From an SEO (search engine optimization) standpoint, there is one spot that a lot of website really miss the mark. Far too often, I visit a website that has a line something like “Welcome to ABC Company.” I already know I’m welcome to the site. If I wasn’t, you would (or should) have it blocked of with a user login. Not only is saying “Welcome” not needed, it could actually be hurting your site in search engine rankings.
On your homepage, the first line of text in the body of the page should be a Heading One element and it should have a keyword or two in it and read like a sentence. Since many times people will be searching based on your keywords and not business name, you don’t need to have that in the heading. For example, if you had a business located in Green Bay that does heating and cooling work, a good use of that heading would be something like “Green Bay’s Heating and Cooling Professionals.”
Each page of your site should follow this same techniques with having a Heading One element at the very top of the content and having one or two good keywords in it.. If you are having trouble deciding what keywords to use, look at your analytics and see what keywords people have been using to find that page. Put one or two of them together and have them read like a sentence. The Heading One element really should only be used once on each page, but should be used at least once.
Most leading search engines look to the Heading One on each page to help determine the keywords for that page. Help them out as best you can, and pick out a keyword or two for that page and put them in that Heading One. If you can’t find a keyword, that page maybe shouldn’t exist. And if you have more than two (three at most) keywords to use, you may want to think about setting up additional pages for the later keywords. Your visitors already know they are welcome to come and explore your site, use the Heading One to help with your SEO ranking instead.
