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

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

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

Moving from Robots to Humans

OK, now, we’ve got search engines covered and 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 same way when I’m surfing 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 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 Envy of Your Neighborhood

Throw Away Your Ladder--Let Us Trim YourTrees

Fall Asleep to 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 search engines and my new customers.

The absolute master at writing for web is Dr. Ken Evoy. I strongly suggest you visit his site and download some of his excellent, free resources for Doing Business on 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 appropriate keywords in title, headlines and text, but content can move a bit away from benefits and more toward solid information. I hooked my visitor on 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 most important in your site. First it has to be found by visitors using 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 back button. Follow guidelines I’ve presented here and you should be off to a good start. Good luck!