I earn $12,000/month - PART 3 Figuring Out Structure & Information Architecture

This post is a follow up to my other three posts about making as much or more than me. Here are the other two articles:

I strongly recommend you read the three posts above before continuing on.

Getting the sitemap together

It takes a lot of skill to get the sitemap right. Here's the proper definition of what a sitemap is:

A site map (or sitemap) is a list of pages of a web site accessible to crawlers or users. It can be either a document in any form used as a planning tool for Web design, or a Web page that lists the pages on a website, typically organized in hierarchical fashion.

If you don't get the sitemap right Google and other search engines will have trouble understanding what you're trying to present.

I would start with how successful competitors have set up their sitemaps. Try to beat them at their own game.

I like to use primary keywords as my main sitemap links. Your primary keywords are top level keywords that are searched the most. Remember, your hierarchy has to make sense to the average person. Just because "penis pills" are searched the most, it doesn't mean you have to put it in your main navigation. I would assume, Products > Male Health > Penis Pills". This is just an example.

As some of you may know, we were trying to work with ceiling tiles. Let's keep the theme for this post. I did you guys a favor and finished the sitemap. Here's the PDF

This might confuse you a bit. Don't overthink it. Try to imagine yourself at a department store. How would you look for "Aluminum Ceiling Tiles"? Picture yourself going through the department store looking at the labels. On the web, getting to where you want is a lot faster so you can organize your information even better. Cut the bloat and you're good to go.

Think about the content on each section/page

Once you have your sitemap, you can start thinking about the content on each page. You want to include your keywords on each page without sounding robotic. Find out as much as you can about the industry and perfect each category.

Before even getting into how the website will look, I would organize what the content will be like for each page. You must know your:

Primary keywords
Secondary keywords
Content above/below the fold
Number of words (I stick to 500+ words for each page)

You don't need to re-invent the wheel. Just look at what your competitors are doing and do it better. You don't want to copy them of course. They have the authority to outrank you.

Final Thoughts

Once you have your sitemap and information architecture, we can move onto your website. I'll tell you how to build your websites for less than a $1000. Some of you can do it for less than $100, but that's if you know Wordpress well.

Let me know if you have any questions.