Chapter 16
Website Cornerstone
Focus
What makes a great website?
There are basically three cornerstones to an effective website. These three things encompass everything a website needs. Provide these cornerstones, and your website will excel at catering to both human beings and search engines alike.
1. Focus
2. Depth
3. Value
We'll talk about Focus in this chapter. Depth is the subject of the next chapter, and Value will be discussed in the chapter after that. By structuring your website according to these three cornerstones, you'll be well positioned to capitalize on today's Internet economy.
Focus essentially refers to the keywords on which your website is built. And it's a critically important part of any successful online strategy. Yet, the Focus I'm talking about is counterintuitive for most people and goes against their natural instincts. Follow along with me for a moment. Most people feel like they're restricting themselves if they Focus their website too narrowly. They feel like they're walking away from potential business by pigeonholing themselves with a narrow Focus. This opinion may make sense on some level, but it doesn't help anyone thrive in the online world. An example may help illustrate why.
Let's assume you're a financial advisor who's trying to sell annuities, life insurance, and estate planning services. If you built your website to present a balance among those three services, Google would interpret your website to be roughly 33 percent about each topic. ...
