Lesson 7 of our Build a Professional Website Using Genesis and WordPress course is all about how to organize a professional services/small business website. We discuss the specifics of what makes up a business website vs a blog and the tools we’ll use to build the site.
We emphasize the importance of good site organization for search engine optimization and the impact on your customers’ use and discuss how to develop a well organized site.
Then we show how to create the main pages of your website and how to lay out the pages in a rational order. We conclude the lesson by showing how to create and arrange the menu.
The Type of Site We are Creating – Watch the Video
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A website suitable for service professional or independent small business
- architects, engineers, designers,
- coaches, consultants,
- contractors, sub-contractors
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The business purpose for the site is:
- This site architecture is unique
- It’s entirely different than if you are selling products
- different from a blog
- different from a membership site
- Help prospective clients find you when they are searching for your services online
- Present the services that you offer
- Establish your credibility in the field
- Uniquely styled site
- This site architecture is unique
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While the site may ultimately have a blog it is not strictly a blog site
- Phase 1 – completely static site
- Phase 2 – add blog functionality
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With a specific set of tools
- WordPress
- The Genesis Theme
- BYOB Genesis Plugins
- NextGen Gallery Plugin
- SH Slide Show Plugin
- Google Analytics products
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Why these tools?
- Because I’ve tested them together and they work together
- Because they can be used without learning CSS or PHP
The Importance of Good Site Organization – Watch the Video
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Google’s Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide
- Under the heading “Improving the Site Structure”
- Improve the structure of your URLs
- Good URLs convey content information
- URLs are displayed in search results
- Make your site easier to navigate
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Why should the site be well organized?
- It helps your prospective customers find what they are looking for
- Your site is easier to navigate
- You listing in search results is more easily read
- Google understands your site better
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How should the site be organized
- Develop a simple hierarchy
- Main Page
- Sub pages
- Sub sub pages
- Sub pages
- Strive for 5 – 8 Main Pages
How our Site is Organized – Watch the Video
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The physical structure of the site
- the main site sections
- home
- services
- case studies
- testimonials
- about
- articles
- The resulting urls
- the main site sections
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The conceptual structure of the site
- promotion
- information
- establish expertise
- call to action
Using WordPress Tools to Organize the Site – Watch the Video
- 2 sets of tools – Static tools & Dynamic tools
- Pages
- Posts
Create the Pages – Watch the Video
- Create an outline of your pages
- With Agency there is no static home page
- Create the dynamic articles page
- Create the rest of the pages
- Use child pages for organizing
- Use page attributes for organizing page views
Create the Menu – Watch the Video
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Create a Menu
- Give it a Name
- Assign it a location
- Add Pages to it
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Arranging the menu
- Drag and Drop
- Nesting
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Add other links
- Categories
- Tags
- Posts
- Custom Links
