Removing text from Homepage - Bad idea?

[well-its-1-louder]

Hi Mozzers,

I've just read this great article: http://moz.com/ugc/how-to-build-a-great-online-fashion-brand-34-things-that-really-amazing-fashion-retailers-do

I'm working with my wife on a small (hopefully, growing) fashion website www.vintageeheirloom.com

One of the points was not to directly sell on the homepage, rather draw customers into different areas of the site. Seems good advice and it's followed by many big brands online.

As a small company, doing fairly well for some targeted keywords, do you think it would be a good or bad idea for me to remove most, or all of the text on my homepage. The main emphasis of our site is vintage Chanel and using the tool nTopic I score 99% relevancy for 'Vintage Chanel'. Removing would certainly affect this. Obviously I could amend my Vintage Chanel shopping category to include all this.

I'd be grateful if you have any thoughts / similar experience.

Thanks !

Kevin

[irvingw]

Bad idea, without content the homepage won't rank. This is one of the #1 cardinal SEO rules. Homepage must have content.

[well-its-1-louder]

Thanks Irving,

So this seems like an aesthetic choice for brands that don't need to rely on on page SEO for their homepage (most have no text !) and drive customers in other ways.

I'm concerned my homepage looks cluttered. Would you know if Google still pick up text if I manage to implement an accordion for the chunk of text I have? Any possible penalties?

Thanks again...