Search engine optimization, effective content creation and digital marketing all play valuable roles in how well your brand, blog or business will be represented in the online world. Without some efforts in all of these categories, even the most aggressive campaigns can fall far short of where they would go with a balanced effort. It can be all too easy to focus on nuanced elements of digital marketing or content creation in the hopes of breaking through with a new audience, only to forget about some of the basics in the process. In order to ensure your own proverbial back yard is in order, we’ve put together a list of quick tips for optimizing your website’s home page before the holiday season.

Understand the Page’s Purpose

In order to optimize your home page for success, you must first determine that it’s not just about search engines. The home page is a user experience – if visitors are not satisfied, they will leave immediately and this will impact your search rankings indirectly. The purpose of a home page is to welcome visitors to your website, provide a clear outline of what is being offered, and steer visitors toward more information. Once this is understood, building a home page designed to be pinging for SEO and user experience alike becomes a lot clearer. Whether you offer a service, product, free information or something else, these three elements will always be the home page’s purpose.

Carefully Consider Keywords

Your home page will perform better when a particular set of keywords are focused on, but it is important to carefully consider which keywords will be your choices. Naturally successful keywords for a brand include its name and any local services provided. Outside of this, a couple of other keywords and variations can be considered. It is usually a good idea to focus on long-tail keywords and phrases (3-7 words) rather than pinging for SEO via single or double-word keywords. Less competition will exist for these phrases. While there may be fewer people searching for these long-tail keywords, targeting keywords that are too short will result in stiff competition and likely zero traffic due to the inability to rank for said keywords.

Review These Elements

Last but not least, a few specific elements need to be inspected and considered. Home page titles need to focus on the company’s name and offerings. A well-constructed menu is necessary to please visitors and to provide search engines with easy pathways to index the entire site. Any headers or sub-titles on the page should be properly formatted. The use of tags in select elements can help to further indicate to search engines how your home page should be classified. Be sure to provide contact information on the home page, which creates authority with users and further assists search engines in classifying the home page. Avoid providing too many links on the home page – a well-designed menu that collapses/expands can help ensure that you’re showing users just enough from the home page itself.