Why You Shouldn’t Rank Your Homepage (And What To Do Instead)

One of the most common mistakes we see from fellow SEOs is trying to optimize a website’s homepage for every keyword they want to rank for.

This is NOT a good idea. 

In fact, it can dramatically reduce other web page’s ability to rank for important keywords, such as your product and service pages (which are where the money is at!). 

That’s not to say that you shouldn’t optimize your homepage to rank for some keywords, just not every single one. 

A successful SEO strategy spreads the keyword love across all your important pages, not just the homepage. 

You should also try to get these types of pages ranking for relevant keywords:

• Content (blogs, videos, etc.) 
• Landing pages and lead magnets 
• Product pages 
• Service pages 

In this article, we’ll teach you why going nuts with homepage SEO is a critical error, and we’ll show you what to do instead – so stick around!  

1. Why You Shouldn’t Optimize Your Homepage Too Much

Most businesses start out only offering a handful of products, and then gradually expand their lineup as they scale their operations. 

What does this have to do with optimizing your homepage?

It’s relevant because most new websites will try to rank their homepages for keywords closely related to their flagship products and services. 

This means that when they eventually expand, they try to cram a ton of new keywords into their homepage, which causes a huge mess. 

Here’s an example of what we’re talking about.

Let’s say that you start a new business that sells blue widgets in New York. Since you only sell one product, you optimize your homepage for it:

This works great until you start to expand. Once that happens, you start selling red widgets, big widgets, and small widgets. You also start offering widget repair services, management, and insurance. 

Complicating the issue even further, you decide to open new locations in Chicago, Los Angeles, and London. 

The problem?

Your homepage is optimized to rank for the keyword ‘blue widgets,’ and that’s it. 

There’s no way that Google will rank your homepage for:

• Blue widgets
• Red widgets
• Big widgets
• Widget Insurance
• Widget Repair
• Widget Management
• Los Angeles widgets
• Chicago widgets
• London widgets

Your title tag would have to look like this:

Yeah, that’s not going to work. 

Plus, Google usually only displays 50-60 characters of your title tag in the search engine results (this is a faked screenshot for demonstrative purposes only!).

In this scenario, you can’t have your cake and eat it, too. 

Instead, you have to pick a handful of relevant keywords to rank for your homepage and then create other pages (product pages, landing pages, blogs) to rank for other important keywords as your business expands into new arenas. 

2. Wrecked Rankings Because Of Keyword Cannibalization

Another reason why you shouldn’t rank your homepage for all your keywords is cannibalization. 

Keyword cannibalization occurs whenever you try to rank two web pages for the same keywords. 

For example, trying to rank your homepage and a blog post for the same keyword will cause cannibalization. 

Why is it called cannibalization?

Since Google’s algorithm will see that you have 2 pages trying to rank for the same keywords, it will become confused over which page it should rank – causing it to rank neither. 

For this reason, you can think of two identical keywords as ‘eating themselves.’ 

Another scenario is that Google chooses to rank a less important page ahead of a product or service page. For instance, if one of your product pages ranks for ‘buy glasses now,’ but your homepage does too, your homepage may outrank it. 

As a result, you’ll miss out on valuable opportunities to convert users with your product and service pages – since they’ll get directed to your homepage instead (or, more likely, will choose another result on Google that better meets their needs). 

Not only that, but keyword cannibalization will eventually drag down the rankings for both pages in the long term.

Here’s an example of what that looks like:

This is a screenshot from Ahrefs (an SEO tracking tool). Each colored graph represents a different page on the site.

You can see in this example that one page will start to rank, and then Google will drop it and try to rank another one.

This cycle continues, and none of the pages rank to their full potential because Google can’t figure out which page belongs on the SERPs (search engine results pages). 

3. Usability: Get The User To The Right Page From The Beginning

Picture this scenario. 

You have a homepage that you’ve attempted to rank for all your most important keywords. This means that every user who visits your website through a search engine will get directed to your homepage. 

Well, this isn’t good news for your user experience, and it’s highly likely that any clicks you do generate will click away from your site after a few seconds. 

Why is that?

It’s because users want to land on web pages that deal with what they searched for, not a mammoth homepage that lists everything. 

Let’s say a user searches for ‘affordable rakes’ online, which is one of the products you sell. However, instead of ranking a product page or blog post for the keyword, you’ve got your homepage ranking for it. 

Imagine the users’ confusion and frustration when they click on your result on Google only to get directed to your homepage. Rather than try to parse through all your inner pages to find what they’re looking for, they choose to click back to the search results and choose another site instead. 

This is why it’s imperative to only rank your homepage for broad keywords specifically related to your brand and industry. 

Keywords related to specific products and topics should go to your landing pages and content, NOT your homepage. 

Research shows that 60% of consumers will abandon purchases due to poor website user experience, so it’s crucial to provide a seamless experience going from search engines to your web pages.   

4. Conversions On The Homepage

It’s time to rethink your SEO goals for your homepage. 

Rather than trying to get your homepage ranking for tons of keywords, you should focus on making it a conversion-generating machine. 

In other words, your homepage should encourage users to sign up for your service or try out your products above all else. 

After all, as your brand grows and search rankings rise for other pages (like your content and landing pages), more users will naturally flock to your homepage. 

Knowing this, it’s a lot more powerful to optimize your homepage for conversions instead of keyword rankings. 

It will also grant you the freedom to do whatever you want with your homepage instead of filling it with thousands of words and keyword spam in an attempt to rank. 

Our homepage is a great example of this philosophy in action:

As you can see, we went with a sleek, super simple design. We let users know that we will simplify the ranking process for them, and we included two CTA (call-to-action) buttons to encourage them to book a call or create an account. 

Because of this, our homepage lands valuable conversions for us all the time. Yet, all those sign-ups and call bookings wouldn’t happen if our homepage was attempting to rank for every keyword relevant to our business.  

So, with all that said, how can you fix your website if you’ve tried to rank your website for umpteen keywords?

What To Do Instead

The fix is pretty simple – just build out separate pages for each specific topic (product, service, content, category, location) that you want to rank for.

For instance, you would build out a page for each product:

Products

/blue-widgets/

/red-widgets/

/green-widgets/

Service

/widget-insurance/

/widget-repair/

Locations

/widgets-los-angeles/

/widgets-chicago/

..and rank each of these pages for what they are actually about.

Essentially, you need a page on your site for every keyword topic you have in mind. If you don’t already have a page for a certain topic – you need to build it!

Now, this doesn’t mean you have to build out a page for every single variation of a keyword you have since Google often will rank one page for variations of similar keywords.

If you need help building out new service pages, check out our copywriting product, HOTH Web Copy. It’s where we craft original web pages that attract your target customer, explain the features, and encourage prospects to become paying customers.

SEO Strategies To Optimize Your Homepage Properly 

All this isn’t to say that you shouldn’t optimize your homepage for ANY keywords, just not every keyword under the sun. 

There are some keywords that you definitely should optimize your homepage for, such as broad industry terms and branded keywords. 

The idea is to optimize your homepage for these keywords without stepping on the toes of your other web pages via keyword cannibalization. 

Yet, if you followed the previous step above, your website should now feature specific web pages for individual topics, products, and locations. 

Doing so will make avoiding cannibalization a breeze since you’ll have different sets of keywords for each web page. This will keep all your SEO ducks in a row, so to speak, and it’ll prevent you from trying to rank two pages for the same keyword. 

Without further ado, here’s how to properly optimize your homepage for search engines. 

Conduct an audit on your homepage

Your first step should be to perform an SEO audit on your homepage. 

What’s that?

An SEO audit is an in-depth analysis of your homepage’s current performance on search engines. It will uncover your primary strengths and weaknesses, which will provide valuable insights for putting together a long-term SEO strategy. 

In a nutshell, an SEO audit is a health check-up for your website. It’s how you diagnose any potential issues that need repairing, such as indexing errors. 

Here are the steps you should take when auditing your homepage:

1. Check the homepage’s current keyword position rankings using Google Search Console (GSC). If you’re new to GSC, check out our guide on how to set it up. Take note of any keywords your homepage is ranking for that you weren’t aware of (especially if they’re relevant). 
2. Analyze the content on your homepage. Are you using your target keyword too many times? As a rule of thumb, your keyword should go in the title tag, H1 header, and the first 100 words of the content. Remove any excessive keyword usage to avoid getting flagged as spam. 
3. Does your homepage load quickly? You can use Google’s PageSpeed Insights to learn if you have any issues with loading speed, visual stability, or interactivity. 
4. Navigate to GSC’s Page Indexing Report to see if your homepage has any crawling/indexing errors. If there are any, follow the steps to resolve them immediately. 
5. Is your homepage designed well, or are there lots of clashing colors and visual themes? When in doubt, a simpler design is always better. Research has found that a website’s first impression is 95% influenced by design. 75% of users trust visually appealing websites over unappealing designs, which is something to bear in mind. 

Optimize your homepage content for SEO

Your homepage is your digital storefront. 

It’s the first impression many visitors will have of your brand. 

Therefore, the primary goal of your homepage content is to clearly communicate what you do to both users and search engines.

Let’s start at the top with your homepage title tag.

Your homepage title is the first element that search engines encounter. Keep it concise (60 characters or less) and descriptive. 

Include keywords that accurately represent your website and incorporate your brand name. Ideally, place your target keywords at the beginning of the title.

It could look something like this:

Why optimize your homepage title?

Optimizing your homepage title helps establish your brand name in search results. While your homepage may not directly rank for specific search terms, a strong title reinforces your brand identity and makes it easier for users to find you.

Content length and quality

Google views web pages that have less than approximately 700 words as ‘thin content,’ and it doesn’t provide them any favors in the search rankings. 

For this reason, SEOs have adopted the practice of including at least 700 – 1,000 words on every web page, including the homepage. 

Not only does this help you avoid the thin content label, but it also provides search engines with more context about your business and expertise. Provide valuable information that addresses your target audience’s needs, desires, and pain points. 

Here are some tips to keep in mind when drafting the copy for your homepage:

• Avoid keyword stuffing: Stick with natural language and readable formatting (short paragraphs and subheadings) over cramming keywords.
• Focus on user intent: Understand what your target audience is searching for and tailor your content to match it. This ensures that your content always scratches the right itch for your users. 
• Highlight your value proposition: Without being too wordy, convey what makes your brand unique and how you will benefit potential customers.

Optimize your headers

Headers and subheadings are crucial for online content, and your homepage is no exception. 

Headings are so powerful because they organize your content and make it scannable for readers. 79% of users will scan a page before deciding to read the entire thing, and subheadings are what make scanning possible. 

The last thing you want is for your blogs to feature massive walls of unbroken text. 

As a bonus, Google’s crawler bots also love subheadings, as it makes it easier for them to understand your content, too. 

Here are some tips to maximize the SEO potential of your headers:

➡️ Incorporate relevant keywords: Weave target keywords into your headers. This helps search engines understand the topic of each section.

➡️ Maintain a clear hierarchy: Use a single H1 tag for your main page title, followed by H2 tags for major sections, and H3 tags for subsections. This creates a logical structure that’s easy to follow.

Here’s a breakdown of header usage:

• • H1: Use only one H1 tag per page, typically reserved for your main page title. It should accurately reflect your brand and the page’s content.
  • H2: Employ H2 tags to introduce major sections within your content. Each H2 should represent a distinct topic or idea.
  • H3: Use H3 tags to break down H2 sections into smaller, more specific subtopics. This adds further clarity and depth to your content.

• H4: If you need to further elaborate on an H3 heading, use H4 tags, and so on (it goes to H6). 

Optimizing your headers enhances readability, improves user experience, and provides valuable signals to search engines about your content’s structure and relevance.

Optimize your meta description

Think of your meta description as an elevator pitch for your homepage. 

It’s a snippet of text that appears below your page title in search results that entices users to click through to your website.

Here are the key elements of a good meta description:

✅Concise: Keep it within 155-160 characters to ensure it’s fully displayed in search results.

✅Accurate: Clearly and accurately describe the page’s content.

✅Include a call to action: Encourage users to click by using action-oriented language (e.g., “Learn more,” “Discover,” “Find out how”).

✅Unique for each page: Don’t use the same meta description for more than one page.

✅Matches the content: Ensure the description accurately reflects the content on the page.

Here’s an example of a meta description for our fictional widget business:

“Widget World: Your one-stop shop for blue, red, & green widgets. We also offer repair, management, & insurance. Shop now!”

Optimize Image SEO

Humans are visual beings. While blank space on your homepage can make content easier to skim, incorporating visual content keeps viewers engaged and reinforces your branding.

Research shows that posts with images receive 94% more views than those with none. 

On top of that, images can be used as an alert for search engine crawlers to take note of your content. 

Choose the right file type 

File type impacts how quickly images load on your webpage.  Here’s a look at the most common file types:

• JPEG: Ideal for large photos and illustrations. Offers a good balance between file size and image quality.
• PNG: Best for logos, icons, and images with transparent backgrounds. Excellent for maintaining crisp details.
• SVG: Perfect for logos and scalable graphics. Retains quality at any size without increasing file size.
• GIF: Primarily used for simple animations and short video clips.

Image size also affects SEO

Image size is crucial for page speed. Large images can slow down your website, which is bad news for your user experience. 

Modern internet users have grown accustomed to instant gratification from just about everything, so they won’t stick around to wait for your web page to load. 

The solution?

Use image compression tools (like Adobe Photoshop, TinyPNG, or ImageOptim) to reduce file sizes without compromising quality.

Include your keyword in the file name 

Your image file name provides context to search engines about the image’s content. 

Use your focus keyword at the beginning of the file name, separating words with hyphens (e.g., “luxury-leather-handbag.jpg”). 

Avoid underscores, as search engines may not recognize them as word separators.

Optimize image alt tags

Image alt text (short for “alternative text”) is a brief written description embedded within the HTML code of an image on a webpage. It serves two primary functions:

1. Accessibility: It provides descriptions for visually impaired users using screen readers.
2. SEO: It helps search engines understand the image content and its relevance to your page.

Write concise, descriptive alt text while including relevant keywords. Imagine you’re describing the image to someone who can’t see it.

Example:

Instead of: alt=”image1″

 Use: alt=”Woman wearing a red dress standing in front of the Eiffel Tower.”

Add videos to your homepage 

Video is another content format that’s extremely effective at boosting traffic. 

The proof?

86% of marketers claim video content has driven more traffic to their websites. 

The great thing about video is that you don’t need Hollywood-tier production values to make it work. Instead, shooting some simple videos with a tasteful background on an iPhone will more than suffice. 

Popular video ideas for homepages include:

• Product and service demos 
• An introduction to your business 
• A fun illustration breaking down your value proposition 

It’s up to you what you choose to include on your homepage; just make sure that the file size isn’t too large. 

Add testimonials

Including testimonials on your homepage is a fantastic way to convey your expertise and competence. 

Social proof is an absolute must for any business in today’s age. 

According to research, a whopping 92% of buyers won’t trust a brand if they can’t find any reviews for it. 

Here are a few more reasons why testimonials are so powerful:

• Testimonials build trust: 92% of consumers read online reviews before purchasing. Testimonials demonstrate your product or service’s value from a customer’s perspective.
• Boost credibility: Genuine testimonials will validate your claims and build confidence in your brand.
• Increase relevance: Testimonials show potential customers that others like them have benefited from your offerings (and that they can, too). 
• Answer questions: Reviews often address common concerns and hesitations, which may serve as the impetus to visit your business.

Effective ways to incorporate testimonials:

✔️Customer reviews: Display positive feedback from review sites as text snippets or embedded widgets. We actually do this on our website by embedding Google reviews:

✔️Client logos: Showcase logos of reputable companies you’ve worked with.

✔️Case studies: Briefly summarize successful projects or client stories.

✔️Social media mentions: Embed positive social media posts about your brand.

Here’s an example of a testimonial on the HOTH home page: 

Source

We used a customer photo alongside a short, impactful quote. 

This enhances visual appeal and allows for strategic keyword placement for SEO.

Prioritize mobile optimization

With 70% of web traffic coming from mobile devices, optimizing your homepage for mobile is crucial for both user experience and SEO. 

The reason for this is that Google uses a mobile-first index, meaning it primarily uses the mobile version of your site for ranking and indexing. If your site isn’t optimized for mobile, it will likely rank lower in search results.

Here is what you need to consider when optimizing your site for mobile:

• Responsive design: Ensure your website adapts seamlessly to different screen sizes and devices.
• Content parity: Keep your content consistent between your desktop and mobile sites to avoid confusing search engines.
• Page speed: Optimize images and code to ensure fast loading times, as mobile users are less patient with slow-loading sites. Users are likely to abandon pages that take longer than three seconds to load. To learn more about optimizing homepage for page speed, check out our Free Page Speed Checker.

Get a feel for mobile-first design by exploring websites you’re familiar with. 

Start by analyzing their homepage layouts or other pages they’ve optimized. Take notes on how the content is presented and where key information is placed.

For example, check out one of our blog posts: How To Optimize For Featured Snippets And Rank In Position Zero. 

You’ll see that we have put the key takeaways and visuals further down the page, which caters to the scrolling behavior of mobile users.

Craft Compelling Calls to Action (CTAs)

You can have the highest quality homepage in the world, but if users don’t sign up for your service or leave their contact information, what’s the point?

This is why every web page needs a call to action (CTA). 

A CTA lets your visitors know in very clear language what it is you want them to do next, and they’re quite powerful tools. In fact, research has shown that including a CTA on your home page increases conversions by 121%.

Effective CTAs are clear, action-oriented, and tailored to your specific goals.

When creating CTAs, consider these key aspects:

• Clarity: Use simple, direct language that clearly states the desired action (e.g., “Get Started,” “Learn More,” “Sign Up”).
• Relevance: Align your CTAs with your company’s offerings and the page’s content.
• Urgency: Encourage immediate action by creating a sense of urgency or exclusivity (e.g., “Limited Time Offer,” “Book Now,” “Join the Waitlist”).
• Design: Make your CTAs visually stand out using contrasting colors, larger font sizes, or visually appealing buttons.
• Placement: Strategically position your CTAs in prominent locations where visitors are likely to see them.

Also, here are a few examples of effective CTAs for different goals:

➡️Lead generation: “Get a Free Consultation,” “Download Your Guide,” “Request a Demo”

➡️Product/Service promotion: “Shop Now,” “View Pricing,” “Start Your Free Trial”

➡️Content engagement: “Read More,” “Watch the Video,” “Explore Our Blog”

Remember, the goal of a CTA is to guide users toward taking the next step in their journey with your brand. By crafting compelling CTAs, you can significantly increase conversions and drive meaningful engagement on your homepage. 

Pass Link Equity From Your Homepage 

Your homepage often holds the most authority on your website. 

As such, you can maximize its potential by strategically linking to other important pages. 

This will distribute its “link juice” (a fancy term for ranking power) and guide visitors deeper into your site.

Internal linking is an essential part of SEO and shouldn’t be dismissed when doing homepage SEO. Here’s why: 

• Improved user experience: Clear navigation paths make it easier for users to find what they’re looking for, leading to increased engagement.
• Distributed link equity: Internal links spread the authority of your home page and can drive more traffic to your service pages, product pages, or other valuable content. This can boost their rankings due to the link equity passed on by the homepage.
• Enhanced SEO: Search engines use internal links to understand your site’s structure and page relationships.

Here are some tips for passing link equity: 

Prioritize: Link to core service pages, top-performing blog posts, or other high-priority content.

Footer navigation: Utilize the footer as a secondary menu, including links to essential pages like “About Us” and “Contact.”

Contextual links: Incorporate relevant internal links within your homepage content to provide additional context and encourage exploration.

Calls to Action (CTAs): Use action-oriented CTAs within content or banners to direct users to specific pages.

Visual cues: Make internal links more engaging with buttons, images, or icons.

Build High-Quality Backlinks

Lastly, backlinks are a HUGE ranking factor for search engines, especially Google. 

What’s a backlink?

It’s an external link on another site that ‘links back’ to your content, which is where the name comes from. 

Search engines view backlinks as credibility votes toward the quality, accuracy, and trustworthiness of your content. 

As a quick example, if a trusted website like The New York Times links to your content, it’s a signal that your content is also trustworthy. 

Why is that?

The NYT is a major news publication that has rigorous publishing standards and quality checks, so they wouldn’t link out to just any old website. If The NYT does link to your content, it must be accurate and high-quality. 

That’s why Google uses backlinks as a crucial ranking factor. 

In particular, you need to build backlinks from relevant, authoritative websites in your field. 

To learn more about backlinks, check out our learning hub article on why link-building is so important for SEO. 

Summing Things Up 

To wrap things up, there are lots of reasons why you shouldn’t rank your homepage for every keyword you want to target. 

It leads to tricky issues like keyword cannibalization and frustrates users, which is why you should spread the keyword love to other pages on your website. 

That doesn’t mean that you can’t rank your homepage for important industry terms and branded keywords, just that you shouldn’t overstep your bounds. 

Do you need help creating new web pages for important keywords you’ve targeted?

Then you’re going to love HOTH Web Copy, our copywriting service featuring top-tier professionals, so don’t wait to check it out!

Also, feel free to schedule a call with one of our consultants to learn more about our SEO services and how to use them to reach #1 on Google.