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The Best Damn Web Marketing Checklist for the Home Page

September 10, 2008 Comments (9)

Stoney deGeyter

Stoney deGeyter

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This is a continuation of a series of website marketing checklists. Check out all Web Marketing Checklists in this series.

What this is about: This list covers just a couple of points relevant specifically to a website's home page to assure that specific and necessary functions of the page are met.

Why this is important: The home page is often the single largest entry-point. It is the page that gives the visitor the sense of who you are and what they can expect. Go wrong here and it can be all over before it begins.

What to look for:

  • No splash page: Just get to the content, don't bore your visitors with a "clever" splash page that just wastes their time.
  • Instant page identification: Make sure the visitor knows they've landed on your home page. This should be obvious.
  • Provides overview of site: It is the job of the home page to provide a quick overview of who you are, what you do and what the visitor will find... and then lead them to it.
  • Site purpose is clear: Make sure you clearly outline the purpose of the site and why the visitor needs to be there.
  • Robot meta: NOODP,NOYDIR: Add this robots meta tag to the home page to prevent the engines from using whatever title and description are found in your Yahoo and DMOZ directory listings.

Did I miss anything? Add to this list with your comments below.


Stoney deGeyter founded Pole Position Marketing in 1998 working from a home office and has since turned it into a leading search engine marketing business with a small team of seasoned Reno SEO and marketing experts. Stoney pioneered the concept of Destination Search Engine Marketing which is the driving philosophy on how Pole Position marketing helps their clients expand their online presence and improve online conversion rates.

Stoney is a moderator at the Small Business Ideas Forum, a regular contributor to the Search Engine Guide blog and has a monthly column on Search Engine Land. He posts his SEO and business insights at the E-Marketing Performance blog where you can also find his e-books: E-Marketing Performance: Effective Strategies for Building, Optimizing and Marketing your Website Online and Keyword Research and Selection: The Definitive Guide to Gathering, Sorting and Organizing your Keywords into a High-Performance SEO Campaign.

Stoney is married with five wonderful children and, if away from the computer long enough, enjoys riding his dirt bike, watching DVDs, reading books and spending quality and quantity time with the family.

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Comments (9)

I agree! A blog should NEVER use splash!

Posted by: Municipal bond investing - tax free municipal bonds on September 10, 2008

Can you explayn why NOODP,NOYDIR?

Posted by: Gabriel Topala on September 10, 2008

dude, i've been loving this series of posts. thanks for freely sharing.

Posted by: bryan jones on September 10, 2008

this is good stuff. my site is www.showukare.com (I hope you don't mind me posting it here). either way, i think we need to provide the viewers with a clearer sense of why they are there. my friends all know and support but when new folks visit I think it would be good to have them understand (w/in the first 3 seconds) why they are there.

Stoney, I can't find your email address to get at you directly, but please check out the site and i welcome your feedback.

Thanks,
Femi

Posted by: Femi on September 10, 2008

Hi there, I am going to have my own website soon. Thank you for your notes, simple yet enough to protect from mistakes.

Posted by: kmk on September 11, 2008

I disagree on the splash page exclusion. The splash page can be light graphics with quick links to the website sections and text descriptions of each section. I did this on net3000.ca. It should load faster and faster for the search engines to load. I'm still reading and exploring this. Thanks for the other pointers though.

Posted by: Wael Hallag on September 11, 2008

@ Gabriel Sure. If your site is listed in either Yahoo! Directory or the DMOZ (ODP) Directory then Yahoo and Google will grab the titles used in those directories and us if in the search results for your home page. So if you've gone through the trouble of creating a unique title tag, that is overwritten by the company name that the directories use.

@ Bryan. Glad they are helpful! :)

@ Femi, Thanks for your additional comments. I don't really do site reviews except for clients. But you might want to check out any of Jacki Baker's posts and perhaps contact her. She's great at doing site reviews! :)

@ Wael You can disagree but the bottom line on the splash page is that its generally a barrier to the content. In your case it's not completely useless since you did provide various links but why not just do that same thing on a home page that has broader appeal?

Posted by: Stoney deGeyter on September 11, 2008

One thing I'd add, Stoney, is to make sure you use your main keyword phrases. For example, if you're selling "investment property in Guanacaste, Costa Rica," your headline should say so, and so should your body copy and title tags.

Posted by: Susan Greene on September 13, 2008

@ Susan, yep, absolutely important. I didn't get into actual keyword optimization much in these lists, but its so very important throughout.

Posted by: Stoney deGeyter on September 15, 2008

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Stoney deGeyter founded Pole Position Marketing in 1998 working from a home office and has since turned it into a leading search engine marketing business with a small team of seasoned Reno SEO and marketing experts. Stoney pioneered the concept of Destination Search Engine Marketing which is the driving philosophy on how Pole Position marketing helps their clients expand their online presence and improve online conversion rates.

Stoney is a moderator at the Small Business Ideas Forum, a regular contributor to the Search Engine Guide blog and has a monthly column on Search Engine Land. He posts his SEO and business insights at the E-Marketing Performance blog where you can also find his e-books: E-Marketing Performance: Effective Strategies for Building, Optimizing and Marketing your Website Online and Keyword Research and Selection: The Definitive Guide to Gathering, Sorting and Organizing your Keywords into a High-Performance SEO Campaign.

Stoney is married with five wonderful children and, if away from the computer long enough, enjoys riding his dirt bike, watching DVDs, reading books and spending quality and quantity time with the family.

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Search Engine Guide > Stoney deGeyter > The Best Damn Web Marketing Checklist for the Home Page

Stoney deGeyter founded Pole Position Marketing in 1998 working from a home office and has since turned it into a leading search engine marketing business with a small team of seasoned Reno SEO and marketing experts. Stoney pioneered the concept of Destination Search Engine Marketing which is the driving philosophy on how Pole Position marketing helps their clients expand their online presence and improve online conversion rates.

Stoney is a moderator at the Small Business Ideas Forum, a regular contributor to the Search Engine Guide blog and has a monthly column on Search Engine Land. He posts his SEO and business insights at the E-Marketing Performance blog where you can also find his e-books: E-Marketing Performance: Effective Strategies for Building, Optimizing and Marketing your Website Online and Keyword Research and Selection: The Definitive Guide to Gathering, Sorting and Organizing your Keywords into a High-Performance SEO Campaign.

Stoney is married with five wonderful children and, if away from the computer long enough, enjoys riding his dirt bike, watching DVDs, reading books and spending quality and quantity time with the family.

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