Why They Call a Web Page a Web 'Page'.

A collection of web pages is typically called a website. There are good reasons why we should call it a Web Book, but I guess “website” just sounds more hip.

When you are browsing the shelves in your favorite book store sipping your favorite latte', what first catches your eyes and compels you to reach out and grab that certain book? If you are like the millions of other people in the United States, the first thing you notice is the Title and the Cover.

1. A book's title and cover design are the same as a well designed home page. A good book has a descriptive title and attractive cover. It is easy to read and conveys the content there in. A good book cover conveys its content at a glance; it attracts and invites the reader to pick it up and open the cover.

Does your website home page perform the same way?

2. A book has a table of contents that is laid out in a concise manner with clearly defined chapter headings or descriptions. Same goes for any properly built website having a 'Site Index' or web site table of contents for all web pages. This is a best practice for your visitors and is also good for search engines; in that order!

Are you building, creating and maintaining website content for human visitors, or just targeting search engines?

3. A good book is at least thicker than a cocktail napkin for the number of pages contained.

Imagine yourself standing in Barnes & Nobles scanning the book shelf. Some book spines are thick as “War and Peace” and others are just barely visible. This is a basic analogy for how search engines look at websites and web pages.



Now imagine you are a digital search engine robot that has just found a new website. How many pages are you seeing in the website and storing in your database? Are the pages organized and written well? Is the information authoritative and original?

If your website has 5 pages or less then count yourself amongst the barely visible.

Each individual web page is an opportunity to present yourself in a clear concise way to your visitors and to search engines. It does not matter if you are a plumber, podiatrist or photographer.

If it is so important to have a los of web pages, how can I come up with more than 10 pages for my plumbing, podiatrist or photographers website?

Planning to increase your page count for the creation of more useful pages.

A typical website for a plumber might look like this and have 4 pages.
Home, About Us, Our Services, Contact Us

A better web page schematic would look like this:
Home, About Us, Certifications
Service Overview
Residential Plumbing Services
Commercial Plumbing Services
Break-out of any specialty services under residential and commercial on separate pages such as:
~ Tankless water heaters
~ Spas-hot tubs
~ Pools
~ Wells, sump-pumps
~ Irrigation systems
Client Testimonials, Project Photos, Methods of Payment
Emergency Repair, Photo Gallery
Contact Us, Location, Quote Inquiries
Our Partners ( products used)
Articles and Information
Our Community (any clubs, organizations or charities participated)

It is easy to generate 20 or more web pages for ANY service, product or profession. The more pages contained in your website makes for a clear, concise platform in presenting your services, products or information to users. They are also great for getting your content found on search engines.

Try to remember this simple point: It does not matter if you are a butcher, baker or candle stick maker, people pay you for your skills and knowledge
(all that stuff that's between your ears). The only challenge you are faced with is to get what's between your ears onto your web pages for people to find.

After you launch your professional and credible website, it does not stop there.

Remember to practice this simple task: Write one or more articles for your website each month. For example, if you are a podiatrist write a short or long article, case study or brief summary for: Diabetic foot care, Heel supports, Prescription medications, Over-the-counter medications, In-grown toe nails, sprained ankles, itchy feet, jogging shoes, office shoes and so on.

Did you know that Google assigns an authority ranking score?
You cannot see this score, but loosely defined it is: “your authority score is the sum of information found on your website compared to tens of thousands of similar websites and directories with traffic or visits factored in.” It means that Google might find you (your website) as more of an authority source for information on a particular search query.

Come to think of it. It works the same way in the real world and virtual digital world. Any expert who authors papers in respected journals, publications and other media outlets for print and online is recognized as an expert or leader in their respective field.

4. A good book is either interesting, informational, entertaining, enlightening, popular, useful, educational and/or illustrative.

Ask yourself: “Does my website impart any or all of these values”.

5. Don't fall for short cuts, miracle Internet cures and fast fixes.

I chuckle each time I read about the latest and greatest scheme about getting more website traffic, hits or better page position on Google and other search engines.

Some so-called search engine optimization professionals say:

You need to have a Blog.
You need to have an XML sitemap for Google.
You need to have a forum.
You need to have back links.
You need to optimize your local listing.
You must have a special meta-tag.
You need to optimize all your ALT-tags.
You need to post videos.
You need to get on Face book, Twitter, Linked In and Four Squared.
You must do this or you must do that and so on.
When all else fails they blame your website woes on Google and tell you that Google has changed the rules and it's not their fault.

SO HOW ARE YOU SUPPOSE TO KNOW?

Some of the methodologies just mentioned do help to some extent, but only a little. In the end it all goes back to your website.

A great website is EXACTLY like a good book. Good books make the New York Times best seller list because they have some or all of these values: either interesting, informational, entertaining, enlightening, popular, useful, educational and/or illustrative.

If webmasters and website owners put the amount of money, time and effort wasted on monthly SEO (Search Engine Optimization) into improving their website, search engine optimization would happen or occur naturally or organically. You are better served hiring a website copywriter to build content versus hiring an SEO specialist to build back links.

While some websites may see a temporary spike in traffic using some popular search engine optimizations tactics, it is simply not good online business practice and may even hurt your brand or reputation.

Is your business brand and reputation important to you?


Case in point. In the first quarter of 2011, JC Penny hired an SEO company to boost their search engine rankings. What followed was a cascade of articles and newscasts from reputable sources such as the Wall Street Journal saying that JC Penny had violated Google guidelines but in the end someone at corporate was not listening. As a result, JC Penny took a beating in the press, was penalized by Google, wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars on SEO, and lost online sales. They would have been better off adding new webpages instead of hiring a company that used SEO trickery.

Good books are also well written.

Did you know that search engines have the ability to classify the reading level of any website? Google does not advertise this, but I have it on good authority that this little programming tidbit figures into Google's search engine algorithm. For example, a typical classifier snapshot might grade your text content as child, teenager, adult, college, masters and doctoral.

Make sure your website copy does not read grammatically like a third graders' summer time back to school report.

So there you have it. If you want to compete on the Internet and grab some of the billions of dollars in sales and influence – you need to take your website as seriously as you take other aspects of your business.

Stay focused on building a great web site experience. Visits, traffic, lead inquiries and good search results will follow suit.

Rick Vidallon is President of Visionefx, a Web design company based in Virginia Beach, Va. They provide services to national companies as well as small to medium businesses throughout the United States. Rick can be reached at (757) 619-6456 or rick@visionefx.net.