July 23, 2009

Website Welcome – Keyword Weakness

I’m beginning to discern whether I have a mission to eradicate Welcome statements from websites. I had presumed that anyone experiencing the internet now in the 21st century would have observed and/or absorbed subliminally that website Welcome statements have gone by the wayside like 8-tracks in the 80s. (I really wanted 8-tracks to make a comeback, but alas.) But this faddish passing is not as obvious to everyone as I had thought. So let’s examine this matter rationally.

A well designed, well written website will be user-friendly, compelling and intuitive. The way the website is laid out and it’s inviting message will be “welcoming” thus making redundant the explicit sentence “Welcome to xyz website.” Even further, an explicit welcome statement is disruptive to a well crafted message and gives the impression that the website, and the company or organization behind it, is not up to date.

Beyond style, a welcome statement diminishes SEO as it displaces a keyword rich phrase that could be placed higher up on the page. It is a common SEO practice to place keywords as high on the page as possible, e.g.: in title tag, in header tags and before large graphics. The welcome statement effectively pushes down the placement of keywords and SEO effectiveness.

So for my clients, I’m going to push back if you come to me with a welcome statement on your home page or any page. And copy writers take note. I take an active editorial role in my clients’ website. My goal is my clients’ online success.

Filed under: SEO, Web Design by Kevin Fox

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