Content Only Site

[remmo]

Hi All,

I'm looking at making a "content only" site to drive traffic towards my Actinic site.

With content only I mean an information site, which may in time be expanded to include Adsense ads or affiliate links so it is self supporting.

I have an old version 6 catalog disc (limited to 25 products) in my files. Would it be OK to use it for this purpose (more to ease content management)? The reason I ask is because I would like this site to rank highly in the search engines quickly. Would there perhaps be an easier way to do this (I have Dreamweaver)? Or are there other options?

Any advice appreciated.

[Duncan Rounding]

I presume the V6 software was not actually uploaded to a domain. If not you could use that. You could just as well use any web design software such as DW for this purpose though.

The important factor here I think is that to get a good link to your site you may need to have your 'other' site hosted on a different server otherwise G may see the same shared IP and see it as an internal link. Also for the 'other' site link to boost your main site's ranking the 'other' site itself will need to have a lot of traffic and also rank highly.

Personally I think you might be better off spending your time obtaining links to your main site from other existing sites that already get high traffic volumes. The information (if it's related to your products in some way) could be incorporated into your existing main site.

Getting incoming links is perhaps the hardest part of site marketing.

[wjcampbe]

I really can't see why the informational content does not belong on your main site in the first place.

Add content to the main site = more content to be found = more reasons to visit the site = win, win, win.

Add content to other site = opportunity to attemp to hoodwink the search engines = opportunity to be caught and permanently banned from said SE and at the same time gain a reputation for dishonest behaviour. [not something most people would actively work to obtain]

[remmo]

Thanks Duncan,

The version 6 is still unused - got it off a magazine cover who knows how long ago.

I'm thinking of using Dreamweaver to run the site but I thought using version 6 might speed it up a bit in development time, as I will need to do a crash course in Dreamweaver as it has been a while since I have used it.

The site will be a tourism site as we are also a tourist attraction, so the aim of this site is to inform people when planning their holliday so they include us in their plans... so it is not really about getting sales immediately.

Point taken about hosting on different servers - I'll host this site elsewhere.

Thanks,

[pinbrook]

Point taken about hosting on different servers - I'll host this site elsewhere.

I beg to differ...its not necessary, as bill says you should treat the info pages as part of the site. We've got exactly the same scenario at surf-wax.co.uk , loads of info pages re local tourism and extreme sports this draws people who like the sport to the site and hopefully on to buy a extreme sport DVD.

Remember you are building the pages for human visitors first and spiders second.

I'd use DW or other html package (not Frontpage) as you will get good controlover the code to ensure it is clean. there are loads of CMS out therebut they will probably be DB driven which defeats the point of SE friendly.

To gain - sometimes you have to go through the pain, using v6 will restrict layout to much and you will still need to know how to hand code some stuff so you may as well start out properly.

If you are still wanting to use actinic for CMS purposes when simply use brochure pages within your current site.

BTW on

thehoneyfarm.com.au/acatalog/visit_us.html

you should move your join mailing list further down the page as it is sitting on top the left hand nav

[remmo]

Thanks Bill and Jo,

I think I need to rethink things a bit. Setting up a new site will be a big undertaking, then it needs to get traffic before I am able to generate extra traffic to my existing site. I do believe it will work and work well but was probably a bit too quick off the mark - time is a huge issue.

I've fixed the problem on the site, thanks Jo.

[wjcampbe]

Remmo

Read your last post again.

You are sure the new content will bring visitors. [excellent]

You want visitors on the site you have now.

Add the content to the site you have now, more visitors will come to the site you have now. [aim achieved]

What am I missing?

[remmo]

Sorry Bill, I probably wasn't too clear from the beginning.

I was thinking about making a new site as a promotion site for not only our attraction but our surrounding region - with the relevant links coming into our site.

However having now thought about it further I think I would be better off generating content for my existing site (ie. more focused on honey) than generating content for a new site (ie. more focused on tourism). Either way I'll be generating more content - but by keeping it focused to the one site will help time wise.

I'll put the tourism site on the back burner for a while... I've got some good ideas about how to achieve it but wish I had 48 hours in the day.

[chris ashdown]

I think what people are trying to say is

If you put all the tourist info into your exsisting site you would benifit in all ways. i.e. people who are looking for info in your area, will find your site and may buy honey as a result, but they were not looking to buy honey at the time of the search.

The wider your catchment the more customers will be aware of your products

Forget the second site