Step 1: Be Accessible

DO

Search Box

Ensure you have a Search box widget on your website to help your website visitor find the information they are looking for. We're all in a hurry, help them get to the meat of their search quickly. Using your primary keywords within your writing will help the search function work smoothly.

Internal Linking

Link effectively to other pages within your website. This not only helps your visitors find the information, but it's a clue to the search engines to how your pages are structured. Internal linking is almost as important as high-powered backlinks to your web.

Show the Crumbs

Setup a BreadCrumb plug-in that allows your visitor to know exactly where they are within your navigation structure and can click "back", "previous" or other directional type guides. Here's a simple example:

Search engines love this also. Again, it helps show the structure of your site, inter-linking and structure. Avoid top-level menu clutter that overwhelms your visitor.

Homepage

There are several training tutorials on having a "blogroll" (list of summaries of all your blog posts) OR opting for a "static" (non-changing) homepage and this is a personal preference. But, either way, ensure you homepage is inviting, has a quick feature list (bulleted or numbered) of what your visitor will learn from your website. Your intro paragraph is crucial here to keep your "bounce rate" (how long someone stays on you page before clicking away to a new website) down. Generally, it's said that you have about 3 to 7 seconds to capture a new visitor and keep their eyes on your page. Make an impact!

Layout

Many beginners (yep, I did it too) don't put enough time in just thinking about the structure of their website BEFORE they begin building their navigation (menu). Take a pencil and paper, draw some lines and boxes and build your structure.... Use your primary keywords, your secondary keywords and then your longtail keywords. Create sections and subsections. Do they fit? If not, change it up. This is your roadmap to your content. (Yep, you guessed it, this is part of "content strategy" --- well, maybe you didn't guess that....but, you're thinking about it now, aren't you?)