Thread: Update to "help me with my homepage content"

I need help with my under-construction website and I'm looking to my fellow Bhuzzers who seem to know just about everything!

I have heard that to improve one's likelihood of getting "seen" in web search engines is to use certain keywords in one's homepage.

For example, I work in Los Angeles and Orange Counties, so I was sure to put that in the text, along with names of some cities (can you spot the pattern within the names of the cities?). I also have "belly dancing" and "belly dancer." I also have "Middle Eastern" and "Middle East."

I've tried to place the reader into the action -- keep it reader-focused (use the word "you" whenever possible).

I'm planning on having a photo of me, plus maybe another graphic on the page; I'm working toward something clean and non-fussy, but reasonably interesting -- I hope I get it!

Can you help me? Please check out the text for the homepage below. Is it too wordy? Does it take too long to get to the point? Does it even make a point? FYI: the title on the page is "Deborah the Belly Dancer Middle Eastern Dance Performance, Instruction and Events"

Be brutal if you must; I can take it! Contradicting opinions are welcome! ..g.:

Here goes . . .

Imagine you are near a tent pitched in the desert beside a pool of water that glistens in the moonlight. Nearby, a fire glows and around it people of all ages are singing, laughing and dancing to the rhythms of a drum.

You are in Cairo, visiting a relative's home. In the living room, people of all ages are singing, laughing and dancing to the music coming from the radio.

You are nearly anyplace in the world and you are at a restaurant, a theatre, or a friend's home. A woman arrayed in beads and fine fabrics has people of all ages singing and clapping while she dances to the music played by a three-piece band.

Ahhhh . . . belly dancing.

Surprised? Welcome to the wide world of this dance and it's origins in the Middle East.

So whether you are in Santa Monica or Santa Ana, Venice Beach or Newport Beach, San Dimas or San Clemente, Granada Hills or Laguna Hills, Buena Park or Villa Park, Orange or Walnut, or anywhere in between . . .

. . . please peruse the pages of this site and learn more about the beautiful Art of Belly Dancing and what Deborah has to offer in Entertainment, Instruction and Events for you throughout Southern California’s Los Angeles and Orange Counties.

<end homepage>

Thanks for taking the time, everyone! I really appreciate it!

Deborah

Hey! I like that. I think it's different. It will be interesting to see what everyone else says about it. Good luck with your site.

I work as a search engine optimiser.

A good place to start is visit wordtracker.com and find out what people are typing into the search engines. You can use the free trial or just pay for one day access.

Then you have to have you chosen keywords in the page title, meta description and in the body of the text. The closer the keywords are to the start of the sentence the better.

You are also looking to have a keyword density, a percentage or how many ties the keywords shows up on the page, between 5-10% . If you type in keyword density tool in google you should find some free online checkers.

Also remember, content is one part of the equation. You also have to get links to your website.

It's a different start than most bellydance pages - well done on your creativity. I found it a bit long to read - I wanted to know what your site was actually about earlier on and started skimming over the other stuff. I think I would condense the first two 'imagine' examples. More particularly, I'd cut out some of those place names, because I got tired of reading through so many. But it's a clever way to incorporate them. I wonder if you could actually move the place-names paragraph to after the 'this-is-what-my-site-contains-please-peruse-it' paragraph?

I wonder if you should also use the phrase 'belly dance' somewhere (as opposed to 'belly dancing'). The stats on my own website show that people look up both of those phrases fairly often.

I have all my keywords in the code, like HubicRuzz said.

<meta name="Keywords" content="bellydance, belly, dance,
middle eastern dance,
ect, ect..

but after reading that post, I think I am going to change things around..and put certain tags first...

**I dont think the main page text is really beneficial for the tag words ..is it?
Doesn't it have to come from the Meta tag code??

Originally Posted by casbahdance

IIs it too wordy? Does it take too long to get to the point? Does it even make a point? FYI: the title on the page is "Deborah the Belly Dancer Middle Eastern Dance Performance, Instruction and Events"

Be brutal if you must; I can take it! Contradicting opinions are welcome! ..g.:

Here goes . . .

Imagine you are near a tent pitched in the desert beside a pool of water that glistens in the moonlight. Nearby, a fire glows and around it people of all ages are singing, laughing and dancing to the rhythms of a drum.

You are in Cairo, visiting a relative's home. In the living room, people of all ages are singing, laughing and dancing to the music coming from the radio.

You are nearly anyplace in the world and you are at a restaurant, a theatre, or a friend's home. A woman arrayed in beads and fine fabrics has people of all ages singing and clapping while she dances to the music played by a three-piece band.

Ahhhh . . . belly dancing.

Surprised? Welcome to the wide world of this dance and it's origins in the Middle East.

So whether you are in Santa Monica or Santa Ana, Venice Beach or Newport Beach, San Dimas or San Clemente, Granada Hills or Laguna Hills, Buena Park or Villa Park, Orange or Walnut, or anywhere in between . . .

. . . please peruse the pages of this site and learn more about the beautiful Art of Belly Dancing and what Deborah has to offer in Entertainment, Instruction and Events for you throughout Southern California’s Los Angeles and Orange Counties.

<end homepage>

Thanks for taking the time, everyone! I really appreciate it!

Deborah

Deborah...it's unique, but it's a little too much. I would edit it down a bit to something like this:

Imagine a tent pitched in the moonlit desert beside a pool of glistening water. A fire glows nearby while people of all ages sing, laugh and dance to the infectious rhythms of a drum.

Envision a family home in Cairo. In the living room, a grandfather ties a sash around his hips while he and his five grandchildren share smiles and dance to the music coming from the radio.

At a San Francisco wedding, a woman adorned in beads and fine fabrics has people of all ages singing and clapping while she dances to the music played by a three-piece band.

Welcome to the world of belly dance!

An accomplished Middle Eastern dancer, Deborah can teach you more about this beautiful art form with classes throughout Los Angeles and Orange Counties.

I was just thinking you could change the part about "San Francisco" to a Southern California city, like LA for people reading your site who may not be familiar with other smaller LA area cities but would get the point you're making--that belly dance has roots in the middle east but is practiced and appreciated all over the world.

Fantastic stuff, everybody! Thank you!

HubicRuzz, thanks so much for the info, links, etc I just have to decipher words like meta-whatsits and such! Well, I've heard/read these words before, but I'm just a wee bit ignorant of just about everything to do with coding, etc.

I did think the page was a bit overlong (thanks jewelbellydance) and I was concerned that, aside from the page title bearing the phrase "Deborah the Belly Dancer professional entertainment, instruction and events," that the purpose of the site was, indeed, too buried.

So, Mish, can I just use your phraseology (is that a word???) verbatim? I'll be happy to write something like: "content couched by Mish Mish of Sacramento . . .

Again, thanks for all your help, everybody!

Any other folks out there with opinions? I'd love to hear them!

Deborah

Use it however you like--I edited your words and ideas, so no credit to me required. I love to edit. (Can't write worth a damn, but I can fix other people's writing!)

:)

Originally Posted by mish_mish

Use it however you like--I edited your words and ideas, so no credit to me required. I love to edit. (Can't write worth a damn, but I can fix other people's writing!)

:)

So you "can't write worth a damn," eh? Seems you do a super-fantastic job of it here on Bhuz! I either LOL or nod my head with a rueful expression on my face with just about every one of your posts! You have a wonderful turn of phrase! ..g.:

Deborah

Thanks, Deborah! You made my day! Can't wait to see your new site!

Well, I've updated my proposed homepage. With your help, I have edited the page to something more manageable and easier to get through (I think!).

Thanks to everyone who provided feedback! You are welcome to comment further, make suggestions, tell me you hate it . . . whatever!


"Imagine a tent pitched in the moonlit desert beside a pool of glistening water. A fire glows nearby while people of all ages sing, laugh and dance to the infectious rhythms of a drum.

Envision a family home in Cairo. In the living room, a grandfather ties a sash around his hips while he and his five grandchildren share smiles and dance to the music coming from the radio.

At a Newport Beach wedding, a woman adorned in beads and fine fabrics has people of all ages singing and clapping while she dances to the music played by a three-piece band.

Welcome to the world of belly dance!

An accomplished performer of Middle Eastern dance, Deborah invites you to learn more about the beautiful Art of Belly Dancing. Please peruse the pages of this site to discover what she has to offer to you in the way of Entertainment, Instruction and Events throughout Southern California’s Los Angeles and Orange Counties."

Deborah

Beware of Overuse of Capitals.

An accomplished performer of Middle Eastern dance, Deborah invites you to learn more about the beautiful Art of Belly Dancing. Please peruse the pages of this site to discover what she has to offer to you in the way of Entertainment, Instruction and Events throughout Southern California’s Los Angeles and Orange Counties.

It's tempting to want to emphasize the important words that way, but don't be lured by those capital letters!

Originally Posted by mish_mish

Beware of Overuse of Capitals.

An accomplished performer of Middle Eastern dance, Deborah invites you to learn more about the beautiful Art of Belly Dancing. Please peruse the pages of this site to discover what she has to offer to you in the way of Entertainment, Instruction and Events throughout Southern California’s Los Angeles and Orange Counties.

It's tempting to want to emphasize the important words that way, but don't be lured by those capital letters!

I must be feeling Germanic today . . .

It works for ad copy, but not true text. Silly me.

<goes off to remove all those capital letters>

Deborah

Even in most ad copy...it makes me go a little crazy.

The only person on who gets a Capital Letter Pass is Zumarrad. She does it to Make a Point and I love her for it.

ETA: I took four years of German too, so your post made me chuckle.

Originally Posted by mish_mish

Beware of Overuse of Capitals.

I am so very guilty of this!

I'm here to help!

Or shall I say, I'm Here to Help!

Originally Posted by mish_mish

I'm here to help!

Or shall I say, I'm Here to Help!

Ha!

Also about using too many capitals in ad copy: here's something that would drive me nuts, using my own event as an example:

Market At The Casbah Middle Eastern Dance Festival

Why would "at" and "the" be capitalized? Looks very amateurish.

Market at the Casbah looks so much better!

Thanks for Being Here to Help, Mish!

Deborah

That said, if you use google adwords, Google themselves says that using initial caps in your advertisement as well as in your URL will garner you more clicks.

Originally Posted by casbahdance

Ha!

Also about using too many capitals in ad copy: here's something that would drive me nuts, using my own event as an example:

Market At The Casbah Middle Eastern Dance Festival

Why would "at" and "the" be capitalized? Looks very amateurish.

Market at the Casbah looks so much better!

Thanks for Being Here to Help, Mish!

Deborah

Sadly, when I see things like the "at" capitalized, I die a little bit inside. ..cr.:

The lower-case "at" looks so much better.

Originally Posted by Nepenthe

That said, if you use google adwords, Google themselves says that using initial caps in your advertisement as well as in your URL will garner you more clicks.

Interesting...