Web Presence Building Blocks (step 2): Site Map Building (site Blueprints)

Blueprints are the key to building a sound structure in both the physical and virtual world. For the virtual world of the Internet we call our website blueprints “site maps.” The creation of a site map makes navigation of your site more efficient for both consumers and search engine robots (computers building search results). A site map should organize all information you plan on having on your website into a logical format.

Benefits to a site-map is a guide to building out your site, increased browsing efficiency for potential consumers and search engines, organization to information, Search Engine Optimization Benefits.

The site map should start at your home page (index page) and build down into categories and sub categories. Below is an example of the initial break down off of the home page (index page) for a basic dental website:

Chart 1: Home Page site map

The beginning of your site map focuses on the initial index page and builds out into sub-categories. The sub-categories will build out into various solutions for cosmetic dentistry, sedation dentistry and about you.

It is important to give prominent information first on your website and then to build out into details about what you do. Your sites main page should rarely have individual service offerings mentioned. The higher up you mention certain topics on your website it is given increased relevance to the people reading and search engines weighting of importance. The reasons it may be negative to list some detail items with prominence on the site is that it may draw away some readers and give the search engines suggested prominence of topics people are less concerned about searching for on the web.

For example, in dentistry an item would be porcelain veneers or teeth whitening, both of these would fall under the broad category of cosmetic dentistry. Therefore your primary category “Cosmetic Dentistry” should be given priority over individual items. An example site map for your cosmetic dentistry section of your page would look as follows:

There are many ways you could choose to break down your site. You could breakdown dentistry concerns into a few different ways. You can make it symptom based vs. want based. You could also use various breakdowns to discuss solutions for various symptoms which may include: sensitive teeth, chipped teeth, aching jaw, migraines, and many more symptoms/self-diagnosis your patients may bring to you on a daily basis.

Sites like WebMD didn’t get famous because they are selling services; they are giving people answers and solutions to their problems. Web speak on most sites are at a level that is too technical for your target audience. People are looking for information about what you are going to be doing to them and for them. They know what you offer because that’s what your profession provides the solution for. As an example when somebody is looking up teeth whitening they probably want to know, how long it will take? How long the results will last for? Are there any health effects they need to consider?

The average searching consumer won’t see the use of Discus Dental vs. Bright Smiles as a primary concern to solving their issue. More on this will be discussed when we talk about web copy development in our next newsletter. Back to site map development.

When constructing your site map be sure to remember you want all roads you are developing leading to a destination. We have increased our client’s web conversion rates for new patients exponentially by making one small tweak 98% of dental sites lack.

Be sure your content on your site links back and forth to relevant information someone would logically want to virtually step to. An example would be if you come to us with a broken tooth there are many options to how we could help you solve your problem. This can include porcelains veneers, bonding, and other solutions depending on the concern.

If a patient is looking to have these concerns fixed they may also be a candidate for gum contouring which is where you integrate information about your laser procedures into the content. This will allow you to educate potential patients of pertinent information to concerns they would like addressed before they even come in. It will allow for more educated consultations, and a potential patient with an educated mind as to what they want from you.

Here is an example of a start to the dental site map we worked on today (it is not completely built out because this is a client service we provide):

Once you have created your dental site map, the next step is to develop your copy for each section of the website. We will be discussing this in our next newsletter about building out your web presence.

Web Presence Development Recap:
Step 1: Choosing the Right Domain Name
Step 2: Site Map Building (Site Blueprints)

Please e-mail at Zach@SEO.cc for the article with complete site maps.