What is it that you're doing online with your web site?
Your web site is your portal to the world. It should reflect your purpose and intent of why you're online. There are so many kinds of web sites on the internet. Each portraying a different purpose. For each type of web site there are those that are good and those that are bad.
I'm going to assume that you are trying to make an income from your site. Not one of those "here I am" or "look at me" sites. You know, the ones that want you to think they're so great. Full of glitter and glamour images and fonts. Or those that write totally about themselves...
Visitors to the internet are usually looking for information, whether on a specific subject or on a product that they are considering purchasing. Any web site that you make has to address "information" to endure the test of time. It has to attract the search engines which will attract visitors to you web pages. And with their surfing to your site, you want to make some kind of income.
Information is the bait to catch that fish you're looking for and makes your dreams come true. It also is the food that the search engines are looking for. Especially content that brings them information that is original. Meaning you or someone you paid to write for you, wrote it. Information will drive people to your web site. What you write should be pertinent.
It has to be the right information, though. That "stuff" that people are looking for. It's through keyword research that you come to know what people "are" looking for and what the "right" markets are for you to make an income from. Keywords define your web site and make it attractive to the search engines, as long as you are providing pertinent information.
Keywords also define your online business of which your web site is the tip of the iceberg. So, make your web site informational oriented and your sales peripheral, but specific to that information you're providing, (based upon your keyword research). This income can come from Adsense type ads, affiliate programs, or your own product. I recommend all three ways. This is called multiple income streaming. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Play all angles.
Your homepage and all your back pages are great for Adsense ads, or similar. Google Adsense matches its ads to your keywords and content. As long as you are providing the great information, they provide quality ads to go along. I like to put affiliate ads on the back pages that focus on specific information and make the afilliate product or program match up with what that page is all about.
Your own product's ads should be on the pages where appropriate and have a separate sales page or sales web site of its own. The sales page should be written so the reader is captured at the top of the page and taken downward towards the sales pitch. Along the way, the visitor must be convinced that your product is for them and they should "buy or die". Copywriting is a study unto itself.
You should decide how you are going to structure your web business and site(s). You can make one central focus and design everything around that. Meaning an large web site with one market. Or you can make your business focus on several good markets and make a multitude of sites, each focusing on a central market and theme. It's up to you. I prefer to do the lateral.
Of course, once you make your first online web site, you will probably opt in to the second way of doing business online. Again, multiple income streaming. Each successive web endeavor will be modelled on the first. Or, something better based upon your experience. And each one will bring income into your business.
There are a lot of thoughts on how to structure your site and pages. I prefer content rich sites. These bring the visitors for information and search engines will rank them higher. This is especially true if the website is focused around a narrow niche of information. But content is only one part of your website. There's also the background html that the search engines see.
You should create an html template that is search engine friendly. It also should be appealing to your visitor's eyes when they see it on the web. I have my ideas on this as does every webmaster. One of my pet peeves is that the pages should be fast loading. I live in the foothills of the Colorado Rockies and have no access to high speed connection to the internet. This means phone line only. I hate slow loading sites and it seems that with so many webmasters on broadband, they forget this rule.
Studies show that your web visitor has approximately a 7 second attention span. This means that you must capture that attention quickly to get them to read through your pages. It also means that if your web pages are loading slowly, the visitor may be gone before they even see what you have. I know that I've backed out of pages before they've loaded many times.
Sites with large images, logos, long audio, and flash presentations load very slowly. That's why I've gotten away from using these as the years have gone on. You can "slice" images and logos to make them load more quickly, but I'd stay away from audio and flash unless it is extremely important to your page.
In your html template, it is important that you have a title meta tag and that the title reflects your major keyword or keyword phrase. You also need to make sure you have meta tags for the description of the website. This tag should also reflect your keywords. Just remember, this is the phrase used by the browers to display what the page is all about.
The other inportant meta tag is for your keyword or keyword phrase. Many search engine optimization experts say these are no longer used by the search engines. But the smaller, less popular ones still use it. My feelings are that it can't hurt. Besides it is one more emphasis on your keywords for the search engines to view.
Using an external CSS style sheet is an aid to your pages. Cascading style sheets are used to give the look to your fonts and styles within your pages. The search engines like to see you using CSS as it says to them that your site was generated by a human being and not some site generating software like Traffic Hurricane or Directory Generator. If you don't use an external CSS sheet, then I suggest that you use CSS in appropriate places within your pages.
Design your html so that your content comes first. You want the search engines to see this right away. The search engines are looking for content these days, so dish it up to them early. Remember, the search engines start at the top of your html and read downward.
Use H1 and H2 headline tags. These place an emphasis on what's contained within them in the eyes of the search engines. Make sure your headlines contain your keywords or keyword phrase. If they do, the search engines will highlight them as they read through your content. This will aid you in getting higher rankings for your web pages.
Place your navigation after the content on your html page. As the search engines read down your html, you want them to read the content first, then find your links so they follow the links to your other web pages and index them. Links to other web pages should describe that page, hopefully with the main keyword of that page. Never use links like "home" or "links". These tell the search engine nothing. It is better to use links like "Making Your Own Web Site" or "Website Design Links". Links external to your website should always be placed last.
The main thing is that your website should have a focused purpose. It should supply relevant, informational content to attract visitors. You should have some means of making an income off you your web pages, even if your visitor doesn't buy your products. And you should structure your website and pages to feed the seach engines what they're looking for so you get higher rankings.