What should you put on your homepage?

Your homepage is the most important landing page of your website and yet surprisingly few organisations put the right information on it.

Four seconds to grab the visitor’s attention

The opening text of your website’s homepage should be able to tell visitors in four seconds or less what you do and what you are selling. Think of it as the opening statement of a company résumé – it should highlight the key products, services or skills you are offering.

Some homepage do’s and don’ts…

• Don’t put a company logo, strapline, video, fancy Flash graphic and ‘click here to enter’ on your homepage, it’s a real turn-off. Visitors want to find what they are looking for instantly so cut to the chase.
  



• Don’t put anything to do with you company history, vision and values, mission statements, employee numbers and corporate information on your homepage – these belong in the ‘About us’ section.
  



• Do keep your content refreshed by running an RSS or company news feed on your homepage.
  



• Do - if you want to be found on Google and other search engines - ensure your homepage contains keywords and phrases that people would use to search for you on the internet. But be careful, your text must make sense and be readable, informative and intelligent to visitors and search engines. Search Engines like Google rank websites on the relevance of their content.
  

Last but not least, test out your homepage content on people who know nothing about what your company does or sells. Their feedback will tell you very quickly if your homepage is doing its job!

Five simple SEO tips for writing effective online press releases

SEO optimisation is really important if you want your online press release content crawled, indexed and ranked by internet search engines. That’s why you need to make sure that your digital press releases promote both your news and maximise your internet search visibility and rankings.

You can improve the search visibility of your digital press release content by following E=MC2 Public Relations’ five simple SEO tips for writing effective online press releases:

1. Research, optimise and hyperlink your top keyword phrases (no more than two


2. Link to a landing page, so you can track interest


3. Post in the news area of your website (newsdesk)


4. Distribute via RSS news feeds


5. Maximise PR distribution to relevant online press (this gets your press release on other sites with backlinks to you)

This should help you create SEO-friendly press releases that will send more potential buyers and journalists to your website!

Latest national spending habits: smart phones, 'apps' and online dating

The latest ONS survey published this week on the nation's spending habits shows the impact of new technology and the Internet.

Added to the British shopping basket of goods and services (used by ONS to calculate UK inflation rates) are smart phones and 'apps' which are replacing mobile phone downloads like ringtones and wallpaper. Also in the basket for the first time are online dating agency fees with the Internet fast becoming the new way to find love.

Bad news for dogs like me. Instead of going out for walks, householders are spending their money on giant TV sets, 'home cinema' systems, sparkling wine and ready-meals.

Frankly, I'd like to see more dog food in the basket – Bakers Complete and Beef and Lamb Pedigree Chum please.

Blog dog
Arthur