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How do you optimize the home page of a blog?

by Rylynn
17 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hi warriors,

I was wondering, if your home page is your blog where the content gets updated all the time, how do you optimize the home page anyway?

How do you know which keywords to target for that dynamic page?
#blog #home #optimize #page
  • Profile picture of the author SEOJJ
    What keywords do you want to rank for?
    Make sure those keywords are in the title and subtitle.
    Maybe you could add a small widget with some keyword-rich text in the sidebar?



    Dont forget META-description and keywords, Google uses the description in the results-pages and it's a important factor because you need to tell the people that look through the results what they will find on your site in just a couple of words.
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  • Profile picture of the author thedog
    Originally Posted by Rylynn View Post

    Hi warriors,

    I was wondering, if your home page is your blog where the content gets updated all the time, how do you optimize the home page anyway?

    How do you know which keywords to target for that dynamic page?
    You can make your home page static, if you want.

    in wp-admin

    settings > reading > static page
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  • Profile picture of the author lamberw
    Use titles, description and keywords for the keywords your blog is targeting. Research these to uncover high traffic keywords with low competition.

    Get backlinks to your home page and keep building the blog on the same domain to build authority and pagerank as you go.
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  • Profile picture of the author Barry Unruh
    I use two different strategies.

    Number one, I use a "sticky" plug-in to keep one highly optimized post at the top of my blogs.

    Number two, on several of my blogs the "home page" is not my "blog", it is a static page, which then links to my blog posts. The home page is focused to cause ACTION from first time visitors, to attempt to move them on to a list, or to a sales page. The articles (posts) are my SEO fuel to attract people to my site. The static page is again, highly optimized for the keywords I'm targeting. (Much more than a simple article is.)
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    • Profile picture of the author Rylynn
      Thank you everyone for your replies. I have been thinking of the static post as well Barry Unruh, I think I will give that a go.

      I wouldn't want my home page to be static because well, it is primarily a blog. I understand the concept of having a static home page and having a blog tab in the nav bar but those sites are not primarily blogs.

      I'm thinking of focusing on blogging mainly. So I think the static post idea could work.
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    • Profile picture of the author Aki Fagno
      Originally Posted by Barry Unruh View Post

      I use two different strategies.

      Number one, I use a "sticky" plug-in to keep one highly optimized post at the top of my blogs.

      Number two, on several of my blogs the "home page" is not my "blog", it is a static page, which then links to my blog posts. The home page is focused to cause ACTION from first time visitors, to attempt to move them on to a list, or to a sales page. The articles (posts) are my SEO fuel to attract people to my site. The static page is again, highly optimized for the keywords I'm targeting. (Much more than a simple article is.)
      Great idea. Thaks for sharing.
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  • Profile picture of the author Craig McPherson
    Or you can edit index.php and place a 300 word article at the top of the blog and then your new posts simply follow suit.
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  • Profile picture of the author isaacsmithjones
    Make sure your internal SEO is sorted before you start worrying about external SEO... Use effective anchor text, so that all of your pages link back to your home page using RELEVANT anchor text, rather than just "home".

    And I know this may be a little off-topic, but you may also want to look at a "blog squeeze" format. So that you can build your list using your blog, by just adding a little opt-in widget in your sidebar.

    "Optimisation" is all about getting "optimum" (the best) results. So it's not only about getting the most traffic you can from search engines etc, but it's also getting optimal conversions, and essentially the best results you can from your site.

    So yes, that includes making sure you have content that has high quality in the eyes of visitors, as well as the search engines, and building a list... Because that is your most valuable asset.
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    • Profile picture of the author Rylynn
      isaacsmithjones, I appreciate your reply but you have failed to answer my question.

      I never said that I was starting on external SEO or anything like that.

      Anyway, I agree with you regarding your definition of "optimization".

      However, my question here is on search engine optimization. Not conversion optimizations or whatever. And Search Engine Optimization IS all about getting traffic.
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      • Profile picture of the author isaacsmithjones
        Originally Posted by Rylynn View Post

        isaacsmithjones, I appreciate your reply but you have failed to answer my question.

        I never said that I was starting on external SEO or anything like that.

        Anyway, I agree with you regarding your definition of "optimization".

        However, my question here is on search engine optimization. Not conversion optimizations or whatever. And Search Engine Optimization IS all about getting traffic.
        Okay cool... Well as thedog said, you can change your home page to a static page, which is a good idea... But depends on the format of your blog.

        Because if you have a blog which is about closely related keywords, for example: get a 6 pack, build 6 pack abs, get a 6 pack now, how to get a 6 pick, build muscle fast, build muscle now etc...

        All these keywords are closely related, much like a google sniper site... So if you were to create posts based on each keyword, when they were all fed to the home page, they would actually help with the SEO, as they would keep increasing the keyword density of words like "6 pack" and "muscle".

        However, if it was in the IM niche or something, and you had keywords that are not too closely related such as: list building, search engine optimisation, increasing conversion rates...

        These keywords are not as closely related, so as you wrote new posts, it would make a serious difference, as they would be diluting the keyword density. The individual posts may rank in google, but it would be harder for the home page. So in this case, it would be better to use thedog's advice...

        Sorry for the delayed reply.
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  • Profile picture of the author RossChops
    I tried a static page but then though that if I was going to have a static page then I might as well have a fully fledged Joomla web site instead of a blog. That is what I am moving towards at the moment.
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  • Profile picture of the author mahesh2010
    I think most of the SE experts don't promote the blog, they just introduce a comment plugin or discus plugin in the blog and automatically visits will increase, also posting new topics in the same blog will also improve the blog status.
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  • Profile picture of the author greatcarvers
    How Manykeywords do you want to rank for?
    Make sure those keywords are in the title and subtitle.
    Maybe you could add a small widget with some keyword-rich text in the sidebar?
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  • Profile picture of the author Craig McPherson
    If you have widgets in your sidebar, instead of having:

    Recent Posts
    Categories
    etc
    etc

    have

    Your Keyword Recent Posts
    Your Keyword Categories
    etc
    etc
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  • Profile picture of the author seoservices1
    Hello

    I wouldn't want my home page to be static because blog. I understand the concept of having a static home page and having a blog tab in the nav bar but those sites are not primarily blogs.
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  • Profile picture of the author Justinpage
    Do link building for your blog's homepage. If you are familiar with the methods use in link building, then it will be easy for you to optimize your blog's homepage.
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