Do you NEED to have text on a Wordpress frontpage?

If I want to rank my website for a certain keyword, do i need to have text on the front page?

My competitors use a 1000 word article about the keyword as their front page.

On my front page, i have links to recent articles, with excerpts and thumbnails.

Do I need to write an article with my keyword on the front page to rank higher?

Does anybody know whether this is important or not?

No need to write the article at the front page.
Just use your keyword wisely in any page you want into your website.
Dont over do it , also read what keyword clout and density means , that would help you a lot !!

Regards

I would write the 1000 word article about the keyword. You don't have to as wisely stated by maverickk3 in the above post but I would and I would post a few youtube vids on it and scrape his links to find out what are his quality links. 1st if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles if you don't know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle. Sun Tzu The Art of War.