So, you’ve got your website and you’re looking for other ways to draw people into it. You want better rankings, more things to link to, and improve your content (new and old). Maybe you’re afraid people don’t know what you’re talking about on your website, so you go into detail on it every time, or maybe worse, you don’t explain it at all. There are solutions for this that will be less tedious in the long run.

I was reading an article on VizionInteractive.com by Josh McCoy, and he brought up this brilliant idea. Make a Glossary, or a Dictionary for your website. If there’s a term you’re using, a word that’s maybe confusing to your reader, or even a name of someone who is involved with your company, you can link to them. This creates a lot of great linking opportunities for your site. You have more pages, so it’s good for search engines. You have internal links, which is always beneficial, and you have more potential for inbound links. Maybe someone wants to link to your definition?

McCoy goes on to explain you should make a separate page for each term. Don’t list them all of the definitions on one page and make people find them, just link to a page where their answer is right in front of their face. Make it obvious, like the rest of your site should be. Everything should be easy to find. You could add a link in the sidebar that links to a page with all of the definitions you have listed (words, not full definitions), then you can click on one and it takes you to its page.

What are the benefits of doing this? Other than the stuff I already mentioned, it gives you more credibility to your users and customers. You look more knowledgeable, and you’re not talking to these people over their heads. You don’t sound pompous because you’re telling them what it means, and you’re not offending them because you’re explaining every little thing. You’re simply giving them the option to learn if they choose.

But there are a lot of words out there that need to be defined! I am very aware of this, and a daunting task it may seem. Start off with the basics. Make a list of the top 20 words and terms you use, and make pages for all of them. Link them in your articles as you go along writing the new ones. Add your definition page to your sidebar so people have another way to get to it. 20 definitions is a good starting point, and honestly won’t take you too terribly long. Definitions don’t need to be horribly in depth, just do basic descriptions of what they mean. Once you have your list of 20, just add them as you go along. If you use a word in your article that may cause confusion because it’s a term in your industry, make a new page and define it! This way, you’re not having to do every single word, and you already have those basic 20 done. This will make things a lot easier and less annoying. Because, let’s face it, no one likes doing tons of repetitive work. It’s busy work, and it’s no fun. This cuts down on how much of it there is.

Once you have all of this under your belt, you’ll be good to go again! This didn’t create much extra work for you to do, and is not difficult since you already know what you’re talking about. It’ll just take a little bit of time to do, and you’ll be all set! Don’t forget to maybe promote your new in-site dictionary with maybe a little banner on your webpage. Make it match the site, and not gaudy though, or it will look like an advertisement and people might be less likely to click it.

Have fun creating higher rankings!