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

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How to Make a Winning Home Page

One of 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 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 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 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 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 search engines, you must either play by their rules, or buy your way in. Today we’ll do it 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, search engines consider two main factors. How many times does 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 searcher is looking for. The second factor indicates 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 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 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 engines in 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 Page