27 October 20266 min read

Your first ten pages, and the order to publish them in

A publishing order that gives a new site something to be found for, without writing anything you would have to apologise for later.

One page, one question

Every page answers exactly one question. Not a topic with sub-points: one question, in the words the visitor would use. A page answering what a beginner needs before starting and a page answering whether the cheapest option is actually cheaper are two pages, even when they feel adjacent. Merging them produces something that ranks for neither and satisfies half of each.

The order: problem, comparison, cost, mistake, starter

For the first ten pages, publish three problem pages, two comparison pages, two cost pages, two mistake pages and one starter page. Problem pages are the easiest to rank for and the easiest to write honestly. Comparison pages meet a buyer closest to a decision. Cost pages answer the question people ask just before they close the tab. Mistake pages are the ones people share, which is how a small site earns its first links. The starter page ties them together and is the page you send to a friend.

Link them before you promote them

Before page five, every page should link to at least two others with a reason. Not a footer of related links: a sentence in the body saying why this reader should open the next page. Internal links do two jobs. They show a search engine what the site is about as a whole, and they give the visitor somewhere to go that is not the back button. Ten linked pages look more complete than twenty isolated ones.

When to stop writing

Stop at ten and read the data. Ten is enough to see which question people arrive with, which page they open second, and where they leave. Writing the next ten before that reading is guesswork with extra steps. If almost nothing arrives after six weeks, the problem is usually the phrases you chose, not the writing.

One question per page, ten pages in a fixed order, links inside the body, then read the data before writing more.

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