Forum Moderators: open
Say the Theme was on Pop music; the major headings could be 1960's, 1970's 1980's etc. In the 1990's your sub-headings could then be Pop, Dance, Techno etc and within those headings there would not much point in cross linking to Buddy Holly etc, well certainly not from the Techno section :)
This is my question; I'd rather like to have a 'quick link' table down the site of each page so that even if you were in the Techno section you could easily get deep into the the 70's. Is this a bad idea because on every page I would be linking across as well as up/down?
Or would it be better to stick to the strict up/down linking and force the surfer to do just a little bit more work?
* Do what is best from the user point of view
* Themes are just that - 90's music is a theme but so is hip-hop music which might span 80's, 90's and 00's. I see nothing wrong with linking between themes when they overlap.
IMO the linking structure of directories like ODP is the best way to go
pop music >> 90s >> Techno
If you have that on your page the user will most probably know (from experience with other directories...) that he has to click on pop music to change from 90s to 70s.
If in addition to that you have "related links" as in ODP. You should be able to link all that is usefull for the user and the SE.
Quite possibly a user who likes a type of music from one era also likes a different type of music from another era, so from a user's pov, cross linking might be well appreciated.
However, you may see more bang for the SE buck if you follow Brett's pyramid structure [searchengineworld.com], and then selectively cross link to pages you feel may be more important and/or popular.
Before you turn theory into relity I would take one reality check if I was you. Presumably you want to use themes because you want to have your pages found as well as to be hierarcical and simple for user navigation.
If that is the case I would go to the Google and Overture term suggestion tools and see what terms people actually use to search for the things you are offering. Then wait for this current update to stop and check out the competition what terms are they using that are getting them ranked.
Now design your themes structure to include those actual searched for terms. It may be that organising by decade may not be the way to go. It might be much better for example to organise by genre, then label then artist. I'm not saying that is right but I think you could make a big mistake by assuming you know what your potential visitors will want and develop a perfectly structured site which doesn't fit how real folks minds work.
Best wishes
Sid
If that is the case I would go to the Google and Overture term suggestion tools and see what terms people actually use to search for the things you are offering. Then wait for this current update to stop and check out the competition what terms are they using that are getting them ranked.
This is a fine piece of advice. Once you do start getting ranked, double and triple check these tools and your web logs to make sure what keywords people are searching on. The tailor (or build new) pages for those terms.
The tailor (or build new) pages for those terms.
And semantically close relatives to those terms.
Sid
Best thread for concise detail I have ever read!
8>)Sunny
Bessst wishes
Does this mean that I get some sort of cash prize for starting the thread off? :)
Please sticky me for my Paypal account.
