Random Web Design Tips for Review Sites and Others

For some reason over the past week I have been oft asked the same questions by affiliates regarding their review sites, so naturally I decided it would be helpful to share some of the tips that I gave them. These are the things that Google likes and prevents them from slapping you silly. These are the things that site visitors like and prevents them from going back to Google to seek out another review. They lead to more visitors and more buyers.

I have rewritten some of the most useful tips here and hope that help you.

One of the most common themes was the presence of very salesy content. I actually covered this topic yesterday somewhat in this post. Of course, you want to convert them into a buyer, but the more salesy you come across on your review site, the less genuine your review becomes. Trust me, we will try to sell them, so let us do that. Say a few nice things and tell your story…then let them come to us for the sales pitch.

You definitely need a privacy policy, contact page, and the like. I have written about this twice in FeedFront Magazine and I can’t think of anything I would add.

The Five Most Common Missing Pieces to Affiliate Sites and my Top Ten Web Site Design Tips from 2001 articles cover these topics in depth.

Review sites often have a boatload of outgoing links and very few in-site links. This is backwards.

On review sites, for every outgoing link, affiliate or otherwise, you have, you should have at least two or three in-site links. Add a ton of content pages, tips, articles, a glossary of terms, whatever, and link early and often to these pages.

Ultimately, the objective is to come across as what you are presenting yourself as: a review site; a site that reviews products, gives the reader the pluses and minuses of each product, and makes a recommendation.

Good reviewers aren’t trying to sell anything and they aren’t afraid to get asked questions by their readers.

This ended up being a much shorter post than I expected since a lot of it is covered in the other posts I link to, but I do hope it helps!