26 replies to this topic

[wavesandwings]

Hi guys

I would like to know the ideal number of words in a home page. I heard that something around 250 - 300 words would do fine. It is a big ask because if one is writing for an e-commerce site with lots of pages the product pages will have more info than the home page. How do i go about the content for the home page?

Do enlighten me

thanks

[chrishirst]

no such thing as an ideal word count.

to paraphrase the Reverend Ronald Knox

"Copy should be like a woman's skirt, long enough to cover the essentials, short enough to be interesting."


BTW think visitors not search engines.

[wavesandwings]

Where does keyword density fit in your adage

""Copy should be like a woman's skirt, long enough to cover the essentials, short enough to be interesting."

[Dragon]

as chrishirst says: think Visitors not SE.

If you write good relevant copy, it should in theory be optimised, as the copy would reflect the most important point that you are emphasising, which is therefore what the page is optimised for...

(make sense? I feel as if i'm on a spiral reading my own explanation! )

[chrishirst]

keyword density doesn't fit in there at all. As it is just another myth that may have been sort ot almost accurate at one time but isn't any more.

read the pinned keyword density thread at the top of this forum .

[copywriter]

Hi Waves!

The others are right. There is no ideal number of words. Why? Because all sites are not created equal.

As you, yourself, mentioned... there is a big difference between a corporate site and an ecommerce site. There are also big differences in the target customers that visit each and the way they behave online. In addition, there are big differences in how those same target customers behave in certain buying situations (i.e., shopping for a CPA firm vs. shopping for a new pair of shoes).

There is a balance that has to be achieved. Look at your product/service, your site, your target audience and their communication style AND their buying behavior as related to your industry.

In addition to all that you have the other elements of SEO. Is your linking strong? Is your coding in tip top shape? These will also relate to the overall equation of how many words you should have on your page.

Yes, there is a guideline... and let me repeat that it is a GUIDELINE... that a minimum of 250 words is best. But I've seen sites that ranking around the 100 mark that have 500 or even 1000 words on their pages. Then there are the short little pages that have 75 words and are ranked #1 or #2.

As for keyword density, there is a ton of information in this threadwhich is pinned at the top of the Copywriting section of the forum.

All the best,
Karon

[Jill]

I would like to know the ideal number of words in a home page.

314.16399

[copywriter]

Cute, Jill!

[Connie]

In addition to what the others have said. With an e-commerce site you are probably going to get very little traffic to your home page. If you sell a lot of different products you can't optimize your home page for each of them. Just make sure your home page gives an overview of what your site is about.

SEs are going to try to direct a search to the most relevant page. Don't neglect the home page because many people will visit it before placing an order, or visit it after placing an order.

[DigitalCamera]

Without risking going against popular opinion, Don't go over 1400 words , Past that you may be penalized on G.

[Randy]

Penalized? That's a bit of a harsh statement and simply not true.

That many words will often be too much for a real human to read and the page may lose focus, which will certainly not help with either real visitors or the search engines. But there is no penalty per se.

[copywriter]

No, you won't be penalized at all. Google doesn't care. My CopywritingCourse.com site is 1403 words and (as of this morning) ranks #1. It's always ranked in the top 5 since I brought it online about 3 years ago.

[Jill]

Without risking going against popular opinion, Don't go over 1400 words , Past that you may be penalized on G.

No, no, no, no, no!

Your page can be however long you want it to be. Period!

[Leann_Pass]

I would like to know the ideal number of words in a home page. I heard that something around 250 - 300 words would do fine. It is a big ask because if one is writing for an e-commerce site with lots of pages the product pages will have more info than the home page. How do i go about the content for the home page?

True there is NO ideal number of words for a homepage or any page however, most of the search engines seem to like a fair amount of text on the page.
Generally, Yes, 250-300 words should do fine, but that depends on whether or not you can adequately cover your subject in that many words.

As for your homepage- just try writing about your products...completely forget about how many words you are using...Just write...what is great/different/special about the products? why would people need/want to use them? why should people buy from you vrs. some other ecommerce site or Sears for that matter (free shipping. same day shipping, order tracking, discount prices, money back guarantee, great customer service)?

If you are passionate, or even knowledgeable about the products you offer, you should have no trouble coming up with an abundance of content for your site.

[Jill]

I've changed my mind. Now it's exactly 451.33339992 words...