How do you structure content sites?

[tetley07]

Hey,

So I'm planning a few small content sites, probably around 40 - 50 pages with an article on each page, each page optimized for different keywords.

What way do you guys structure sites like this for SEO purposes?

I mean, would a nav bar that links every page to every other page be best, or a two/three tier type structure or what?

I like to just use wordpress normally but I will be using simple, standard html for these new ones and I'm not sure on the best way to do the internal linking.

Cheers :bowdown:

 

[WebRef.eu]

If the site has lots of pages, I will create a separate site map page with links to all the pages, and then make sure every page has a link to the site map.

I will include a table for main site navigation on every page, and along with the link to site map mentioned, I will link to what I think are the most important site pages in terms of search traffic.

Look at Google Webmaster Tools if you have time.

Hope this helps.

 

[rmccarley]

Webref.eu makes some good points. I'd follow up by seeing if you can break things into logical categories and having an index page for each category. For example:

Widgets
Fast Widgets
Slow Widgets

Sprockets
Wide Sprockets
Narrow Sprockets

I'd also include a sub-nav on every page of the category and see what I could do to cross-link articles in the body text.

Finaly, I'd be sure to get some deep links to help with indexing. If each article is authortative (or close enough) they will do pretty well naturally in a medium to light competitive niche, though that takes time. Speed it up by picking up more deep links.

In fact, you may consider spacing out new posts to like 1 per week so you can promote each new article in sig links, through RSS aggregators, social sites, etc. Anything to get some attention and drive traffic. You'll pick up links from 3rd parties as you go. Turn this into a system and after a while you won't need to do as much promotion yourself... your fans will do it for you.

 

[stadanko101]

Hi Tetley,

Welcome aboard!

My question would be, why not use Wordpress for these sites? Google loves Wordpress. I use Wordpress for a lot of my sites and don't treat them as "blogs", but as content management sites.

Just like a blog, you can add each page at a rate of once or twice a day. Sign up with Stumbleupon and stumble each page as you add it.

If you're consistent with slowly adding pages, google will be more likely to index those pages.

Use categories to your advantage (hint : keywords) and adjust your permalink settings to show category and title of the page.

Good luck.