Homepage ... Content V Clarity ... I need advice

I am currently revamping a site, this is having alot of visitors but few conversions.

The site ranks very well for key words in Google. I am very pleased with rank in Google.

The Homepage of the site is keyword heavy, and choc-o-bloc full of content. BUT, this has turned
into a double-edged sword. The hompage is so "busy" its confusing and complex to the average reader. Sure, Google loves it but I know from my experience in print advertising in most cases "busy" layouts don't work.

I need advice, how do I strike a balance between clarity and content?

 

I would recommend the following solution for such usability vs seo problem:
<div class="more-button"><a href="javascript:void(0);showBlock('yourname');" ></a></div>
<div id="yourname" style="display:none; visibility:hidden;">
You bunch of text
</div>

Define your "more-button" in css.

In your header:
function showBlock(elemId){
var s = document.getElementById(elemId);
if (s.style.visibility=="hidden")
{
s.style.visibility="visible";
s.style.display="block";
}
else
{
s.style.visibility="hidden";
s.style.display="none";
}
}

This will shrink the presented amount of text on the page, however the users can always read the full text by clicking on the "more-button"
For the bots, the whole text is visible at once.

 

In my own experiences, targeting right money keywords for your pages would be the top issue for increasing conversion rate. Also, you need find balance between user friendly and SEO friendly contents on your pages. Generally, having keyword oriented but user friendly contents would be helpful for this purpose.

Have a nice day,

 

You can change overall homepage content and it won't be a problem for a long term. However, the ranking will shaking for a short term because of the change and I would recommend you not panic too much. I have had once changed the overall layout from a long page blog to a clustered page, better organized. Most of content were remain the same but only homepage changed into shorter version and less numbers in content. My ranking were shakes for a period of time, around 2-3 week then return back to normal. Just sharing on my thought and experiences.

 

Here's a rule that's helped me out when tidying up client's content:

Remove half of all the text on the page.

Then remove half of that.

Basically, strip down your content to a few paragraphs. Then do what George recommends

 

i suggest to create your site for your visitors and not for SEs, just like what google suggest.. more user friendly can also be search engine friendly..

 

You have asked a question that doesn't have a cookie-cutter answer. If there was a formula, or a standard answer, every site would look the same in terms of its clarity vs. content.

In general, 'clarity trumps persuasion'. You can experiment, you can test, you can hire a professional/expert. The answer for every website is different and has to be figured out. We call it "cracking the code".

Also, in general, people come to a new website with a limited amount of patience and good will. They want to scan, just like you do, when you pull up a page of search results on Google. You want to scan and click on something. Why would a visitor to your site be any different? Visitors simply don't have the patience for the "Wall of Text" that exists on so many websites.