Essential site content

Why are some pages of site content all important? Well, you'll want to...

...Show your site is credible

Credibility is all-important on the web. If you want your visitors to think your site is the real deal, show them you know what you're doing (even if you don't, yet!)

There are certain pages that sites are expected to have. Among other things, they tell people

what you know
what you're offering
who you are
and how to get in touch

Basic site content

Home page or index page

This does seem obvious - unless you've never built a site before. And even if you have, you'll know that the home page can be one of the most difficult pages to get right.

Your home page should state two things quite clearly:

what the site is about...
...and who it's for

Anyone arriving at your site's "front door" should be able to tell almost immediately that they have arrived at the right place for them.

This means, of course, that you need to be quite clear in your mind about the subject matter of the site and your intended audience.

And if you get this bit right, then search engines will have no problem understanding what your site is about either.

Site map

A site map is also an important site content page for visitors. However organized you are in linking to pages around your site, some visitors may get lost. A site map should help them find where they were - or where they want to go. They might, of course, just want a bird's eye view of what else is on your site.

A site map also helps search engines find every page of your site. Google advises against having more than 100 links out on a page - so if your site stretches to more, you could split it into two pages, or organize it a little differently.

About page

"About" pages do get read; people who are interested in your site will wonder just who is writing all this stuff they're reading. Increase your credibility - tell your visitors who you are, assure them you're a real person.

Contact page

Let people get in touch. Visitors may want to respond to something you've written, ask you a question, exchange links, or correct an error..!

It's not a good idea to put your email address on your site - you could find your inbox swamped with rubbish very quickly. Use a contact form instead. This kind of site content doesn't need a lot of work - but a page dedicated to letting your visitors get in touch can be well worthwhile.

Links page

"Links" pages can contain tons of irrelevant, bewildering links out to sites of dubious quality. Or they can contain gems you'll want to bookmark.

I prefer to call a links page a "resources" page - or something similar! It's best to consider this page a service to the traffic you've worked so hard to get. Offer relevant, quality links that your visitors will like. Open the links into a new browser window if you like.

Write a brief review of each site you're linking to - tell the visitor why you're recommending it. That shows them you've put some thought into this, and if you're hoping for a link back from a site or two on your list - they might appreciate your quality links page on which they appear!

Privacy Policy and Terms of Use site content pages

Your visitors might want to check out how you deal with privacy issues; for various reasons they may want to see what kind of information is collected about their visit to your site, and what you do with that info.

Terms of use are, I suppose, a kind of "agreement" that exists between the website and the visitor. My terms of use page forbids anyone under 18 from visiting the site, tells you that my stuff is copyright and also lets you know that I take absolutely no responsibility at all for anything I have written or the effect it may have on you... among other things.

Of course, I'm quite a nice person really :)

You may also find it useful to know that many affiliate programs require you to have such pages on your site before they will allow you to join them.

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