A Theme-Based Website, Part 4- How To Build The Site

By Julie Georg
Posted Wednesday, June 30, 2004

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 homepage, 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 homepage - too soon. My homepage should link to 5-10
"keyword focused" content pages. These pages should offer
valuable content and links to my best merchants for my most
profitable keywords. Each of these pages can then link
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 diplay 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".

About the Author
Julie Georg is a consultant to individuals and small
businesses interested in establishing a web presence.
She offers assistance at.. mailto:yourhelpline@mail.com
Step-by-step directions for building a theme-based site can
be found in the excellent, free Affiliate Masters course.
Blank email mailto:tamsassist3@sitesell.net