Planning Your Website

Plan your site's structure and content pyramid-style.

The easiest way to begin site construction is by first visualizing the end result. See your theme-based content site as a pyramid...just like the diagram below.

The Pyramid

TIER 1... Home

The home page crowns the pinnacle. It's a Keyword-Focused Content Page (KFCP) that focuses on your Site Concept keyword (ie Ballyduff Silver Band). Your home page should never link out of your site -- it's too early. (The only possible exception would be for Google AdSense or other ads that "make it worth your while.")

Keyword-Focused Content Page

An effective KFCP wraps high-value content around a Specific Keyword (i.e., the topic for that page), content that both human visitors and Search Engines love. Not all keywords have to be high Demand/low Supply, but they do all have to add something to your visitor's experience.

Site Build It! has a module, Analyze It!, that trains you to do this in such a way that you meet the on-page needs of the engines (i.e., the Specific Keyword is placed "just right" in the Title, Description, Headline, Body Copy, etc.). Your job is to do that while delivering great value to humans.

And if this is "all geek to you," don't worry. SBI!'s SiteBuilder trains you to build an effective Web page, block-by-block. Very much like a bike with training wheels, once you "get your balance" (5-10 pages), you can take the wheels off and easily transition to a free and simple "What You See Is What You Get" ("WYSIWYG") HTML editor. More on this later.

The home page's #1 job is to link down to 5-15 KFCPs. These are your TIER 2 pages.

TIER 2... The Hub

They are called TIER 2 pages because they are on a second TIER below the home page. Each TIER 2 page should...

• be a good "hub" page, working well as both a good link from the home page, as well as naturally linking to several TIER 3 pages (which are related but more specific in nature, often a subset of the TIER 2 page).


• focus on a keyword that has a high profitability score.


• fit with your monetization plans.

Why should TIER 2 pages be based on more profitable keywords?

1) Your visitor hits a high-demand page as soon as possible after the home page. If you sell ads, the "per-click" value of those keywords are going to be higher. If you monetize in other ways, more visitors (higher demand) visit. One way or another, this page monetizes well.

2) The spiders will find these pages better than the TIER 3s. The deeper a spider has to go (i.e., the more TIERs), the lower the percentage of pages spidered. So structure your site such that the spider finds your most important pages. Some Search Engines give these pages a slight ranking edge over the pages in the TIER below due to their natural interlinked "hub" position.

What if you have a highly profitable page that does not "subdivide" well into several TIER 3s? Simple... choose instead a moderately profitable one that flows elegantly into many TIER 3s.

Links on TIER 2 pages can go in four different directions...

1. Links Down    Link to related TIER 3 pages. Each TIER 3 page should be related to or a subdivision of its TIER 2 (ex., "Diary" TIER 2 links to a variety of individual events in Ballyduff Silver Band's diary or events, each of which is a TIER 3 ie Hazelbank Park). Again, the more good content you have, the more favorably you are viewed by humans and SE spiders. And the bulk of your content will be, should be, TIER 3.



2. Links Up    Link back up to the home page. This provides both the human visitor and the SE spider with added value. Every TIER 2 should have the above two types of text links. The next two are optional, according to circumstances...



3. Links To Money    Link to a monetization option (i.e., where you make money). This could be as simple as placing Google AdSense ads on a TIER 2 page or blending in-context text links to affiliate merchant-partners into the content. Or it could be links to a sales page for your e-book and Contact Us page to sell your service.



4. Links Out    Link to outstanding, related, non-competing content authorities in your niche. These non-affiliate links provide you extra credibility as a true content site in the eyes of editors from directories (like Yahoo!), reviewers from Google AdSense, and even with the engines.

Don't use many of them, though. Convert as much of your traffic into income as possible. And do make these links pop up into a new window so that you don't lose your visitor completely.

Three quality outgoing links from TIER 2s are enough. And these do not have to be part of any "link exchange" -- do it to provide value to your visitor.

TIER 2 in a Nutshell    TIER 2 pages, because of their position in the "middle of the pyramid," naturally send links both up and down the TIER structure.

They are the pivotal part of your site. Structure well.

TIER 3... The Leaves on the Tree

If your home page (TIER 1) is the tree trunk, TIER 2s are the branches. TIER 3 are the vast majority of pages, the leaves, that actually make up most of your site's content.

TIER 3 pages are KFCPs, too. A TIER 3 page fits as a sub-category, or a sub-thought, of its connecting TIER 2 page. The topic of each should relate to the topic of the TIER 2 page that links to it.

TIER 3 pages may not be as profitable as the TIER 2 page that linked to them, but there are a whole heck of a lot more of them. Create enough of these and the traffic adds up pretty fast, thanks to geometric progression (i.e., 1 x 15 x 15). In other words, TIER 3 pages "make it up on volume."

TIER 3 pages can link in 3 of the 4 directions of TIER 2 links. They don't "link down" since there is generally no TIER 4. There are a few special considerations...

Make sure that every TIER 3 can be reached by a link from a TIER 2. And link back up from your TIER 3 to...

• its TIER 2, and
• the TIER 1.

Text links at the bottom of each page are fine for this.

The net result is a clean, 3-TIER approach that yields an easy, navigable site for both your visitors and your Search Engine spiders. Your TIER 2s are only one click away from your home page. And it takes 2 clicks to get from your home page to any TIER 3 (requiring a visit to a TIER 2 in transit). Simple.

As the spiders gather up your TIER 1, 2, and 3 pages, the computer programs that analyze them are getting smarter and smarter... and more theme-focused. How does that affect you?

1. They'll analyze all your pages in their databases and decide upon the overall theme of your site. So none of your pages should be off-theme, or you'll confuse the spiders. If you have a great idea for a highly profitable Keyword-Focused Content Page that is off-theme, save it for your next niche.



2. Search Engines look across all your site pages and penalize page duplication. Do not do tricks like "gateway pages" (i.e., duplicate pages that merely replace one keyword with another, the rest of the content being identical). Seek to please.

General rule of thumb? Never do anything "just" for the engines. Create content to delight humans. Do it in such a way that the engines "get it."

Now let's put some "content meat" on the "bones" of your 3 TIERS...

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