You have to be a bit of an architect to design a web site. Before you start you need to draw a map of all of the elements that will be contained in your site and then assign them to their appropriate pages. Remember too, that web pages can be thought of as "pages within pages" or drawers that contain such money generating tools as search engine plug ins and pay per click engines.
If you want to use the "drawers" metaphor try adhering to the following rules --
The Home Page contains links to everything that is on your site as well as two very important plugs ins:
1. a request for an email address
2. a pay per click search engine.
The Products or Catalogue page contains your products as well as:
? Links to affiliates
? Links to written outsourced information about your products
? Links to a payment system
? .jpg thumbnails that when clicked on lead to even more details about the product such as price information
The About Us page contains a link to the Contact Us page as well as the recommended links page.
The web site menu is the equivalent of your site's Table of Contents. Even the most rudimentary of web sites should contain the following pages:
? The Home Page (or landing page). This is a list of all of your products and contains the Five W's (the who, what, when, why and where of your business)
? The Catalogue or Products and Service Page. This lists all of your products and services. This is the page where customers browse your products and services.
?? The About Us (or About the company page) This page describes who you are and the terms of agreement.
?? The Suggested Articles or Links page. This is the page where you can put links to affiliates.
? The Contact Us Page. This contains your coordinates so that your customers can reach you.
The above pages represent the potatoes and carrots on any web site menu. Any other page that you decide to put on the site is icing on the cake.
