A Theme-Based Site

In the first three parts of this series, I've shown why I want a theme-based site and how I've prepared (and you can, too!) to make one. I chose a theme and found lots of related keywords. I have ideas for content and found merchants that I want to represent as an affiliate, whose products fit with my content. Now, I'm ready to build my site. It's going to be pretty easy since I have my content and merchants organized by keyword. And I'm keeping these two thing in mind: 1) I want each page to be focused on only one keyword. Remember, I'm doing this to please the search engines, but it also keeps things clear for my visitors. 2) From experience and research, I know it's best to keep things clean and simple. I want a straight forward site that's easy to navigate and with minimal distractions.

I'm going to start with my home page, which should only tell my visitors what my site is about and how it will benefit THEM. Links to my merchants should NOT appear on the home page - too soon. My home page should link to 5-10 to 2-10 other pages. Every page should have a link back to the homepage, but not necessarily to every other page on the site. I need to think about where I want my visitors to go and what I want them to do, which is click through to my merchants, of course!

Ready for construction. Each page will have
1) a TITLE tag,
2) a META keyword tag,
3) a META description tag,
4) header tags(headlines),
5) and the body copy.

My TITLE appears as the link in search engine listings, so  it needs to be honest and attractive. I'm going to use the specific keyword for each page in it's title, as well as a general keyword and perhaps synonyms if possible. For my Italian cooking site, for the keyword "lowfat Italian cooking", the page title could be "Lowfat Italian Cooking-Healthful Italian Traditional Cooking, Naturally Lowfat".

My META KEYWORD tag is going to start with my keyword for that page, in this example "lowfat Italian cooking". I'll also add a general keyword or two, like "cooking" and "lowfat". And perhaps a synonym like "healthful". I don't want to dilute the META tag with too many words.

The META DESCRIPTION tag will be the rest of what the search engines will display along with my title. This will also be honest and attractive. I'll state the benefit my page offers, using the specific keyword once or even twice, if possible, and also general keywords and synonyms.

The headlines are more important than my regular body copy, both for the engines and my visitors. And some engines don't use the META description tag to form the second part of their listings. Instead they will usually use my H1 tag (first headline), and the first words in the body copy after that. So, I'll be sure that my headline contains my specific keyword for that page at least once. What I can do here is take my META description tag and chop it into two pieces... part for the headline and part for the opening paragraph of my body copy.

Next, of course, comes my valuable, OVER-delivering, "keyword-focused" body copy. I provide great content that meets the needs of my visitors who have searched for this page's specific keyword. I also work keywords into the copy to please the engines. And I seamlessly work in my recommendations, complete with in-text links to my merchants.

Repeating this process for each page, I build a great site, filled with valuable content to please my visitors and deliver them to my merchants in a ready-to-buy frame of mind. Each page is focused on a specific keyword which is closely related to my overall theme, creating a site that the search engines will love. And that will bring me lots of targeted traffic. Well, just as soon as I submit to the engines. I'll cover this, and other ways to promote my site in the 5th and final part of "A Theme-Based Website".

Step-by-step directions for building a theme-based site can be found in the excellent, free Affiliate Masters course.  mailto:tamsassist3@sitesell.net

Julie Georg is a consultant to individuals and small businesses interested in establishing a web presence. mailto:yourhelpline@mail.com