Understanding The Anatomy of a Website

If you want to build a website, you must know a few crucial things.  Go to your favorite website.  Look carefully at the page.  What attracted you to that page and made you feel that it was trustworthy?

The first thing was probably the graphic at the top of the page.  But then where did your eye go?  Probably over to the left to see just what was available to you on this website.

Actually this is a bit of behavioral science.  The guys at Stompernet as well as Google have what they call ” heatmaps”.  These are areas that viewers are conditioned to look at.

What that means for you is that you must have your most important informaion on display in these areas.

Also, you must build your website so that the search engines like you ( unless you are just interested in your friends and family looking at it).  The search engines have gotten a bit picky these days.  You have probably heard of search spiders.  These are little robotic programs that go out and find new things on the internet and then decide where to put them on the search pages.  There are a bunch of theories of how to get up at the top of the listings, but here is the truth….. just be yourself.

Yes, after all the SEO stuff, I have found that the search engines are continually looking for normal folk. Do not buy some SEO package that promises wonders.  The shelf life on that is worse than a crate of eggs.

Instead, look at the structure of your site and pay heed to what the search engines ask.

Here are some concrete suggestions:

• have your page title and first line support each other
• mention your main topic several times in your article ( kinda like that hard of hearing relative)
• Make a site map in a form that the search spiders love  ( just go to Google and get instructions)
• Write like a normal person.  Yup..the search engines are looking for normal folk.
• Write often….see Grandma was right…both she and they love to hear from you regularly.
• Have a contact address. You can get free software to cloak it, but the search engines like to know that they are dealing with a real person.
• Have a privacy policy…this is more for the real people out there.  They want your word that you are not out to scam them.

Here are some important structural elements you do need:

• Have a good header to bring people in.
• Have links in your website to support your site map
• Have opportunities to place income producing items ( more of this in another post)

My next post will give specific instructions on each vital element.

Make sure to sign up for my newletter (look over to the right)  where I’m going to share special software programs and tips that I can’t share here.

Colin