SEO - Back to the Basics - Target Top Keywords on Your Homepage
Posted by Steve Lazuka
I never cease to be amazed at how many sites fail to take advantage of the simplest, most effective strategies for optimizing their website for their highest value keywords.
While there are many SEO resources out there that teach all sorts of techniques and strategies, sometimes they forget to get back to the basics. Granted, in some ways, SEO content marketing is complicated. There are lots of different skills and knowledge that goes into a comprehensive, properly executed strategy.
However, in some ways, SEO is still as simple as it was 10 years ago. Research the keywords you want to target. Focus on creating great content. Include your keywords in your content... you know - the basics.
Start With The Basics - the Low Hanging Fruit
Here is one of those "back-to-the-basics" kind of seo strategies that has the potential to make a big impact quickly. It's also one of the most overlooked strategy because it is sooooo simple. Everyone knows you're supposed to do it, but for some strange reason, I rarely see it done properly on most sites.
- Choose 2 or 3 of your highest value keywords
- Put these keywords in the Title Tag of your homepage
- Include these keywords naturally on your site's homepage
- As you distribute content out across the web, link back to your homepage using these keywords as anchor text
What Makes This Technique So Powerful?
The Title of any page is the single most important on-page SEO factor. Putting your keywords in your title tags, as well as sprinkling them throughout the body of your pages must be the foundation of any SEO strategy.
However, your site's homepage represent a unique opportunity that no other page on your site usually offers when it comes to applying this basic technique. For most sites, the homepage gets the most amount of link juice. That's because, when people link to you, they often will link to your homepage rather than to interior pages of your site.
Why Just 2 or 3 Keywords?
The search engines are trying to determine what each page on your site is about. Imagine a page that mentions 10 different words, frequently throughout a 500 word page. First of all, the page would sound awkward. Secondly, a page that is about 10 different things is now about nothing to a search engine algorithm.
When it comes to your homepage, pick your top words and stick with them.
Linking Back to Your Homepage
Whether it's publishing articles on article directories, setting up information hubs like Squidoo or Hubpages, or posting to social media, whenever you have the chance to post a link back to your site, periodically use these keywords as anchor text and link them directly to your homepage.
This will further confirm to the search engines that your homepage is perfectly relevant for those few, choice keywords.
Good luck!