Homepage SEO: Yes, It Exists & Here’s How to Do It

Let’s get thing straight—homepage SEO exists.

A homepage tin fertile for applicable non-branded keywords and assistance different pages connected your tract to fertile too. You tin find impervious of that each implicit the web. Here’s 1 from Squarespace’s homepage:

But SEO is not the only or primary aspect of a homepage. So successful this article, you’ll larn however to optimize your homepage for hunt engines successful 4 steps without undermining your homepage’s superior purpose.

How to optimize a homepage for hunt engines – four steps

Homepage SEO resembles the wide travel of optimizing a leafage for hunt engines. We person keyword research, creating SEO content, and gathering links. However, determination are immoderate caveats and peculiar considerations. Let’s dig in.

1. Choose the people keyword

Your homepage should intelligibly “tell” Google and your readers what your product/service is about. Both parties request to recognize the context.

In SEO, this is done chiefly by focusing the contented of a leafage connected a people keyword. This keyword defines what the leafage is about. This doesn’t mean that your leafage volition lone fertile for this keyword alone. It volition astir surely fertile for tens and adjacent hundreds of related keywords. But first, you request to take that one.

Start by making a database of keywords that champion specify your merchandise oregon service. For the involvement of our example, let’s presume you’re competing with Intercom successful the abstraction of connection tools. Here’s however you tin populate your list:

• Brainstorm – You tin bash this connected your ain oregon successful a group. Just make a database of words oregon phrases that travel to your mind. Since you astir apt already cognize a large woody astir your niche, these words should travel rather naturally.
• Analyze competitors – Make a database of your competitors and work done their websites to find words that they usage to picture their offerings.

So let’s accidental we came up with the pursuing keywords: CRM, communications platform, lawsuit communications platform, lawsuit communications tool, conversational selling platform, conversational selling tool, lawsuit messaging tool, conversational narration platform, and lawsuit work software.

Next, we’ll plug those keywords into an SEO tool. We volition request to get the postulation imaginable of each keyword and recognize the hunt intent down each of them. You tin usage immoderate SEO instrumentality you like, but it’s champion if you usage a tool that doesn’t radical keywords.

If we usage Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer, here’s what we will see:

Ahrefs shows information for 6 retired of 9 keywords. The remaining 3 are astir apt precise debased hunt measurement keywords. Because of their debased popularity, we won’t fuss with them successful this article.

Next, we request to analyse the hunt intent for these keywords.

Search intent stands for the crushed down the hunt query. Basically, we privation to spot successful the hunt motor results pages (SERPs) for these keywords the aforesaid benignant of pages that you privation to optimize: homepages. 

Additionally, since we tin presume our homepage volition beryllium describing a product, we tin grow our hunt for landing pages with the aforesaid intent. If you privation to dive deeper and recognize the reasoning down that, see our usher connected hunt intent.

Moving on. Look astatine the apical 10 pages ranking for those keywords and spot if you tin spot a homepage oregon a merchandise leafage (if your competitors are offering a suite of assorted tools). In Ahrefs, you tin conscionable click connected the SERP icon.

Below are 2 instances wherever we tin spot specified pages for the keywords “CRM” and “customer communications platform.”

At this stage, you whitethorn find yourself successful 1 of these scenarios:

• You’ve recovered conscionable 1 matching keyword – You tin usage that keyword arsenic a people keyword.
• You’ve recovered aggregate matching keywords – You inactive request to take 1 superior keyword. You tin look astatine the GV file (Global Volume) to gauge the popularity of the keyword (i.e., the connection your people assemblage uses the most).
• You’ve recovered none – In this case, you should instrumentality to the keyword that champion describes your offering. There are 2 reasons for that: First, your homepage apt serves much purposes than SEO; second, hunt intent for that keyword whitethorn alteration absorption and commencement showing peculiar businesses (like yours).

What to bash with different applicable keywords from this stage? Keep them. You whitethorn inactive request to usage them successful the transcript of your homepage to amusement its context. Other than that, you whitethorn privation to usage them for different contented formats (blog posts, landing pages, escaped tools, etc.).

2. Create contented for your homepage

In this section, we’ll screen crafting the rubric tag, meta description, main contented of your homepage, and summation of schema markup.

Title

The rubric is 1 of the things Google volition instrumentality into relationship erstwhile knowing and ranking your homepage. (Yes, it is simply a tiny ranking factor.)

That said, the rubric is not lone meant for Google. You inactive request to marque the rubric charismatic capable to marque radical click.

Here are immoderate bully practices for crafting your homepage’s title:

• Make it eye-catching and accurate – Write a enactment that piques users’ involvement and accurately describes what’s unsocial astir your offer.
• Insert the people keyword successful your title – But retrieve to marque it dependable natural.
• Insert your marque name – How and wherever you enactment it won’t interaction rankings (but whitethorn interaction the user’s choice). 
• Fit wrong 60 characters – Otherwise, your statement whitethorn get truncated, and you’ll summation the chances of Google rewriting your title.

Once you fertile successful the apical 10 for that keyword, it’s the cleanable clip to commencement optimizing your title for the click-through rate.

Recommended reading: How to Craft the Perfect SEO Title Tag (Our 4‑Step Process) 

Meta description

Unlike the rubric tag, the meta statement is not a ranking factor.

Interestingly enough, Google is known for rewriting meta statement tags. (According to our study, this happens 62.78% of the time.)

At immoderate rate, a bully meta statement tin involvement the searcher capable to participate your homepage. So:

• Make it compelling capable to marque the user click.
• Refrain from immoderate “clickbaity” practices. If your leafage doesn’t walk the “sniff test,” the idiosyncratic volition simply instrumentality to the SERPs and volition debar your leafage successful the future. Or simply, they won’t click successful the first place.
• Don’t marque your statement longer than 920 px. Use a instrumentality similar SERPSim to marque definite your statement will fit.
• It’s a bully thought to dainty the rubric and statement arsenic 2 parts of the aforesaid message. The statement tin beryllium an hold of oregon enactment what you assertion successful the title.

Recommended reading: How to Write the Perfect Meta Description 

Main content

First and foremost, deliberation astir your marque and your concern erstwhile creating the main contented of the homepage. What bash your visitors request to cognize astir your concern close disconnected the bat? What makes you unique? What way should the idiosyncratic instrumentality connected your website? SEO should travel 2nd successful those considerations.

When it comes to SEO, you request to retrieve 2 things erstwhile designing your main content:

1. Matching hunt intent
2. Inserting (naturally) your people keyword into the H1 tag

For the archetypal constituent (matching hunt intent), you request to look astatine the apical pages connected the SERP for a fixed keyword and analyse what these pages are talking astir and what they offer.

For example, for the keyword “CRM,” a batch of pages connection basal accusation connected CRMs: what is simply a CRM, benefits, however does a CRM work, features of a CRM, etc.

This is an denotation that Google “promotes” pages that connection immoderate benignant of acquisition connected the taxable of CRMs. So it’s astir apt a bully thought to see akin points wrong your main contented truthful that Google tin “see” your leafage arsenic thing that helps searchers recognize the merchandise and larn however they tin payment from it. 

You tin spell a level deeper successful picking related presumption with the assistance of Ahrefs’ Also fertile for and Also speech about reports. Just plug successful a keyword into Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer and usage the said reports to find out:

• Which keywords the apical 10 ranking pages for your people keyword besides rank for.
• Which different keywords and phrases the top-ranking pages for your people keyword often mention.

Lastly, nevertheless evident this whitethorn sound, you don’t privation to hide to notation your marque successful the copy. This is inactive portion of hunt intent, arsenic a batch of searchers volition apt onshore connected your homepage done branded keywords.

As for the 2nd point (inserting your people keyword into the H1 tag), it’s different concern erstwhile SEO comes last. Inserting the superior keyword into this tag volition assistance Google recognize the context. But the H1 tag is besides astir improving the idiosyncratic acquisition and accessibility of a page.

On apical of that, there’s thing incorrect with making your H1 transcript much persuasive than the competition. 

Recommended reading: On-Page SEO: The Beginner’s Guide 

Add schema markup

Schema markup is codification that helps hunt engines to recognize your contented and amended correspond it successful the hunt results.

Adding schema markup tin assistance you summation much visibility connected the SERPs by displaying affluent snippets which, successful turn, tin pb to much traffic.

In practice, adding schema markup to a homepage is comparable to filling retired meta tags. You’re filling retired immoderate predefined categories with accusation astir your organization, your product, etc.

You tin constitute schema “by hand,” but it’s astir apt champion to make it utilizing tools similar Schema Builder extension.

Here’s an illustration schema markup from Intercom’s homepage. Here, it’s utilizing the “organization” benignant with 2 properties (URL and logo):

And below, we person an absorbing lawsuit of aggregate schema markup types recovered connected ZOHO’s CRM merchandise page:

And acknowledgment to having this accusation wrong the schema…

  "aggregateRating": {

    "@type": "AggregateRating",

    "ratingValue": "4.3",

    "reviewCount": "5148"

  }

… Google tin show the reappraisal snippet:

Another absorbing illustration is however HubSpot uses schema markup to amusement FAQs fitting the informational quality of the hunt intent for the keyword “CRM”:

The benignant of schema spot that you whitethorn privation to see connected your homepage is the organization. It volition assistance Google recognize that your leafage is astir an enactment (and not, for example, a benignant of fruit). This markup tin besides assistance you gain a knowledge panel.

Another often-used diagnostic is the sitelinks hunt box. Google tin show this diagnostic whether you similar it oregon not (based connected the inferior for the user), but you tin person immoderate power of it utilizing schema.

It’s worthy experimenting with different types of properties too: reviews, FAQ, section business, etc. Having aggregate schemas connected your homepage is OK, arsenic agelong arsenic you lucifer that with existent contented connected your homepage and don’t supply conflicting information.

Recommended reading: What Is Schema Markup? How to Use It for SEO 

3. Build high-quality outer links

A homepage, conscionable similar immoderate different page, needs backlinks to efficaciously vie for non-branded keywords successful hunt engines. The much bully prime backlinks you have, the higher the chances of ranking successful the top 10.

There are aggregate sources wherever you tin get backlinks for your homepage. But not each of them volition walk the aforesaid nexus authority. So earlier you spell chasing those links, support successful caput what makes a bully (high-quality) backlink:

• Relevance – You should purpose to get backlinks from websites related to your niche.
• Authority – Backlinks from beardown webpages usually transportation much “authority” than those from anemic ones. In addition, links from pages with less outbound links volition walk much authority.
• Traffic – There’s a tiny but wide correlation betwixt rankings and backlinks from pages with integrated hunt postulation (source).
• Placement – Prominently placed links whitethorn walk much authorization than others. The wide regularisation of thumb is that the much apt the idiosyncratic is to click a link, the much PageRank the nexus volition pass. So for example, links wrong the main transcript of the substance placed precocious connected the leafage volition walk much authorization than links wrong the footer placed among galore other links.
• Anchor – Google reads the surrounding contented of a nexus arsenic a awesome for the discourse of the page. However, according to our study, the correlation betwixt anchor substance and hunt rankings is weak.
• Followed vs. nofollowed – Nofollowed backlinks usually don’t power the linked page’s rankings.

Keep successful mind, though, that high-quality links are hard to get. More often than not, you volition truly request to physique a beardown lawsuit to get a tract to notation your brand, product, etc.

With that retired of the way, let’s instrumentality a look astatine immoderate places wherever you tin get prime backlinks to your homepage.

Reviews

Positive reviews tin greatly summation request for your merchandise oregon service. But if your reviews tin besides get you a high-quality backlink, those reviews tin assistance you fertile higher connected the SERPs and make further traffic.

To look for reappraisal opportunities, you tin analyse your competitors’ backlinks and scope retired to the aforesaid websites.

Another mode to root those opportunities is to usage Google to find retired who writes reviews successful your merchandise category. But if you privation to bash it much efficiently, you tin usage Ahrefs’ Content Explorer to find these sites and easy filter them based connected leafage traffic, domain authority, etc.

Digital PR

Digital PR is simply a large accidental for gathering links due to the fact that links from the media volition usually beryllium immoderate of the astir authoritative backlinks you can get.

Typically determination are 2 ways to bash this. You can:

• Answer writer requests connected sites similar HARO, ProfNet, oregon SourceBottle. You tin besides scan Twitter for hashtags similar #journorequest.
• Write and transportation property releases to reputable and applicable media outlets.

If you tin supply unsocial penetration connected a occupation related to your niche oregon if you’re doing thing newsworthy, determination is simply a accidental a writer volition usage you arsenic a root for their story. As a result, your marque volition get vulnerability and your homepage volition get a link.

Just similar reviews, PR tin hap “organically” without your input. Will those stories nexus to you arsenic well? You tin find retired by looking for unlinked mentions and past trying to crook them into links.  We person a afloat usher connected tackling unlinked marque mentions here.

Guest posts

Guest posting is rather a fashionable improvement connected the internet. It astir apt doesn’t request immoderate benignant of introduction.

Like reviews, impermanent posts tin payment a marque and its merchandise oregon work successful galore ways: marque awareness, merchandise demand, etc. This maneuver is worthy pursuing conscionable for the involvement of those benefits.

But erstwhile SEOs speech astir impermanent posts oregon impermanent blogging, determination is lone 1 extremity connected the table: getting a high-quality backlink. One is each you need.

You tin look for impermanent blogging opportunities manually utilizing Google:

Or you tin bash it astatine standard with an SEO instrumentality that lets you rapidly filter done the results. Here’s a video showing the process utilizing Ahrefs’ Content Explorer.

Other tactics

Link gathering is simply a wide taxable with galore tactics and techniques. Some of the different ideas for getting backlinks are:

• Getting featured successful directories and listings, which is particularly effectual with homepages for local businesses.
• Studying your competitors’ backlinks to replicate their links (e.g., from reappraisal sites) and spot patterns successful the types of backlinks.
• Reclaiming lost links.
• Adding links to assemblage sites.

We screen those and much successful our resources connected the topic:

• Link Building for SEO: The Beginner’s Guide 
• 9 Easy Link Building Strategies (That Anyone Can Use)
• Resource Page Link Building: The Only Guide You Need 
• 3 White Hat Link Building Techniques That Go Far Beyond Links 
• Guest Blogging for SEO: How to Build High-Quality Links astatine Scale 

4. Add interior links

From an SEO perspective, 3 things hap erstwhile you nexus internally:

1. You assistance caller pages get discovered by hunt engines – Internal links supply a crawl way to people pages.
2. You walk nexus authorization betwixt your pages – This way, you tin boost different pages you own.
3. You assistance hunt engines recognize what a leafage is about – You request Google to recognize the meaning of your contented if you privation to fertile for applicable keywords.

Because of the reasons above, you should question opportunities to nexus some from your homepage and to your homepage.

Add links from your homepage (to your astir important content)

Homepages are usually pages with the highest fig of backlinks. They amass nexus authorization that tin beryllium passed to different pages to assistance them rank.

Here’s however Salesforce uses this method to boost its leafage explaining what CRM is:

And it seems to work. That leafage ranks #1 for the keyword “CRM”:

Another fashionable mode to nexus to your important contented is done the footer of the page. However, based connected our cognition of however links walk authority, this method volition walk little authorization compared to Salesforce’s technique.

Add links to your homepage

If your assets pages (blog, ebooks, lawsuit studies, etc.) nexus to your homepage done tract navigation oregon adjacent done a logo, those links already walk leafage authorization to your homepage.

However, if you retrieve from our conception astir what makes a nexus high-quality, the placement of the nexus and its anchor substance arsenic well. The links that a idiosyncratic is much apt to click are apt to walk much authority. And the anchor utilized successful that nexus helps Google grasp the discourse of your homepage.

For these reasons, you should besides nexus to your homepage wrong the main contented wherever it is relevant. So for example, alternatively of conscionable mentioning your marque oregon merchandise wrong a blog post, see a nexus to it arsenic good (one per nonfiction is astir apt enough).

FAQ

Here, we’ll reply immoderate often asked questions astir optimizing a homepage for hunt engines.

Is the homepage astir important for SEO?

Your homepage volition apt person the astir backlinks and volition beryllium the landing leafage for astir branded keywords. However, this doesn’t mean that your SEO efforts should beryllium constricted to this leafage lone oregon that you should beryllium prioritizing this leafage astatine all times. 

How agelong does it instrumentality Google to show changes connected your homepage?

Google states that crawling tin instrumentality anyplace from a fewer days to a fewer weeks. Make definite your leafage is crawlable and indexable to Google successful the first place.

How overmuch substance should determination beryllium connected a homepage?

There is nary definitive reply for this from an SEO perspective. Focus connected matching hunt intent alternatively and making your transcript appealing to the reader.

Final thoughts

Homepages thin to beryllium neglected successful SEO strategies. They shouldn’t be. As you tin see, they tin fertile for important keywords and assistance different pages fertile astatine the same time.

That said, you shouldn’t effort to fertile a homepage for a fixed keyword astatine each costs. There are immoderate scenarios where it’s astir apt amended to people keywords with blog posts oregon dedicated landing pages. This is true when:

1. The contented of your homepage won’t beryllium capable to lucifer hunt intent. This shouldn’t dissuade you from utilizing different words oregon phrases that, successful your opinion, champion picture your business.
2. Your offering is truthful analyzable that trying to marque it each astir 1 taxable volition wounded your business. See however Twilio’s tract architecture matches the complexity of its business. Expecting its homepage to fertile for 1 non-branded keyword conscionable doesn’t make sense.

One happening we request to marque wide present is that a homepage is conscionable a page. From an SEO perspective, the aforesaid rules apply. And successful this game, hunt intent is still king.

For example, erstwhile you Google “speed test,” you expect to spot a escaped instrumentality for investigating net connection. And this is what the top-ranking websites supply connected their homepages close disconnected the bat.

It doesn’t substance what “tricks” you usage to fertile here; if you don’t supply a instrumentality for that, past game over.

And you can’t privation for a amended confirmation of hunt intent than this:

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