I had a funny thing happen to me today, a new site I launched last week was linked to on a local politics blog. The headline went something like “Mayor Y makes X.com” ..as if I had some huge important site! I chuckled and wondered how this blogger found out about the site.

When I first started this blog, I ran a few modestly high profile interviews. I was also suprised when other bloggers made single posts like they were news. I was left scratching my head wondering if everyone thought I was someone important. It just happened that I really enjoy reading and writing about the internet publishing industry.

I now have a good idea of the key factors that make a brand new site look like an authority. By an authority I mean that visitors come to your site and believe that it is legitmate, credible, and worth paying attention to. Good content alone will do this, but there a few other things that really help.

Here is a list of specific things you can do to make your site look authoritative:

-A good domain name. None-of-this-stuff.com. I chose WebPublishingBlog.com, it was clear and to the point. If you want to make up your own words (which I have done) make it short and memorable.

-A clean and professional design. Jaggy and pixelated images from improper resizing along with default templates is a no no.

-Association with recognized names in the market. Interviewing well known or accomplished individuals has been a huge boost for WebPublishingBlog. Sales pages slap thumbnail logos of newspapers, tv stations, and magazines they’ve been featured in.

There are good reasons to ignore some of these, namely sticking out from the crowd. I have also written at length about designing sites for clickthroughs and conversions in which I have said the opposite. From a tactical perspective you may need to appear credible to get those natural backlinks that will ultimately give you your traffic.

This industry is evolving at a very rapid pace. What I say works today may no longer work tommorow. You need develop your own skills to recognize patterns and apply learned concepts to your own sites.