A Tale of Two Copies
When it comes to how much text should be included inhomepage design, people are often divided into two camps. The first believes that brevity is best, in large part because much of today’s online audience has lowattention spansand are going to skim the page anyway. On the flip side, there are many people who prefer longer copy because it’s better for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) purposes and, they argue, it increases the chance of a sale.
Who is right? Well, that really depends on who you ask, but there are some basic facts we can look at to help you make that determination yourself.
Minimum Word Count
The only real rule (or guideline) when it comes to writing text on your homepage is that you want to hit a minimum of300 wordsof content. This is the lowest number that search engines generally look for to help customers connect with your website. Not only does this make you appear more professional, but it tells Google and other algorithms that you’re more likely to provide what a customer is looking for.
Maximum Word Count
The truth is that there is noword countlimit. There’s no overseeing entity out there who’s monitoring websites and cutting you off at a certain number of words. That being said, going overboard is certainly a bad idea.
You’ll find that many successful companies will have a homepage with 600-700 words, and sometimes a bit more. It all depends on the presentation itself and search intent.
Website Text Strategies
Word count is just one example of how text relates tohomepage design. Here are some strategies you can use to make your text have a bigger impact:
Limit Text Above the Fold
In case you’re not aware, “above the fold” refers to the area of your homepage that a visitor will see without being forced to scroll down. This is certainly not a place where you want to put huge blocks of text because that might turn them off right away. The best strategy is to have a simple introduction above the fold that will then entice them to scroll down, where the majority of information and text is located.
Highlight Important Text
Plain, black text on a white background can seem not only dull, but also overwhelming when there’s a lot of it. No, we’re not saying to make the text purple and the background yellow. What we mean is that you should highlight important text with the use of bold, italics, or – very sparingly – a different color. This will help draw a person’s eyes to the right place.
Use Expandable Blurbs
Expandable blurbs, or whatever you’d like to call them, are one of the most user-friendly ways to convey information on your homepage. This works by creating a small blurb of information, often accompanied by an image, that expands into more information when they click either the image or a “read more” link. This is a very clever way to improve SEO without taking up a lot of space and doing so in an appealing way.
Break Text Into Chunks
As touched on above, many of today’s website visitors have very short attention spans. The last thing you want to do is present them with a wall of text. If you do, then they’ll be thinking “TL; DR!” (that’s “too long; didn’t read” forcertain generations out there.) What you want to do is divide your text into smaller, easily digestible chunks of information.
Don’t Worry Too Much
The last thing you should take to heart is not to worry about the word count too much. As long as you hit the minimum of 300 words and you’ve made the homepageeasy to navigatewith workablecalls-to-action, you’ll be fine. What you should do, however, is work with a professional marketing company to create and analyze how effective those words are and then reduce or expand them as needed.
Contact P3 Agency for Professional Website Design
The P3 Agency prides itself in being masters of digital marketing,graphic design,social media, andweb design in Clearwaterand the surrounding areas. If you have any questions abouthomepage designor would like a free marketing assessment, give us a call at727 474-9064 today.
