"Cut to the chase"

Someone in our studio said that today. Dreadful expression.

I've also heard people say it when talking about their website; they object to having a 'storefront' index page and want to cut to the bloody chase (yuk) and have viewers land directly on their home page.

Quite apart from the fact that the 'storefront' sets the scene for viewers and tempts them inside (hence the term 'storefront') this page gives us a great excuse to optimize the page for search engines. The chances are that your homepage doesn't have a fantastic keyword density but we can solve this by using the 'storefront' page.

A search engine indexes sites, just the same way a secretary files papers in a file cabinet. The secretary has to know what drawer/folder/file to put those papers IN. A search engine is exactly the same and the 'storefront' page gives us the opportunity to make sure that the search engines know exactly where your site should be filed, and therefore, what search terms will find the site.

I shouldn't need to mention, but I will, that we have been doing this successfully for over ten years. If you have been doing successfully it for more than that, then I'll listen to you but not before.

And yet, there is the occasional client who insists on the viewer immediately going to the home page.

OK, but don't come back to me in six month's time and tell me that your site can't be found in search engines. Sorry, but you should have listened in the first place.