Creating a Content Site
Why a content site? People are going online searching for information and they expect it to be free. No sense fighting that. Browsers are determined to find free information so why not give it to them? That doesn't mean you can't sell things -- you just have to approach it differently. Let’s say you are an expert on consumer electronics. Write a page recommending different types of stereos for different situations and budgets. Then at the bottom of the page, have links to outlets retailing the stereos you are recommending. This is a great way to go -- you are helping browsers find what they want, instead of irritating them with advertising. Soft sell trumps hard sell every time. Where to Start Assuming you already have your product line, you need to find the keywords that browsers are actually using to locate information about the products you will be selling. Wordtracker, Yahoo Search and Adwords all have great keyword discovery tools. Start with general, and keep notes, drilling down to more and more specific. Taking the 'stereo' example, the Overture keyword returns a number of variations for the single keyword 'stereo,' such as car stereo, stereo speakers, stereo headset, stereo system, stereo radio, and discount stereo. Sound familiar? It is just like walking into a stereo store -- all of the products are categorized into different types and departments. Your content website should be just like a stereo store. Make the aisles or departments directories, using keyword names, but don't get carried away with keyword-named directories. Inside each directory, or department, there are individual webpages and at least one article for each different product. Even before you create a single page or article, draw a flow chart of the site in a 'family-tree' structure, showing the keywords and products. Another way to look at the tree structure, which should also be incorporated, is the number of words in the keyword phrase. The single or 2-word keyword phrase goes at the top, with 3 and 4 keyword phrases underneath. Now you have a roadmap for you site over the next year. Here are a few pointers to keep in mind: 1) Create the content FIRST, SEO later. 2) Content Pages should have a top menu and a purchase link at the bottom with no footer menu. 3) Start off with one complete 'branch' and expand from there. 4) Once the site is up, watch your log files like a hawk. If you don't have one, sign up for Google Analytics and watch where your visitors are going. 5) Target MSN and Yahoo first; count on Google after a year. 6) You will need a lot of content to start things off. Make a regular habit of adding new content every few days, or once a week. 7) Freelancers are a great way to get a lot of content in a hurry. Use 2 or 3 different writers and write some yourself to give different styles and tone of your content. 8) The content you create for the site should stay on the site. Don't syndicate the same content. If you are using article syndication to promote your site, have unique content just for syndication. 9) Don't get carried away with optimizing your content. Most promotion is by links anyway, so stuffing H! tags or META tags will probably hurt you more than it is going to help. 10) Keep an eye on quality control. Links from clean, authority sites are worth their weight in gold, and the only way to get these is through quality content that is a resource to your community. Provide quality content and Universities, Government websites and top quality sites will link to you without chasing after them.
About the Author
Brian Stocker is an Internet Marketing specialist. He has written extensively on marketing and the Search Engines. Visit his website content creation, SEO and online marketing. Visit their website at: http://www.brianstocker.org/seo-articles.html
Tell others about
this page:
Comments? Questions? Email Here