The linking (templating) feature in Headway is a great time saver, but how do you decide which pages to link to which? This post explains how to plan and setup your site pages for maximum effectiveness.

The main content displayed on the different pages, is primarily decided by what type of page is being viewed.

The home page typically displays a summary of posts. System pages display either sorted summaries, or individial post content, or the search and 404 pages. These pages all server different purposes – and these different purposes also give us the opportunity to customise the additional information we provide in the sidebar, or, with a little bit of custom coding, even the footer and header.

It helps to divide your site pages into four groups (or contexts):

1. Home page – general information at the site level.
2. Posts – specific information about the post content.
3. Problem pages – search and 404.
4. Utility Pages – sitemap, terms, contact etc.

The Home Page

On the site home page, people have usually just arrived at your site, and have not gone into a specific area of interest. Offer general content – general advertisements, twitter feed – summary type content which is aimed at the general audience.

You should have a primary objective for your site – related to a targeted audience. Ideally, also have a general call to action – at the site level.

Posts

This where you have a specific interest – the best opportunity for customised content. Use the dynamic content option to offer related content – either an affiliate product, membership, related premium site etc.

Also, remove other choices which might be distractions, such as unrelated links like twitter feeds, generic banners etc.

Include a related posts plugin – showing posts from the same category.

Problem pages

Problem pages are the search and 404 and sitemap pages. People on these pages generally have a problem – they are looking for something that isn’t immediately obvious – make it easy for them to find the answer.

So remove advertisements, offer different ways to find the answers. Include the sitemap, the contact form, and the search on the 404 page. Include the search on the sitemap page. Include sitemap and search on the contact form. You get the picture

Utility Pages

These are the contact form, about, terms, privacy etc. People are generally on these pages because they want to know more about you – are you real, trust-worthy, where are you located etc.

So on these pages, again, don’t try and sell. Just offer the information, and also establish trust and credibility with testimonials, case studies etc – whatever shows that you are real, and can do what you are saying you can.

Note: studies suggest that a photo and a real address on your site make a big difference to trust and credibility.

Linking and Templates

So now we can look at setting up the templates for linking etc.

The home page – is the only page in that group – so just customise the layout for that page directly.

Posts can be shown with a number of pages, such as archives, single posts etc. Create a ‘post-template’ page, design the layout with relevant leafs, including dynamic content – and apply it to your system pages which display posts.

Problem pages – although we have two pages, the 404 is special case, as it pulls it content from the ‘Whoops 404′ user created page. So design the layout for the 404 and search pages directly and separately.

Utility pages – create a ‘page-template’ page, design the layout with relevant leafs, no dynamic content (because it doesn’t work with pages anyway) – and apply it to the pages such as contact form, sitemap, terms, privacy, about etc.

Hopefully this has helped you plan the layout of your site more effectively.

To summarise – think of the mindset your customer or ’site-viewer’ is in – and the context of the page content – then customise the optional content (sidebar etc) to add more value for them – relevant, informative and valuable links.

all the best,

Paul.

p.s. There is a tutorial coming up on linking..