Authored by: Nick Usborne

Full Text: http://www.searchengineguide.com/articles/2006/0926_rc1.html

A Snippet:

Over the last few months I have written quite a bit about writing landing pages and offer pages. But I haven't said much about the challenges writers face when writing a home page. Home pages can be tricky, simply because your page not only has its own job to do, but also has to support a group of second level pages.

This was a really good article. Ofcourse, this site has many many many of those. :thumbsup:

It seems, that I am never pleased with my home page. I know I need to rewrite my content. It sounds ridiculous with the way I've used keywords. I noticed my first words in my content show up in the search engines, so I really need to redo those as they stink.

I've researched sites that pertain to what I do and I must say, I am not impressed with them either. The ones I do like, are slow loading and I know not to go there. My site loads fast and it is because of the way I built it.

However, I am not impressed with my site either. It seems in order to keep it fast loading and clean, it is boring to me.

I did join the online BBB and I haven't noticed any results from that. :(

I do use Ebay from time to time, and while it boosts hits, it does not convert into sales. This I believe, is due to the fact that people keep hoping I'll "give" my stuff away on Ebay and so they wait for auctions. dang.... I recently listed 10 items and sold 6 out of the 10. I do have repeat customers, and when I do auctions, I email past customers. They know about my site, but only a few will actually order off of it. Once in awhile, I will get custom orders...but I sure could use more. ;)

I'm a stubborn gal, and I love what I do. So, I keep plugging away. :D I suppose what I need is some good advice on how to better my home page. I'm just not sure what will grab a potential customer.

Texas style - your home page looks fine to me, and it loads pretty quick. :cheers: There's a snag at the bottom with the 'back to the top' link; it reloads the whole page, and an anchor would just alter the browser's view to the top of the page without reloading anything.

stubborn is the best way to be! A search engine can ignore the first year(s) of an enterprise for no apparent reason and suddenly it all clicks. New content, frequently updated home page, incoming links from related pages on related sites - it all helps. Do you have site stats that show exactly where your visitors come from?

Your title tag is probably too short and your meta keywords is way too long. choose the words that best help your chosen search phrases

(2 cents);)

WOW...thanks Fairdoes! I appreciate the feedback. So, my title tag is too short? okie doke, I can fix that. I totally agree with the "too many keywords" and I was thinking the same thing yesterday. I'll work on that today. :D

Yep, I do have site stats. I've been using Ipowerweb for a few years now. They now have their own setup, and one of the features that comes with their package is a "V-deck". I love that thing. It is sooooo simple that even I can use it. :thumbsup:

One of the things I've read here, is that I need a "robots" file. I haven't created one yet. Another thing I need to get on. ;)

One of the things I've read here, is that I need a "robots" file. I haven't created one yet. Another thing I need to get on.

I doubt you 'need' one. robots.txt files are used to exclude your web pages from being incuded within the search engines.