To battle this, you need to plan out the textual layout and content on your home page to meet the needs of the search engines AND visitors. When creating the page and writing the copy, take these 4 factors into consideration:
1. Amount of text
There are two extremes we see out there. One extreme is to have home pages with little or no text at all. They are completely graphics driven. They expect the user to click through to other pages to even find out what the company does. And they expect the search engine to guess what they do and what the site has to offer.
The other extreme is information overload. They don't want a user to click for anything, it is all right there on the home page (if the user has the patience to bother reading it). And there are tons of keywords! Splashed throughout the page, there's no way Google's going to miss this one (or so you think)!
You should have about 200 to 250 words on the home page to effectively balance the user's and the search engine's needs.
2. Word usage
By now, many of you realize that it's the words in your page text that are going to get you found on the search engines. But most of you are still unsure of how to make this knowledge work for you. You try to force in several keywords trickled around unnecessary text.
Choose two keyword phrases and use them throughout the page. Starting with the headlines and sub-headlines. Avoid clever and/or flowery text, this will get you nowhere.
3. Layout of text
Your visitors and search engines will respond better to your home page text if it is laid out properly. Both visitors and home pages scan text looking for information that jumps out at them. Position the text to have headings, subheadings, bullet points, and short sentence teasers that link to pages within the site.
Put the first heading close to the top of the page. Have your most important keyword phrase in the heading.
4. Writing style
Your writing style should be personal and benefits-driven. Focus your copy on your target audience. Profile a typical reader. Write each page for that reader, personally. Write the benefits not the features, you can tell all about the features in other pages of the site. Your message should inform the reader what you do, exactly, and compel them to take action such as call, e-mail, fill out a form, buy a product, etc.
Finally, edit, rewrite, edit, and rewrite again! All the planning in the world will get you nowhere if your text has errors in it. You should always be looking to edit and refine it.
