10 Minisite Development Tips

Although I have not been building as many minisites as in the past I have turned up a few lately, I thought I would layout a few of the items I do as I build a site, some are after the site is up (error checking) and some are basic things I do as I build it. These are mainly for non-Wordpress minsites but some of them could be related to a Wordpress minisite as well.

Check Incoming/Outgoing Links - One of the items I recommend to check and is quick and simple is to simply click on each of the either internal links (ToS) or outgoing links to other sites you may link too. It is also good to make sure all the links on your navigation bar are working if you are using one. Just recently I found I had typo'ed a link on the navigation bar which would of kept people from going from the main page to the linked page.

Check Meta Tag Fields - Another item I learned to check after having issues with an outsourced developer was verifying the source code for each page and making sure the Meta keywords and Meta description was correct. Since many times minisites are being done from a template there are times one of the pages may have left over content from  a previous version.

Create a Sitemap - Google loves sitemaps plain and simple, make sure that you create a sitemap and upload it to your site. A great resource for this is XML Sitemaps Generator. I use this often, very quick and simple and gives many variations to choose from as far as file format. I also usually try to make sure I have a link to the sitemap in the footer of the site as well.

Submit Your Sitemap to Google - Although I consider submitting your site to Google useless, it is a MUST to submit your sitemap to Google. To do this go to Google Webmaster Tools. This helps your site get indexed and also can be a good way to find out what traffic Google is sending your way and issues they may have with your site.

Verify All Pages Are "Clean" - What I mean by that is I look through each page to make sure there are no errant > or /> or other characters that may of came from missing a tag here or there in the HTML. This may be my most comment error I find. It is easy to get a little carried away with the cut and paste sometimes.

Check and Double Check Your Title - I consider the page title to be one of the most important elements as far as making sure the search engines see you correct. Make sure each of your pages has properly SEO'ed titles. Do not use the same title as your first page on all your subsequent pages. How many times have you went to a site and see the title be "home" or something similar. It still happens.

Tell The World Your Site Is Up - If all checks out and you are happy with you site it is time to tell the world it exists, a few quick ways to do this are Twitter, Facebook, Stumbleupon, and Digg. Another favorite that I use is if I have an established site with traffic, specifically a blog its good to do a post with a link to the site. This does not work if the blog is not established, if the site is established though this blog link can be the fastest way to get picked up. I know people that keep blogs around with traffic for just this purpose.

Keep It Simple - OK, so I am a BIG believer in full scale development but I also think that minisites are a nice starting point before you start the full development process. That is how I use them these days, a way to get some content up while the full scale site is being worked. So for that reason I think it is smart to keep the minisite as simple as possible during this first phase. You may be able to get that full development out faster if you spend less time making your minisite too complicated.

Build A Network - This is something that I have been focused on, as I build a minisite I try to focus on having related names in a "network".  This allows for related link building between the sites and allows you to direct visitors from one site to another.

Back It Up - Seems simple right, well I can tell you we all skip this step, but what happens when the server you are hosting on disappears, the provider goes away, or you accidently hit delete in your FTP program. Those things can all happen.  Back it up!!!

There are so many more and I am sure a good portion of the readers of this post have their own. Share with the with others by leaving a comment if you feel so inclined.