Everybody wants a beautiful, easy to use website - seducing those customer/readers to return over and over and over again (it sounds like a love ballad). Figuring this out can be frustrating (website, not love). This is especially true when you are trying to find a method that works well for your website visitors while still effectively optimizing for the search engines (workin’ that magic).

For example: Maximum exposure in the search engines, do not use a pop-up window to view full size product images. You should optimize new pages for each of your products, using additional niche key phrases.

Now, firstly, and foremostly, use the template that has the basic structure that you want. 1,2,3,4 columns? Left hand links or right hand? Nextly, organize your website into categories - - yes, categories. It makes ordering your products/services and subproducts/subservices into easily found and labelled pages/subpages and navigation links/sublinks.

Using rows or columns of thumbnails is a good way to order things, along with a brief description of the product just below the thumbnail. Adding an “add-to-cart” button makes it easy to shop, and easier to sell. Each thumbnail image is linked to a new page, and the image text title should also be linked to the new page.

This new page should not be a pop-up window, and it should contain full navigation, just like all of your other pages. You should optimize that page specifically for an individual product. It should have a full-size image of the product, along with a thorough description of the product. Visitors should be able to click “add-to-cart” here as well. There should also be a text link for your visitors to return to the category page. Since you do not know which page your visitor is going to enter the site on it is important that they can make a purchase from either page.

These are just the broad strokes. You could add a site-search by keyword for your products or services, etc. And don’t let your visitors get all mixed up in your website (or mixed up in love if you can help it).

Raising the Bar,
Arthur Browning