How to Design Content Pages
(Page 1 of 4 )
Often, it’s your main content pages that get the most search engine attention. It’s your site’s content that provides the richest base of keywords, so visitors are likely to wind up here first. What will they see when they click those links? There’s a lot more to content pages than the article or blog post you’re displaying. Do you know how to design them?
Content pages. They draw in the visitors, they make a strong impression...they say a lot about your site. You want to display more than just keyword-rich content; you want to include links, navigation to the rest of the site, visual embellishments, money-making ads, everything else you can squeeze in there. But, you want all these elements to flow together and look great. It's a pretty tall order, but well worth it to put a lot of effort into your page design.
When Content is King
All the current major search engines are based on the same thing: words. Whatever the user types in that blank box, the user gets. A neat list of ranked sites is spread before them, sometimes pages and pages of list. Where your site falls in that list is absolutely crucial.
Most Internet users don't travel beyond the second or third page of search results, and those sites listed at the top of the first page enjoy the most traffic. This is what makes content the King of the Internet, and why it must be the main focus of your site.
It also needs to be the main focus of your content pages, no matter how many advertisements and extra elements you have to place. When you want to design great content pages, remember to keep them as simple and straightforward as possible, and remember to feature the content itself strongly on the page. Users are going to expect to get what they want, so they shouldn't have to search to find the content they were promised.
Almost all sites place their content in the middle of the page, with extra elements displayed at the top, bottom and sides of the page itself. Sometimes, ads and other embellishments also appear within the content. Always make sure the content is the star. This is what's pulling in the traffic. This is why they're coming to the page in the first place.
You also want your content to be clearly different from advertisements and links, even those within the content itself. Internet users don't like to feel that they're being tricked into clicking on ads, and they don't want to be confused by what they're reading, so make sure the content itself stands out for what it is.
Next: Basic Page Elements >>
More Web Development Articles
More By KC Morgan
