Les Goss is the head honchoat ZebraMoon Web Design, where he educates his business clientsas he builds their web sites. To subscribe to the free emailnewsletter list or to find out more about how they can serve you,please come to: http://www.zmoon.com/.
23b4 Title: Make a Winning Home Page
Email: mailto:les@zmoon.com
Copyright: Copyright © Les Goss2003
Web Address: http://www.zmoon.com/
Word Count: 1127

Summary: To create a home page that will rank well in the search
engines and attract new visitors once they arrive takes some
advance planning. Knowledge of a few key points can make all the
difference in the success of your site.

Publishing Guidelines: Permission is granted to publish this
article electronically or in print as long as the bylines at the
end are included. If you use this, notification would be
appreciated. Thanks!

How to Make a Winning Home Page

One of the most common questions I get from my clients is, “What
should I put on my home page? Where do I begin?” Whether you are
starting a new web site or redesigning your existing one, these
are important questions to ask. If you don't get the answers
right, you might as well not even have a web site.

The Purpose of a Home Page

The home page serves many functions, and they all must work
together seamlessly. First of all, it must be designed to rank
well in the search engines so that people who don't already know
you can find you. Second, it's an introduction to your business
and an invitation to new customers and clients. Third, it must
have a clear and intuitive navigation system so that a visitor
can immediately know the scope of your site and easily move
around in it. This topic won't be covered here, but you can read
more about this in my article about Designing the Perfect Web
Menu (http://www.zmoon.com/articles/menu.html). Fourth, it must
load quickly, even for people using a dialup modem for their
internet access. And all this must be contained in an attractive
package!

To rank well in the search engines, you must either play by their
rules, or buy your way in. Today we'll do it the free way, but if
you want to know more about paid options, see my article on
Search Engines: Should You Pay?
(http://www.zmoon.com/search.html)

The Two Main Factors that Will Improve Your Ranking

When ranking sites, the search engines consider two main factors.
How many times does the search phrase occur on your page, and how
many other quality sites link to your page? The first factor
indicates how closely your page matches what the searcher is
looking for. The second factor indicates the overall quality of
your site, since other sites won't send their customers to you
unless you offer excellent content. How to cultivate a strong
network of sites linking to your site is beyond the scope of this
article, but will be covered in another edition.

Create Your Keywords List

Step one is to brainstorm a list of words and phrases you think
someone would type into a search engine looking for a business
like yours. If I had a landscaping business in Cheyenne, for
instance, I might create this list: landscaping, tree trimming,
lawn care, weed control, rock gardens, ponds, garden design,
xeriscaping, flower beds, mulch, consultation, Cheyenne. I would
include my city since I only work within 50 miles of home.

Next, I would use the free tool at WordTracker
(http://www.zmoon.com/cgi-bin/pl.pl?word) to get other words to
add to my list, find out how often they were entered into the
engines in the last 60 days, and how many competing sites also
have them. I would probably buy a day's worth of access to their
complete service since it adds so much information and costs less
than ten bucks.

Place Your Keywords on the Page

Make sure your highest-priority keywords are placed in the title
tag of your code. Unless your business name is so well-known that
thousands of people will type it into search engines looking for
your site, leave it out of the title. Your logo will be prominent
on the page, so they will see your name there.

Many search engines also give more points to words in headlines,
so place your keywords there as well as in the body of the text.

Now, placing a key phrase once in the title and once on your page
won't be enough to get you to the top of the charts. On the other
hand, repeating it too often can get you banned from the engines.
Ideally, each phrase you're trying to optimize your page for
should make up 1-7% of the text on the page, which should contain
250-700 words.

Use the free Keyword Density Analyzer
(http://www.keyworddensity.com) to do the math for you.

Moving from the Robots to the Humans

OK, now, we've got the search engines covered and the visitors
are pouring in. What do we have for them?

In a word: Benefits.

Your home page must entice your visitors to linger on your site
for awhile. To make this happen, don't forget their favorite
radio station: WII-FM, or What's in it for Me? The person in
Cheyenne looking for a landscaper first wants to know how I can
make his life easier while making his home more attractive. When
he first arrives at my site he's not interested in me; he's only
thinking of himself. I'd think he was selfish if I didn't act the
same way when I'm surfing the web!

So, to write my home page, I'll take my key phrases and put them
into headlines. I'll make sure they each scream out a benefit to
my visitor. I know that he'll scan the headlines before he'll
read my text, and if his first impression is how many ways I can
help him, I've got him hooked.

Here's a partial list of headlines I might use:

Relax this summer--We've got Your Lawn Care Covered

Save Water with a Beautiful Xeriscape Garden

Your Flower Beds Can Be the Envy of Your Neighborhood

Throw Away Your Ladder--Let Us Trim YourTrees

Fall Asleep to the Soothing Sound of Your Pond's Waterfalls

Didn't those sound good? And did you notice they each contain a
key word or phrase?

Next I'd write several short paragraphs under each one, using
keywords to further explain how my services can benefit them. Now
my home page is a grabber both for the search engines and my new
customers.

The absolute master at writing for the web is Dr. Ken Evoy. I
strongly suggest you visit his site and download some of his
excellent, free resources for Doing Business on the
Web (http://www.zmoon.com/cgi-bin/pl.pl?site).

The Next Step

Now that I've optimized my home page, I'll use similar tactics on
each additional page. These will still feature the appropriate
keywords in the title, headlines and text, but the content can
move a bit away from the benefits and more toward solid
information. I hooked my visitor on the home page, so now I need
to reel him in with helpful free information, testimonials from
satisfied neighbors, and a bit about my background and
experience.

Conclusion

Your home page is arguably the most important in your site. First
it has to be found by visitors using the search engines. Then it
must show them enough personal benefits that they will click a
link to go further into your site instead of clicking the back
button. Follow the guidelines I've presented here and you should
be off to a good start. Good luck!

About the Author

Les Goss is the head honcho
at ZebraMoon Web Design, where he educates his business clients
as he builds their web sites. To subscribe to the free email
newsletter list or to find out more about how they can serve you,
please come to: http://www.zmoon.com/.