SEO Keyword Placement Question

Must I compromise hom-page quality for rankings?

[jmf314159]

Imagine a page with the top 4/5ths dedicated to {Topic-A Space} and the remainder introducing {Topic-B Space}.

Now imagine 2 topics, which we can call "About Us" and "What's New".

In discussing page layout, I suggested that {Topic-A Space} be dedicated to "What's New" on the grounds that this was the more dynamic and, therefore the more persistently interesting of the 2 topics. This recommendation was countered by the argument that "About Us" was dense with keywords, and that simply introducing this text at the bottom of the page (a tease sentence or two followed by some read more link) would adversely effect browser ranking. My hope was that Google et al would find its way to the linked page and rank it appropriately.

I would appreciate your feedback on this.

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Also, a far less important question: All else being equal, is there a rule of thumb regarding font-family and font-size for text intensive pages?

[justdave]

I think that I would go with your proposal that "What's New" should be the primary focus of the page. If it is the more important aspect of your site, that's what you should present first. Sure, you would probably be able to use more keywords with your "About Us" section, but the new aspects of your site are what people are looking for.

[jo1ene]

Font-family - serif fonts are generally used for print, sans-serif for headlines
font-size - use em's so that size can be adjusted. I wouldn't go smaller than 11pt for a base size.

[Marcia]

This is EXACTLY where using CSS for positioning on web pages comes in handy. This isn't even a keyword issue, it's a webpage construction issue.

CSS Forum [webmasterworld.com]

[Robert Charlton]

I'm a believer in some stability in a page. In several of the "What's New" pages that I've dealt with, I include a stable optimized introductory paragraph or two up front, and maybe a sentence or two to close the page... and I'll put this either on top, or in the left column with the material that's changing either underneath or in the right column.

From your post, I'm not understanding why "About Us" isn't just on a separate page.