4 Site Building Mistakes You Can Easily Avoid!
In a rush to get our Niche Websites built, there are several small mistakes we all make, including myself… I wanted to post about a few of the most common site building mistakes I see and do myself, in the hope that its just one more small piece of the puzzle… slowly coming together! As you read this, remember, I have been building websites for almost 15 years and EVERY DAY is still a new learning process to me as well!
Just when you think you have it figured out… the bar is once again moved, and you have to relearn a few new strategies in order to succeed!
1 – Starting Without a Plan!
We have all done this and still do! If you start without a solid plan for your website, you are aimlessly heading nowhere! At minimum, your website plan should be able to tell you if you can expect to earn anything from your new site, the exact pages your site will launch with, and many additional pages that may bring traffic for the future! In addition, you should have a basic understanding of the type of information BUYERS within your niche seek out information. Whether that is reviews, product comparisons, specific features of the products, or any other measurable methods they use to make a buying decision.
Here are a couple posts to read:
2 – Using Site Navigation Links as LongTail Links
This is one VERY common mistake I have made myself and see quite a bit of in others websites. Site Navigation links should be short and sweet, doing nothing more than inviting your visitor to the [brand] or [product] page. Many times, we try to use the site nav links for long tail phrases and it comes out looking like spam!
Save the long tail for in-content links… and keep your navigation links to the point. Look at these examples:
Good Navigation Links:
- Callaway (Leading to several Callaway Items)
- Callaway Odyssey 2-ball (Leading to the Specific item)
- Ping (Leading to several Ping Items)
- Ping Anser (Leading to the Specific item)
Bad Navigation Links:
- Callaway Golf Putter Reviews and Guides
- Callaway Odyssey 2-ball Putter Review (Leading to the Specific item)
- Ping Golf Putter Reviews and Guides (Leading to several Ping Items)
- Ping Anser Putter Review (Leading to the Specific item)
If you find yourself repeating the SAME PHRASE over and over in your Sitewide Navigation links, you have to admit that it even looks kinda spammy to you! Just imagine how search engines and others see it! Save your long tail links for “In Content” and article links, and keep your site navigation as simple as possible!
3 – Building Pages that Have No Benefit to the Buying Process!
I make this mistake as often as anyone – but if your site is attracting people looking to “maintain or fix” something they ALREADY OWN, its not only going to provide you with non-targeted traffic, its going to hurt your new QPC score if they start clicking over to eBay to look at things they already own!
IF you have replacement parts on your site that’s another story… but if you have a site about cars, don’t include articles on washing the car, unless you have a specific section with cleaning supplies, that you use the related content to leverage the buying process!
If your site is focused on attracting buyers – don’t attract non-buyers just to have more traffic! Try to make sure EVERY PAGE supports the sale.
4 – Mixing SEO and Site Planning into the Same Process!
As much as this will be unpopular and present more questions than answers… its the truth! If you start worrying about search optimization as part of your planning process, you are setting yourself up for a failure before you even start! Skip your way OUT of the keyword demand process until AFTER you have the plan for the content in place! Its OK to look and see if there is basic demand for your niche market, but don’t get caught up in the trap of building pages to attract search visitors!
Once you know WHAT PRODUCTS people are buying, only then should you worry about getting them to your site! If you build your site around keyphrase demand first, you may just find that the phrase with a million searches only has $25,000 worth of sales in a month!
What are The Most Common Mistakes You think You Make when Building?
Good stuff, Mark!
I have a comment about #4 that I’d like your feedback on please.
I’m trying to figure out why it’s a bad idea to think in SEO terms while planning a site. (Actually, this is perfect timing because I’m in the process of researching my next ebay store.)
The process I use to home in on keywords for article marketing is the same one I’m using for finding brand/product keywords for my store (it’s similar to some degree as the N1Way guide process). My process includes finding terms with a decent amount of searches and low competition. But it also includes looking at the amount of products on ebay, both live listings and completed. If it looks good, I’ll save it as a keyword and move on to the next.
As I’m doing so, a hypothesis is forming in my head. Just based on the search numbers and competition, I’m thinking it’s more likely that people will be searching on “[brand name] widget” more than they would on “[product name] widget”.
Or maybe it’s not more likely, but I’d still be catching traffic and providing them a door way into the ebay category that filters on the brand name rather than on a specific product.
For example (and really, that’s all it is; I haven’t looked at these terms), if I find a higher search volume and low competition for “Nokia cell phones” than I do for “Nokia [enter specific product name here] cell phones”, then why shouldn’t I go for the low hanging fruit, which is the more generic term?
Whew, sorry for the long-winded comment.
Btw, how’s that that new Arthemia theme coming along that you mentioned recently? No rush, I’m just holding out for it to make my new store.
@Mark Sierra at MeAndMyDrum.com – I have been fighting off a flu since late last week and actually not done much work at all. This post was just sitting queued up and ready to post.
When I talk about separating SEO from your planning process, I am strictly talking about the items you choose to put on your site as part of the review process, NOT the “presentation” of those items, which is when the SEO process comes in.
To put it flatly though – when I build a RankSpanker report for someone or myself, I pay very LITTLE attention to search demand, competition, or anything OTHER THAN sales.
Your example about the Nokia Cell Phone… actually comes AFTER you have decided to list a nokia phone on the site, and hopefully, you decided to list that phone, because a bunch of them sell on eBay or wherever your affiliate program leads.
Q: Does it sell? A: YES
Q: Does it Sell Enough to earn a spot on my site? A: YES
Conclusion: List It!
(Then comes ther SEO process)
Q: How do People Find it before Buying it?
So.. for myself, I break these into two separate processes. Discovery and Presentation. Each having a pretty tight set of metrics to build a finished product.
Mark
@Mark – Sorry to hear you’re not feeling well. Hope it’s almost over.
Okay, that’s making sense. So you’re saying finding products that sell is only half of the equation. It’s what helps define the niche and/or justify if it’s worth getting into.
Once the niche is defined, figuring out how to get customers TO your site is the other part of the equation.
This also addresses a problem I’ve been coming up against and that is finding what I think to be a worthwhile niche, but when you break it down by specific models, sometimes there’s just not that many of them selling on ebay. So you end up getting no products to display or maybe just one on your site (that’s a problem when you want four to show).
This broadens the possibilities a little better. So while I can cast a bigger net by using generic (and more likely to be used) keywords, I can then display more models under that brand and let the customer decide on which specific one.
Does this still align with maximizing the outcome we can expect with ebay’s QPC efforts though?
@Mark Sierra at MeAndMyDrum.com –
I actually can’t say all too much without disclosing what the specific training modules I have built on the RankSpankers site… but in a nutshell.
[Niche Discovery]
1 – FIND popular products (within the niche) that people are BUYING.
2 – Make sure your Site is Built around the MOST POPULAR SELLING products within the niche.
Only then…
[Niche Presentation]
3 – Use On and Off site SEO to make sure people find them!
Also – I will target a single item in a heart beat!:-) Even if I want 4 to show on the page, and there is only 1 available (which does happen) when I see that that specific item has a very high sell through rate!
I mean… if a specific product sells 100% of the time its listed, why NOT target it!?
Mark
@Mark –
That’s all very reassuring! Got my brain revving up now.
Thanks for the insight!
Hi Mark,
Sorry to hear that you’re under the weather – hope it’s not that dreaded you-know-what type of flu!
I think your last paragraph is very important and explains why some of the sites that I have built in the past have seen very few sales, even though the targeted keyword might rank high in Google. I’ve been building sites from an SEO standpoint and not targeted to actual product demand.
But, this is how the so-called experts have always said to do it – target the longtail phrases that are easy to dominate such as “cheap pink ping karsten series anser 2 putter for sale houston texas.”
But, what you are saying makes total sense – what good is ranking #1 for a phrase that might be listed on eBay once in a blue moon?
Hope you feel better soon!
Caro
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