanks, Alan
-
my feeling is that you're better off with what you have now. Maybe put the checklist on its own page.
-
Hi Chris:
My firm is competing against many large companies with very developed brands such as www.42floors.com, www.mrofficespace.com and www.propertyshark.com.
As a one man band it is a challenge to compete.
I am trying to differentiate myself by creating a brief "My Office Space Checklist" on the home page. Offering visitors practical advice; a series of pointers on Manhattan commercial real estate that will give the visitor a flavor of what the interior pages contain. I am hoping to make the information useful enough that visitors will want to read it. No one else is taking this approach so I am hoping it will generate interest, improve ranking and differentiate me.
Attached is a very rough draft, only conceptual, needs, lots and lots of work.
Do you think this could be effective?
Thanks, Alan
-
Alan,
More text on the home page certainly won't be detrimental to your SEO but it might be said that 1000 words is too much for the visitor to absorb. Even 500 words on the home page is more than most will read. Typically, the home page is seen as more of a starting point on a domain where the visitor can be told about the brand and given direction on where information lies within the site.
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
-
Rel canonical tag from shopify page to wordpress site page
We have pages on our shopify site example - https://shop.example.com/collections/cast-aluminum-plaques/products/cast-aluminum-address-plaque That we want to put a rel canonical tag on to direct to our wordpress site page - https://www.example.com/aluminum-plaques/ We have links form the wordpress page to the shop page, and over time ahve found that google has ranked the shop pages over the wp pages, which we do not want. So we want to put rel canonical tags on the shop pages to say the wp page is the authority. I hope that makes sense, and I would appreciate your feeback and best solution. Thanks! Is that possible?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | shabbirmoosa0 -
Weight of content further down a page
Hi, A client is trying to justify a design decision by saying he needs all the links for all his sub pages on the top level category page as google won't index them; however the links are available on the sub category and the sub category is linked to from the top level page so I have argued as long as google can crawl the links through the pages they will be indexed and won't be penalised. Am I correct? Additionally the client has said those links need to be towards the top of the page as content further down the page carries less weight; I don't believe this is the case but can you confirm? Thanks again, Craig.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | CSIMedia1 -
Date of page first indexed or age of a page?
Hi does anyone know any ways, tools to find when a page was first indexed/cached by Google? I remember a while back, around 2009 i had a firefox plugin which could check this, and gave you a exact date. Maybe this has changed since. I don't remember the plugin. Or any recommendations on finding the age of a page (not domain) for a website? This is for competitor research not my own website. Cheers, Paul
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | MBASydney0 -
Will Using Attributes For Landing Pages In Magento Dilute Page Rank?
Hello Mozzers! We have an ecommerce site built on Magento. We would like to use attribute filters in our layered navigation for landing page purposes. Each page will have a unique URL, Meta Title and Meta Description. For example: URL: domain.com/art/abstract (category is Art, attribute is Abstract) Title: Abstract Art For Sale Meta: Blah Blah Blah Currently these attribute pages are not being indexed by google as they are set in google parameters. We would like to edit google parameters to start indexing some of the attribute filters that users search for, so they can be used as landing pages. Does anyone have experience with this? Is this a good idea? What are the consequences? Will this dilute Page Rank? Could this destroy the world? Cheers! MozAddict
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | MozAddict0 -
Do Internal Link Anchor Text Count Towards Overall Ratio?
I have a few pages that have dropped in rankings recently. I suspect it is because of the ratio of the anchor text. For example, you have 20 links pointing to page site.com/mens-jeans.html, and 15 have the anchor text "mens jeans". If I am looking to dilute the exact match anchor text, will the internal links count? Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | inhouseseo0 -
Varying Internal Link Anchor Text with Each New Page Load
I'm asking for people's opinions on varying internal anchor text. Before you jump in and say, "Oh yes, varying your anchor text is always a good idea", let me explain. I'm not talking about varying anchor text on different links scattered throughout a site. We all know that is a wise thing to do for a variety of reasons that have been covered in many places. What I'm talking about is including semi-useful links below the fold and then varying the anchor text with each page load. Each time Googlebot crawls a page, it sees different anchor text for each link. That way, Googlebot is seeing, for example, 'san diego bars', 'taverns in san diego', 'san diego clubs', and 'pubs in san diego' all pointing to a San Diego bar/tavern/club/pub page. I'm wondering if there is value in this approach. Will it help a site rank well for multiple search queries? Could it potentially be better than static anchor text as it may help Google better understand the targeted page? Is it a good way to protect a large site with a huge number of internal links from Penguin? To summarize, we're talking about the impact of varying the anchor text on a single page with each page load as opposed to varying the anchor text on different pages. Thoughts?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | RyanOD0 -
What to with an event page that is over?
Hi, We participated in an event and it is now over and therefore it has to be removed now. I was thinking of writing a blog post about the event and place a 301 redirect on the page enlisting the event's detail and registration process. Would it be a good idea or should I do something else? Regards,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | IM_Learner0 -
Google replacing subpages in index with home page?
Hi! I run a backlink building company. Recently, we had a customer who had us build targeted backlinks to certain subpages on his site. Then something really bizarre happened...all of a sudden, their subpages that were indexed in Google (the ones we were building links to) disappeared from the index, to be replaced with their home page. They haven't lost their rank, per se--it's just now their home page instead of their subpages. At this point, we are tracking literally thousands of keywords for our link building customers, and we've never run into this issue before. Have you ever run into it? If so, what's the best way to handle it from an SEO company perspective? They have a sitemap.xml and their GWT account reports no crawl errors, so it doesn't seem to be a site issue.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ownlocal0