Have you ever visited a website and found an overwhelming amount of content, only to get bored and abandon the website altogether? Or on the other hand, land on a website that has plenty of fancy imagery and animations but very little in the way of content explaining what the website is all about? Whatever the case, you will understand the importance of striking the right balance between ‘too much’ and ‘not enough’.
In this article, we’re going to look at how much content you should have on your home page in order for it to perform optimally.
How much content should you have on your home page?
So, what’s the golden number? How much content should you have on your home page? While there is no ‘hard and fast’ rule, you should aim to sit somewhere between the 300 and 500-word mark.
Bear in mind, you’ll find plenty of ‘evidence’ online to suggest that you should aim for 600 to 700-words, or that web pages with 1,000 to 2,000-words have more authority in the eyes of Google. This isn’t necessarily the case.
Remember, the purpose of a home page is to attract visitors, clearly define what the brand and business is all about, and then serve as a kind of directory, thus pointing website visitors in the right direction. So, as long as you clearly answer the following 3 questions, you’ll be on the right path:
- “Who are you?”
- “What do you do?”
- “How will the user benefit?”
Answer the above questions with well-optimized alt tags, title tags, and H tags, then you’ll be in good stead to rank well for your chosen keywords.
The fact is, the most gifted writers can create compelling sales copy that includes the natural and intentional placement of your target keywords whilst answering the above questions with a limited word count.
For websites that try and hit a certain word count, they’ll invariably fall prey to keyword stuffing and fluffing up the content, repeating information and using overly complicated sentences.
Say what you need to say and let your website visitors get on with it.
Get your technical SEO on point and adopt a sales copy approach
The mistake that all too many people make is prioritizing content above all else. Yes, content is King – and in SEO it is invaluable; but on the home page, content is not the only ingredient that matters.
You need to find the perfect balance. Which involves maintaining your website with an awful lot of technical SEO, UX design, and content creation (to name a few).
As mentioned above, if your keyword research is on point and you create well-optimized tags and headers (without compromising clarity), then you’ll be off to a good start.
But you also have to remember that the speed at which your home page loads is a critical ranking factor as well (not to mention a potential turn-off for your website visitors). In other words, if your home page has thousands of words of content—including uncompressed imagery—then your visitors are going to be waiting far longer than is necessary for the page to load and thus will likely end up abandoning your website for your competitors.
In addition, your website content must be compelling if you are to differentiate yourself from your competitors. This means writing sales copy that is SEO optimized and also written with consumer psychology in mind.
If your visitors end up reading the same old: “Welcome to Yada Yada, your one-stop shop for XYZ”, they’re going to roll their eyes so hard they’ll strain an optic nerve.
And remember: if you have a lot to say, set up a blog and write to your heart’s content. Your home page is not the place for in-depth information. If you are clever with your internet linking and overall UX design, you can guide your website visitors to other parts of your website where they can get as much information as they desire (e.g., FAQs, About Us, services, blogs, etc.).
Don’t overstuff your content with keywords
Another very critical consideration when you are writing your website’s homepage content is not to overstuff it with keywords.
- Aim for approximately 1 or 2 keywords per 200 words.
Obviously, if the keywords / variations come up naturally, don’t avoid using them. However, if you are squeezing keywords in for the sake of getting as many mentions as possible, the content is going to read poorly and you will be penalised for it.
What Google is essentially looking for is natural human to human language. Let that be your priority and then optimize for SEO as a secondary thought. There is an art and a science to quality SEO optimized sales copy so if you are struggling, it’s always worth hiring the professionals to work their magic.
Conclusion: There’s finesse in brevity
If you concern yourself too much with hitting a set word count, you’ll inevitably compromise on quality as a result. There is a certain finesse in brevity, so say what you need to say and make sure that it is perfectly aligned with Google’s current ranking factors and ever-changing algorithm.
Also, remember that what is true today is likely to change. Stay up to date with Google and re-position your message accordingly. Your website should never be rigid. Shift and change with the winds and you’ll have far more success when it comes to maintaining higher rankings and converting website visitors into customers.
If you are feeling overwhelmed and don’t want to make any costly mistakes, it’s worth investing in marketing agency to help you. Focus on what you do best and leave the grunt work to the experts.
We understand how tempting it can be to hammer out 1,000 to 2,000 words on your home page because you are passionate about your brand and what you do. But, you also need to leave a little to the imagination; tickle the pain points, lead with value, and make your offer impossible to resist.
