Understanding Site Structure

Question - Please give me some guidelines on site structure, tier two and three pages and how I should proceed now that I've registered my domain name?

I'm thinking of using a site like www.findgift.com as a model, what do you think?

Answer - I know the Action Guide talks about having your site structure sorted out but I've often found it difficult to do in the early stages because the whole site isn't complete in my mind. They tend to grow as time goes on and things change all the time.

I think your best bet is to define the major page topics you are going to have for your first 5 or 6 tier two pages like I've done at www.hobbyandlifestyle.com - (dog ownership, cat ownership, chess, yoga, etc.) and then build those pages.

You won't initially be able to rank well for these pages because the keywords will be quite competitive, but that's not important.

What you want to do is to build a bridge from your home page to your tier three pages which are based on the profitable keywords the Brainstormer has found for you which you can rank well for.

So, how do you get your tier two pages to rank well? This is where your incoming links come into play.

See my page here at -

www.hobbyandlifestyle.com/dog-ownership.html

It contains links from other dog related websites. Eventually each tier two page will have many incoming links as I swap with other webmasters.

These tier two pages will start to rank well from all the links pointing in to them from link partners, articles on article directories and other sites, and something I haven't touched on yet but will in future lessons...press releases.

As an example, looking at the site structure of www.best-wedding-anniversary-gift-ideas.com , the page at www.best-wedding-anniversary-gift-ideas.com/best-anniversary-gifts.html is a tier two, containing lots of content but no product pictures.

The page at www.best-wedding-anniversary-gift-ideas.com/personalized-romantic-gifts.html is a tier three page and links from that page - it his products and other details like shipping info etc. on it and is where he monetizes the site.

I haven't run the numbers but I'm sure that best anniversary gifts would be a very difficult keyword to rank well for (tier 2) but personalized romantic gifts would be much easier.

You see, he's built a bridge from his home page to an easy-to-rank-well-for keyword focused content page, that page will be picked up in the SE's and he will get traffic straight to it.

By using a tier two page to link from the home page, he allows the search engine spiders to find this easy to rank well page and it has his sales messages on it.

Start with a layout using your most highly searched for keywords as tier two pages. Then build 6 or 7 pages using these words and optimize them like I've shown you.

Then choose your 10 highest profitability keywords from your MKL and build tier three pages around them.

These are the pages you'll have your affiliate links, photos of products and adsense on. Keep your tier two pages as free as possible from ads and other distractions, these are your bridge pages, save that for your tier three pages.

It's OK to put some generic photos on your tier two pages to add some interest, but not ads yet, maybe later as your site progresses.

The site at www.findgift.com looks like a nightmare to me. That's not the way you want to go with yours.

It offers a blaze of choices, confusion and is the exact opposite of what good pre-selling should look like.

What you should aim for is say a page focused on wine as a gift, pre-sell the idea of giving wine, then recommend two or three good merchants. Don't give people a multitude of choices or they'll decide on doing nothing because they'll get confused.

Recommend your top two three picks and leave it at that.

If there's one that's obviously the best, explain why it is, offer a couple of other examples, but make a strong recommendation for the one that is clearly the best choice in that category.

Think of your visitors mindset. he's typed in 'what's the best wine for a gift' or something like that. He wants advice on the best wine to give, not three hundred choices of wine, just advice on what to give and why.

This is where your site can differ from all the other me-to obvious shopping sites on the web and start to build credibility.

You don't want to follow the mall example of the find gift site, it's the wrong way to go (if you believe Ken and thousands of other SBI'ers anyway).

As a side note, their content absolutely sucks as far as raising emotion goes - for example, here's a quote from one of their pages -

Start Quote...

Shopping for romantic wedding, anniversary or birthday gift ideas for her?

Check out our quality sterling silver, crystal and fashion jewelry. We offer handbags, unique rings, earrings, bracelets and sterling silver necklaces. Here's a great gift idea for her - this elegant three strand stone necklace and earring set in our Fashion Jewelry shop..

End Quote...

Doesn't that make you just want to break out the credit card? It's just keyword stacked text that has zero appeal to human readers.

Instead, appeal to his emotions...

For example, what if you wrote...

Imagine the look of surprise when she opens the stunning silver, crystal or diamond jewelry birthday gift you've just bought for her...you remembered...you angel...

Or treat here to the warm, cozy feeling of a soft, genuine leather handbag, an elegant three strand necklace her friends would kill for, or an earring set so breathtakingly beautiful even the waiter at her birthday dinner party will stop in his tracks to complement her...

...instead?

Emotion beats logic every time. Appeal to your readers' emotions and they'll buy, then they'll justify their purchase with logic later.

Hope you get the idea...