Writing competent text for the main page of the site: tips and tricks
Home page of the site — this is his face. This is something that has a direct impact on the perception of both the online presence and the company as a whole. Moreover, search bots. The main page is indexed first, adding it to the search results. That is why it must be thought out to the smallest detail. Here it is important to think through the design, text and graphic content. Now we will provide information that will allow you to optimize the main page of your website both for the requests of search bots and for the key requirements of the target audience. Having studied it carefully, you will know how to make sure that you end up with a high-quality product that will rank well in search engines and will be useful to the user audience.
Why the home page plays a key role in SEO promotion of a website
The main thing – understand that the title page of any Internet portal — This is the most important tool in search engine promotion of absolutely the entire site. The fact is that this is the only page on the portal that has the first level of nesting. That is, its weight will be as large as possible, and at the same time — and impact on search engine promotion.
The search engine constantly keeps under close control all the contents of the title page, starting from its structure, posted content and right down to external links that lead to it. The weight of other pages on the site can be significantly increased by placing internal links on the main page for linking. This is what increases the effectiveness of search engine promotion of websites in general.
When determining the weight of a page and its quality, the system takes into account a huge number of parameters. But still, one of the most important of them will be the text content. This is exactly what represents your company on the market, shows what goods or services you provide. Here you can talk about the features of your products, the competitive advantages of the business as a whole, and also provide any other information that can interest the target audience and encourage them to further study your resource in order to place an order for the same product or service.
But the task of the search bots themselves is to bring these same visitors to your site. Initially, the system must make sure that the cover page fully matches the user's requests, as well as all the phrases they enter. And here the term relevance is used. To determine which pages will be most relevant to a particular query, the system compares various text parameters. As a result, pages are arranged in search results according to priority. And there’s probably no point in mentioning that the higher your website appears in the search results, the more potential buyers will see it, visit it, and make a purchase. And it is the main page of the site, in particular its text content, that plays a key role here.
So how to create a page that will be truly useful both for search engines and for the users themselves. There is no clear division here in the criteria that are important for people and for bots, because they are closely related to each other. That is, your task is to create a high-quality home page that takes into account the requirements of each party. Let's look at how to do this further.
Key ranking factors
Once again we would like to draw your attention to the fact that we are talking directly about the text content of the main page of the site. In order for your potential customers to be able to find your website based on their queries through search results, when developing the text content of the title page, you need to consider the following:
- Semantic core.
- Additional key queries.
- Consistency with intent.
- Keyword density.
- Water content indicator.
- Structure.
- Number of characters.
- Uniqueness.
- Literacy.
Now we’ll look at all these parameters in more detail and show you how to achieve the highest possible efficiency in each segment.
Features of compiling a semantic core
Semantic core — this is a list of all the key queries that users can enter in order to find this or that information in your market segment. The process of collecting semantics itself involves a detailed acquaintance with competitors’ websites in order to identify the most frequently used phrases. It is not possible to perform this work manually, so specialized tools are used to automatically perform data parsing. As an example, we can name the Serpstat service. Working with it will be simple and fast enough if you use the following recommendations:
- Go to the “SEO analysis” section. From the list that drops down, I select a tool such as “Phrase Selection.”
- After this, an additional window with a search line will open in front of you. In it you will need to enter the most important key query in your segment. So, if, for example, you sell coffee, then we write “coffee”. Click on the “Find” button.
- After this, a block will open at the bottom of your window with a list of all possible variations of key queries that the system has found on the Internet today. Here you will have the opportunity to evaluate such parameters as frequency, complexity, cost, competition indicators, as well as the number of results that were found by the service.
Now you need to analyze the results obtained and select from the entire variety of proposals those that will become the basis for the text content of your site. The most important parameter here — frequency. It indicates how often a particular phrase appears on sites in your niche.
All these requests can be divided into 3 separate categories: high-frequency, mid-frequency, low-frequency. Accordingly, the former are found very often, the latter – less often, and still others – very rarely. High-frequency queries mostly consist of 1-2 words. If we continue the topic of coffee, then there will be phrases such as “bean coffee”, “buy coffee”, “coffee price” etc. Medium frequency queries can consist of 2-3 words, such as “buy coffee with delivery”, “buy coffee beans” etc. Low-frequency queries will contain more additional, one might even say clarifying, information, for example “buy Columbia coffee in Moscow”, “coffee with delivery to Kazan” etc.
It turns out that there is very high competition for high-frequency queries, but the probability of getting to the point based on user phrases will be very high. But low-frequency queries are rare, but they will work 100% if the user conducts them. In order not to get lost in the variety of solutions when choosing a semantic core for yourself, you should take key queries as a basis, and then add mid- and low-frequency queries to them. This is what will allow you to reach the widest possible audience.
After you have formed the appropriate semantic core, you need to distribute all the phrases among the content that will be posted on your site. Keywords are added to titles, text content, and written under pictures. And here it is very important to make sure that everything looks as concise and readable as possible. In some cases, it would be useful to decline queries, dilute them with prepositions, etc. Otherwise, everything will not look very natural, which will be noted by both users and search bots.
Features of selecting additional key queries
Along with the main ones, experts also highlight additional key queries. This is the so-called latent semantic indexing method, namely LSI. This is something that search bots also take into account when determining the quality of the text. This is a kind of environment of the main keywords, which reveals their essence, advantages, etc. So, returning to the topic of coffee, we note that such words will be “delicious”, “rich”, “fragrant”, “Arabica”, “coffee”. robusta", "packaging" etc.
Once you have selected LSIs and phrases, they will need to be included in your text content as well. It is optimal to place them in close proximity to the main keywords. They can be declined, word forms can be used, several words can be added to the same sentence, etc. This is what will improve the indicators by which the system determines the quality of the site’s main page.
Determining compliance with the intent
The intent itself — this is a user intent. That is, what a person means when entering this or that key query in the search bar. And your main task at this stage – ensure that this same intent matches the content posted on your page as accurately as possible. This is something that has a direct impact on the relevance of search results. To achieve your goal, you need to understand what types this very intent can be. There are 3 separate categories here:
- Informational. It is assumed that in this case the user would like to find certain information on a topic of interest to him. Again, continuing to talk about coffee, these could be phrases such as, “What type of coffee is the most delicious?”, “What is the difference between Arabica and Robusta?”, “What degree of coffee roasting should I choose?” etc.
- Navigational. In this case, the user is looking for a specific store or brand. So, here the request may sound like the name of a brand or store plus the word “website” or “official website”, “online catalogue”, as well as the region of purchase itself, etc. An example of such a request would be the phrase “lavazza coffee in Moscow” etc.
- Commercial. It is also called transactional. The user’s intention to purchase this or that product or order a service will already be present here. That is, the intent itself will contain the name of the product, as well as the words “order”, “buy”, “price”, “discounts”, “inexpensive”, “promotion”. etc. Using coffee as an example, it will look like this: “buy coffee at a discount”, “price of Lavazza coffee” etc.
The focus of the portal itself will help determine what kind of intent is suitable for the main page of your site. If your site is informational, that is, it is a blog, a news resource, then you should choose informational phrases accordingly. For an online store or service website, commercial intentions will be more important. But still, the main bet when developing the main page of the site should be placed on navigation queries.
So, if you are running a blog dedicated to coffee, introducing the audience to the varieties, cultivation characteristics, and production of coffee beans, then in this case the focus is on informational phrases, since they are the subject of your site. If you sell this very coffee, then the phrase “buy bean coffee” can lead directly to catalog pages. And if you specialize exclusively in bean coffee, then there is nothing to worry about. But if you also sell ground, instant coffee, then your main page will not take into account the requests of other buyers, so it is optimal to place a bet on a general transaction key, for example “buy”, or “select”, “order” with the word “coffee”, that is, without additional specifications, be it “grain”, “ground”, “instant”.
What keyword density would be optimal
To determine how relevant a page will be to a particular query, search bots take into account not only the essence of the phrase itself, but also how often it appears in the text. That is, the percentage of the key phrases themselves and all the words that are present in the text is taken into account. If the systems calculate and determine that you use the request too often, the page will be recorded as spammy. If the frequency is low, it will not be identified as relevant. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure that the density of keyword occurrences on the main page of your site is in the range from 1 to 3%. Lower as well as higher rates will have a bad effect on the entire site.
There are specialized online services to check this parameter. Along with frequency, you can also find such a parameter as nausea. It indicates how densely key queries are located in the text. This parameter should be no more than 7. But it is still recommended to stick to the range of 4-6%.
Provide similar indicators of text content on your home page, and you can be sure that the system will consider it relevant, but not spammy.
What about water content?
This is another indicator on the basis of which the search engine determines the quality of the site’s main page and its relevance to user queries. In this case, we are talking about the ratio of words that do not carry a certain semantic load to the total number of words in the text. This includes:
- pronouns and prepositions;
- conjunctions and particles;
- abbreviations and introductory words;
- adverbs and adjectives;
- appeals like “respected”, “dear” etc.;
That is, this is exactly what can be thrown out of the text, but its meaning will not be lost. But also “dry” as much as possible. The article is also not recommended. In this case, it will be difficult to understand and will not provide users with the desired effect. This will be a dry technical article, reminiscent of instructions or a description of a word in a dictionary. But it is also not recommended to allow water content values that are too high, because in this case the semantic load suffers.
SEO specialists recommend keeping water content within 40-50%, the maximum— 60%. There are various services to check this indicator. If after checking it turns out that your water content is too high, proofread your content and remove some of the “water”. Don't want to fix anything? Then add a small block, making it as dry and compressed as possible. Come up with something that looks like reference material. As a result, the overall water content of the text will decrease.
Text structure
The point is to ensure that the text that you place on the main page of your site looks as attractive as possible and is easy to understand. This is facilitated by breaking it down into thematic blocks and highlighting key ideas. Despite the fact that content, which will be posted on the main The pages of your site will be small in volume; anyway, it should not look like one whole canvas.
Here are a few rules that will allow you to make the text structured and easier to understand:
- use headings and subheadings at least every 1000 characters;
- add numbered or bulleted lists: there should be at least one on the main page;
- paragraph length should not be more than 500 characters: visually it should be 5-7 lines;
- try to avoid long sentences with complex phrases: the length should be no more than 250 characters;
- if you want to convey some important idea to the audience, highlight it in bold, italics: this way it will immediately catch the eye, which means people will see it.
Determining the optimal number of characters
We have already mentioned above that the amount of text placed on the main page of the site should not be too long. Your main task here – create easy-to-read and informative material that will be primarily useful to people and also positively evaluated by search bots. To determine exactly what amount of content will be optimal in your conditions, you should take into account 2 key factors that the text on the main page of the site must correspond to:
- Availability of important information about the features, advantages of the company, as well as benefits for the buyer in the process of cooperation.
- The presence of keys in the text that crawlers will use to direct the user audience to your site.
The very number of keys also directly depends on the volume of text available on the site: you should focus on the frequency of occurrence, as we have already discussed above. That is, the relationship here will be quite simple: the larger the volume of text, the more key phrases you can add to it and vice versa. Based on parameters such as the number of keys that should be placed on the main page of the site, as well as the amount of information that needs to be conveyed to the target audience, experts say that the optimal amount of text content — from 1500 to 4000 characters. We would like to note right away that this indicator largely depends on the specifics of the resource itself.
Uniqueness of text content
This is a topic that has already been raised several times by SEO specialists. This is a kind of axiom that everyone who creates or promotes Internet resources must follow. The fact is that search bots quickly identify plagiarism and identify duplications, including on other resources. If in practice it turns out that the uniqueness of your material is below 90-95%, then the bots may simply not index it, that is, not add your page to the search results.
But it is still recommended to try to achieve 100% unique content. But still, a lot depends on the topic and type of material. As an example, it is difficult to achieve 100% uniqueness on sites containing medical, technical content, etc.
Most of the services that today perform uniqueness checks are based on matching four words in a row. That is, if you manage to replace the words in these phrases with synonyms, change the wording, add clarifying data, then the uniqueness indicators will increase sharply. In the case of technical parameters that cannot be replaced in any way, you can at least try to swap them. That is, your main task — break the chain of 4 non-unique words.
If you managed to achieve high levels of uniqueness on the main page of the site, then under no circumstances duplicate the text on your other pages, even partially. This is something that can also reduce the uniqueness and overall quality of your portal.
Text literacy
It certainly makes no sense to say that the text that you place on your website, no matter whether it is the main page or a secondary one, should not contain spelling and grammatical errors. Otherwise, what quality of content can we talk about? Moreover, your visitors will see such errors. And there is a high probability that their opinion of your company will worsen after this.
That is, a structured, well-composed text without errors — This is an indicator of the high quality of the entire site as a whole. A similar solution is also relevant for other language versions of your portal, if available. That is why site owners often give it to an editor for proofreading before uploading any content.
Now that you know what parameters a high-quality text on the main page of a website should meet, we suggest that you familiarize yourself with a number of ideas for filling such a page.
Content options for the main page of the site
You, as the owner of a resource or a specialist who is involved in its promotion, must understand what information should be placed on the main page of a particular site. And here everything depends on its type, theme, focus. And here are some general recommendations that you can follow when performing this work:
- Writing a home page for a company or brand website. Here you need to indicate what exactly your organization specializes in, what values and goals it has. If possible, share a unique mission. Highlight a number of advantages that set you apart from other companies operating in the same market niche. It would not be amiss to mention the team and the professional achievements that we managed to achieve. That is, in this case, the main page should show the audience what you do, and also convince them that cooperation with you will be beneficial, first of all, for them.
- Formation of the main page of the website of an online store or a company providing certain services. Here the main emphasis must be placed on the uniqueness of the proposed solutions and the range of products announced. Also be sure to indicate the quality of the product. It’s great if you can confirm it with certificates. It would not be amiss to point out the pricing policy, justifying the cost of the product and systematically leading potential buyers to the fact that they will not find more attractive and loyal solutions on the market. Don’t forget to indicate your competitive advantages, highlighting the features of your products. Show what pain the client can solve by contacting you. The last thing to point out on this page — call to action. This could be ordering a call back, making a purchase, confirming a subscription, etc.
In any case, you must understand that the text should be structured, literate, easy to understand, and rich in a sufficient number of key queries. Once again, we repeat that these are exactly the parameters that a high-quality website must meet for both users and search bots.
We would like to draw your attention to the fact that it is best to take all of the above recommendations into account when developing the site. This is what will allow you to initially launch a good resource that will quickly be indexed and appear in search results. No modifications, no extra waste of time, effort, or money.
To summarize
Summarizing everything that was said above, we note that high-quality text on the main page of the site – This is one of the key ranking factors. His final position in search results depends on how professional he is. So, in order for the search engine to accept your text into the index without any comments, you need to make sure that it meets the following requirements:
- the text must contain keywords evenly distributed throughout the text;
- the keywords themselves must correspond to the queries entered by users: informational, commercial or navigational intent;
- the presence of additional LSI words, which reveal in more detail the features of your company’s activities and the meaning of key phrases;
- keyword density per text should be in the range from 1 to 3%, and the nauseity index should not exceed 7;
- maximum permissible water content — 60%;
- uniqueness — from 90% (optimally— 100%);
- volume of text — 1500-4000 characters;
- absence of spelling and punctuation errors, structured and consistent presentation of information.
In order to get good results in the shortest possible time without modifications and other difficulties, it would be useful to get acquainted with how the main pages of your direct competitors’ resources are designed and filled out. Here you can take into account the volume of the text, its structure, and ideas for content. But at the same time, you must understand that in the end, based on the information collected, you should receive a unique text.
We would like to draw your attention to the fact that you have quite labor-intensive work ahead of you, which involves the use of various services, including those that automate a number of actions on the network. You will also need to get acquainted with the websites of competitors, and in some cases even those that operate in another region or country. All this is associated with a number of serious restrictions. So, you can run into a ban from the system when parsing data. You will also be denied access to sites that are legally blocked in a particular region.
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