Why
Editing Your Home Page for Key phrases is Bad
News
Like
every small business owner, I firmly believe
in finding the easiest way to do things. If
it can save me some dearly needed time, well,
I'm a happy camper. But sometimes, it doesn't
pay to take the easy way out. And optimizing
your visible home page copy for the search engines
is one of those times.
If
you read my article, "How
to Write a Keyword-Rich Home Page the Search
Engines Will Love!",
y ou
know that I specifically recommend rewriting
your home page text around well-researched key
phrases. However, the "quick fix"
mentality is strong - and while optimizing Web
sites with fellow Rank Write Moderator, Jill
Whalen, there's one question we hear time and
time again:
"I
don't want to change the visible text on my
home page. Can't you guys just edit the key
phrases in there somewhere and put them in where
they work OK?"
In
short, the answer is no. If you want strong
rankings and to successfully convert your prospects
into buyers, it's crucial to do it right the
first time.
Hearing
"you've got to rewrite your text for the
search engines" is hard for some business
owners to stomach. After all, they've spent
a lot of time, effort and money creating their
Web copy. When we recommend a text rewrite,
you can almost hear the collective groan throughout
their marketing department. After all, they
probably went through 15 meetings just to get
the darn copy written and approved! They don't
want to spend time rewriting the home page AGAIN.
But
yet, in the same breath, they're complaining
about how their search engine rankings are dropping
off the map. And they figure that by adding
a few key phrases somewhere within the copy,
they'll snag lots of eyeballs to their site.
But, will those eyeballs translate into sales
if we just "edit" for key phrases?
Probably not.
Remember,
strong optimized copy satisfies both the search
engines AND your prospects. If you randomly
insert key phrases into your existing home page
text, you run the risk of getting good rankings
- but sabotaging your marketing flow. And that's
a mistake you don't want to make with your home
page.
But,
for people who still believe that you can "edit"
for key phrases (yes, I know you're out there!),
here's two reasons why that strategy just won't
work:
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