I get asked this question a lot “Why do big companies just have a wee bit of content on their home page?”. There are several reasons why a website owner would want just a wee bit of content on their home page but nearly all reasons will not help you to garner search engine placement.
- Mistaken idea that the home page should be “pretty” and not have much content but lots of images.
- Mistaken idea that the home page is not important.
- Missed opportunities to introduce the depth and breadth of the website.
When I first started in web design 10 years ago, splash pages were the rage. A splash page is where you had a graphic intense home page that had little if any content and was very different in look from the inside pages of your website. We have now moved away from this model as an industry. Now nearly every SEO and web design expert consider the home page crucial real estate for search engine placement.
You simply cannot garner the organic search placement you need to be competitive in today’s online marketplace with images or Flash components (that search engines cannot read) as key factors on your home page. For small to medium sized businesses the best plan is to have a keyword dense, web authority focused home page.