What Makes a Great Website?

In this article I will be discussing how to build a solid website from several angles. Not only will you learn how to optimize your site for the search engines but you will learn how to make your site more efficient for the users and administrators as well.

To get a firm grip on what consists of a great website we will be taking a look at PokerListings.com to analyze what has made their site one of the best in the business. PokerListings.com has been around for a while and has achieved very high search engine placement along with a very heavy dose of traffic. Let's find out why.

FYI- Generally, websites (or good ones anyways) are always changing so the information on which this article contains may not be accurate to the time you are reading it.

First Impressions

Objective: When people view sites for the first time they make judgments. I think it's fair to say that a positive judgment is better than a negative one. When you establish your site as a professional one you gain trust. Common sense tells you that people will return to these sites much more often than the suspect one.

Analysis: PokerListings.com has that nice comfortable feeling that you can trust this site. Most people would agree that it's a very professional website and that should be your goal. This great comfortable feeling comes from the design. It's an easy, simple laid out website that (a) doesn't look like their son made it and (b) didn't do over the top.

Solution: Websites are like quarterbacks. They need practice before they make their debut and they need experience before they win championships. Websites should be developed or supervised by those who are experienced. If you are not a web designer hire one. If you can't afford one you need someone who has experience to guide you through the development process but don't expect the same results.

Navigation

Objective: You must make your site as easy as possible for the user to navigate. If not, why shouldn't he/she try out a different site?

Analysis: PokerListings.com absolutely mastered navigation. There are four navigational features used here. First there is the horizontal navigational bar underneath the logo. These links contain the main pages. Second there is the secondary horizontal navigational bar below the main one. These as you would expect consist of secondary pages- important but not at the significance of the most essential pages. Third is the vertical navigation column on the right of the page. These are the wildcard links. Anything that was not included in the horizontal menus go here. Not only is this great for the user because he/she can always find what he/she is looking for but it's brilliant for the search engines as well. For the advanced webmasters check out the source code. You will see that the right hand links are located right after the body tag! How did they do that? CSS. Why did they do that? These links are very imperative. Search engines read the source code from top to bottom and rate the importance of what's in the source code from top to bottom. If you can place the most important content of each page at the top or near the top of the source code you will be much better off. Lastly there are four dropdown menus at the top of the homepage. Most people won't use this but hey, why not? Some people might and it doesn't hurt to include it if you have the other three features already.

Solution: You don't have to use all four of the techniques. Not even three of them. But keep in mind that your users' efficiency will lead to many, many more hits. At minimum use the horizontal menu with essential links and the wildcard links vertically. You do not need to include links to all pages on the homepage. That is what the sitemap is for.

Content

Objective: Without a doubt it's unambiguously a must to have unique, fresh, and an abundance of content added frequently to your website.

Analysis: PokerListings.com has an enormous amount of content and guess what… it's all 100% relative. There are complete reviews to over 20 poker rooms, over 75 articles on strategy, poker rules, freeroll listings, and almost anything else that is poker related and useful. Visitors LOVE that. Search engines LOVE that.

Solution: Simply continuously add content. If you don't other websites will pass you up. Losing ground is a big uh-oh. (1) Add poker news. (2) Add strategy articles. (3) Repeat cycle.

Keywords

Objective: To understand search engine optimization you must understand what people are searching for and you must arrive to the realization of you competition. Keywords are the foundation… or should I say key phrases.

Analysis: The fact is PokerListings.com is a huge website and has established themselves on Google. Search for almost anything poker related. You will see their name. Now search for "niche" keywords. Search for "Ohio State Poker". You will see our very own- Justin Goff's website, OhioStatePoker.com. Not PokerListings.com. Now not all websites have to be niche oriented but it's a very good idea to have keywords and content that is.

Solution: Start off with more unique keywords. Instead of "online poker strategy" go after "online stud poker strategy". Or instead of "poker tips" try "party poker tips". Yes, more people will search for "online poker strategy" or "poker tips" but going after those on a new site will be a waste. Start off small and then expand. Each page should have it's own keyword. Keywords should be placed in the page title, meta keywords, meta description, and content. Most importantly do not spam keywords.

These four objectives will hopefully lead you to the creating and continuous development to tremendous website success. Good luck and search for more articles on building websites.