Use this link to see all the posts in this series: Do-It-Yourself SEO. 

Do-It-Yourself-SEO: Part 5 – Create a Site Map

Now that you have a list of keyword phrases you want to be found for in the search engines, you need to create a site map, or an identification of the pages that will be on your website, and how those pages will relate to one another.

You can use this step to define the navigation for your website, too.  Easy navigation is critical to making your website “sticky”, meaning that visitors can easily find what they are looking for and are motivated to stay on your site to look around.

How Many Keyword Phrases Should Go on a Page?

It is really only possible to optimize a page for 1-3 related keyword phrases.  Using more keywords will result in a page that is packed with keyword phrases, and that is confusing to both visitors and search engines.

When you think of related keyword phrases, think about things like Atlanta real estate, Atlanta homes for sale, Atlanta homebuyers, etc.   The phrases “Atlanta real estate” and “Chicago real estate” are not really related.  They both contain the words real estate, but combining widely diverse geographic areas on a page isn’t a good idea.

Create At Least One Page for Each Keyword Phrase

The best way to serve both your visitors and the search engines is to create a page for each keyword phrase.  So, if you are focusing on marketing in Atlanta and the Atlanta suburbs of Roswell, Sandy Springs, and Alpharetta, it’s a good idea to create a community profile page for each of those neighborhoods.

One thing to avoid is creating one Community page that contains a brief description of each of your target neighborhoods.  This isn’t a good practice because it doesn’t give you an opportunity to provide much information for your visitors, and the search engines won’t know what to do with a page that has so many unrelated keywords in it.

Create Sub-Pages Where Appropriate

Think about the information that your site visitors would find helpful and create pages to address that information.

For example, a buyer might be interested in things to do in a particular area.  So, you could create a “things to do” page for each of your geographic targets.  Both buyers and sellers might be interested in market conditions in a particular neighborhood.  Rather than creating one page called “Market Conditions”, determine if it makes sense to have individual pages called something like Roswell Real Estate Market Conditions.  That page would give you the opportunity to provide fresh content  by doing monthly updates.

Define the Site’s Navigation

One of the best ways to provide navigation is using multi-level menus.  You want to minimize the number of “clicks” required to get to any page on the website.  A multi-level menu allows your visitors to reach any key page from any other page on the site.

As you are identifying the pages for your site, you can also identify the navigation.  There are many ways to do this – you can create a layout that looks like an organization chart showing which pages branch off main pages.

I have always found it easiest to use an Excel spreadsheet to show page names, content and menu navigation.  Here’s a simple example:

Home
Search for Homes
    Our Listings
    Search the MLS
Communities
    Atlanta
         Profile
         Market Conditions
    Alpharetta
         Profile
         Market Conditions

The list above uses color to indicate tabs that don’t link directly to pages, they just show a submenu.  It also indicates that there are three tabs on the main menu and shows which tabs will appear on submenus.

Some people think each page should be no more than three clicks from the home page.  Since I like having one navigation area, I think three clicks are too many.  For example, if the site above had no multi-level menus, to get to Atlanta’s Market Conditions, I’d click on Communities, then Atlanta, then Market Conditions.  Just three clicks.

But, what if I then wanted to look at Alpharetta’s market conditions?  From the Atlanta market conditions page, I’d have to click back to Communities, then to the Alpharetta page, then to the Market Conditions page.  Still three clicks, but I’d find that annoying as a visitor.

You can reduce the problem by using “mini-menus” on various pages.  In other words, you could place another menu on all the pages under Communities that would contain links to all the other community pages.  That can work, but it does introduce another level of complexity for your visitors.

Having created a site map, your task now is to create the pages themselves.  The next post in this series will discuss ways to do “on-page” optimization so your new pages are ready for the search engines.