Glue Page Templates
I’m sure there’s a big, fancy, MBA marketing school name for this conceptl, but I call them glue pages. Basically they are non- commercially oriented pages about subjects that people would expect to see on a “real website” about a your particular subject matter that make it look complete and thorough. You can put contextual or banner ads here, but they can make your website look cheesy. For example, let’s say you run a Baltimore Travel Website. Pages including information about cab services, emergency medical services, local supermarkets, drugstores, calendar of events, etc. would be what I would classify as “glue pages.”
Trust and Authority Templates
IMHO for the past several years, doing well in Google has largely been about how much trust you could convince them to have in your website. Template boiler plate pages like privacy, terms of service, and contact info fill this role. For more detailed instructions see how to make your website look more legitimate.
The key point I want to emphasize and want you to take away is that, while you can use one template for your entire website, you will be much more effective if you use specific templates to fill specific roles and purposes. The key to being effective is to maintain consistent branding with a masthead or logo, vary the size as needed, and then add or remove sidebar and secondary navigation as required.
photo credit: Shutterstock/Olly
