Text features are the elements which organize written text to provide meaning. These include page numbers, tables of contents images and photographs chapters, titles, headings, sub-headings captions, labels diagrams, and many more.

Teaching children about text features is crucial to improving their reading comprehension. It is especially helpful when students are learning to read nonfiction materials.

What is a text feature?Text Features: What Are They?

Text features are the elements of an article or book that don`t appear in the main body. They include the table of contents, index headings, captions under pictures or diagrams labels, glossary terms, or features of graphs or charts, and bolded words.

They`re akin to story elements in fiction, but they offer additional assistance for comprehension and provide an easy way for the reader. They help students find information they may not have found in the main text or make connections to previous knowledge.

Children often ask, “How would I read this if there were no text feature?”

It is crucial to teach students to recognize and comprehend text features to improve their comprehension of nonfictional content. This is particularly true for social studies and science content.

One way to teach students is to use a method known as “Text Features Bingo.” You can play this game either in the small group or in the in a whole class. This is a great way to get students involved in meaningful learning.  You`ll find more at Text features: What they are and why they matter.

Novice Techniques For Using Text Features

Text features provide additional clues for students in understanding the information contained in texts that are informative. Students are on their own when they try to find relevant information in a text without their help.

It is important to teach youngsters the importance of text features and how they can assist them comprehend. This can be accomplished by using specific text features or showing students the method of using them.

A scavenger hunt can be the perfect method to introduce and practice text features. This activity is especially great for children in the younger age group as they can have fun exploring and recording the text features that they find.

Another way to teach the features of text is to do a think-aloud in a small group. This works best when the groups are set up so that there is a diversity of backgrounds and strengths.

Students can use text features in their research and reading after they have a basic understanding. Text features can be utilized for any type of text, such as books, articles and websites. They can help students organize information and find it quickly.

More Advanced Techniques For Teaching Text Features

If students have a better understanding of what text features are and how they function they can utilize them to improve their comprehension of text. They can also draw on prior knowledge, connect and increase their understanding of the text`s content.

A text feature walk is a method to achieve this. This is a highly effective and engaging small-group activity that has proven to increase the number and quality of predictions made by students.

Students can practice this by walking through a page of an academic or social studies text book. Explain that all pages, excluding the main body are text-based features.

For instance headings, images, captions, diagrams labeled with captions maps, and glossaries are all text features. Students will need to explore the page and talk about each text element, its purpose and how it is related to their main idea.

Whats A Visual Text Feature

Visual text features are symbols such as icons, symbols, or other graphic elements used to convey information. These include cartoons comic strips maps or timelines, signs or even pictures or photographs of people.

They can be used to aid students in connecting ideas and provide a concise overview of the text. They can also be an excellent way to test and gauge the comprehension of students of more abstract concepts and vocabulary.

Visual text can be represented in many ways in a classroom. It can be in the form of photographs, posters or charts. Instructing children to make use of these non-linguistic text features will help them comprehend more complex texts and enjoy reading a wider variety of books.

OK,awesome. You now have your target audience,in other words,the direction for your brand chosen. That is great and don’t worry about this not being “perfect” at this point,as you move forward the pieces of the puzzle are going to come together.

Starting with a big PIECE today,your website. We are going to be taking our brand/audience idea and building out a website.

Building a Website Ain’t Scary,It’s FUN!

Building a website sounds like a “scary” process,but fortunately you have access to the most advanced,yet simplistic website platform in the world here at Wealthy Affiliate.

We pride ourselves as a technology company here at Wealthy Affiliate and we are the industry leaders in the website development space.

I am not going to toot our horn any longer,I would rather you experience the website builder and platform for itself. The first step today is going to be building your website,which will literally take you less than 30 seconds.

Click the SiteBuilder link within the menu,and you are going to be ready to build your website (and complete the next task).

Below I have included a video walking you through the SiteRubix platform here at WA and showing you how quickly and efficiently you can build a website here at Wealthy Affiliate.

DISCUSS VIDEO: Building Your Website in 30 Seconds,Literally

Task 1: Building Your Website

Your website is your foundation of your business. It is where all of your traffic is ultimately going to come to,where you are going to build brand and trust within the industry,and where you can promote products/services and generate revenue!

The SiteBuilder platform here at WA is the most simplistic,yet advanced in the industry. It is going to less than 30 seconds to get a full operational,profit ready WordPress website up and running online.

There are 4 steps in the website build process,that I am going to walk you through here. To access the SiteBuilder and EVERYTHING related to your website,you will simply click the light blue “SiteRubix” button in the main menu.

Step 1: Choose the Kind of Website

There are really TWO options here,on a FREE website or on your OWN domain. Ideally,you will have your own domain,but that can come with time.

You can “register” your very own domains right within Wealthy Affiliate using our state of the art SiteDomains platform,which will allow you to instantly set-up your own domain for your own use.

If you are just starting out as a Starter member,you will be building a website on the .siterubix.com domain,which is a completely free website. You can build and host up to 2 FREE websites as a Starter.

As a Premium member,you can build and host up to 25 free websites and the ability to create 25 sites on your own domains (total 50 websites). That is more than adequate to drive many multi-million dollar businesses over time.

For the sake of this training,we are going to be choosing “On a free domain”.

Do know that within the Premium membership,you can easily MOVE a free .siterubix.com button to a registered domain (one you may own) using the “Premium Only” MOVE feature. So by all means start off with a free website.

Step 2: Choose a Domain

Remember last lesson when I chose my “brand”. In this step,I am going to be placing my brand name into the “domain name” field. This is because this will be my website URL and my brand moving forward.

As you can see below,I have added my brand “real deal affiliate” into the domain field.

When you type in your domain,it will let you know if it is available or not. In my case it was,but if your first choice is not available simply do another search until you find a domain name that works for you.

You cannot put spaces in your domain name,hence why my domain is “realdealaffiliate”.

Step 3: Choose a Website Name

The name of your website should match your domain,but it just needs to be grammatically correct (with proper spacing). You can see below my example of this:

Domain: realdealaffiliate.siterubix.com
Title: Real Deal Affiliate

It is as simple as that. Don’t overthink this step,your title will be the same as your domain.

Step 4: Choose a Design

The last step is choosing a “look” for your theme. As a Starter member you will have access to 12,hand picked quality designs.

As a Premium member,you will have access to over 2,464 designs (as shown below) on your website. These are referred to as “Themes”.

Choose a design that you like.

Click on the design you like,and then you will be able to build your site.

SiteRubix,a Next Level Website and Hosting Platform.

You are going to notice that there are many other website features allocated within the SiteRubix menu. I don’t want to eat up too much of your time here,but it is important that you understand the incredible benefits of the SiteRubix platform.

The powerful hosting you have access to here is unparalleled in the Managed WordPress hosting industry. We truly specialize here in providing a secure,robust and FAST platform for you to run your website.

We know that your website IS your business,and it is important that you have the most advanced technology to keep your business operating at 100% at all times of the day.

The following are just some of the powerful features included within the SiteRubix platform here at WA.

• SiteManager (Starter & Premium)
• SiteContent (Starter & Premium)
• SiteBuilder (Starter & Premium)
• SiteDomains (Starter & Premium)

To make your sites secure and fast,we have some SiteRubix EXCLUSIVE technologies to make sure your websites are operating at lightening speeds,but also in a very secure way that protects you from hackers,spammers,and all forms of erroneous attacks.

• SiteSpeed (Premium Only)
• SiteProtect (Premium Only)
• SiteSSL (Premium Only)
• SiteComments (Premium Only)
• SiteFeedback (Premium Only)
• SiteSupport (Premium Only)

There you have it,the low down of the SiteRubix platform and you have your website officially up and running online. Exciting stuff!

As we move forward within the training we are going to be building out your website content,and working to get indexed and ranked in Google (and do so for free).

How SEO Benefits Small Local Businesses

SEO benefits a small business in many ways. Search engines are the most important source of traffic. It’s easy to do and can make your business stand out among the rest. The first benefit of SEO is increased visibility. People who search for your products and services will be able to see your name at the top of the search results. And if you’re listed at the top, they may even decide to stop by your store.

SEO’s low cost is one of its key benefits. In many cases, you can even perform SEO on your own for free. A small SEO company may be able to help you build a brand or increase your visibility.  SEO results can be more effective than traditional marketing because they last longer. If you’re worried about the cost, then consider hiring a small SEO company.

How SEO increase sales for a local business?

SEO is free and does not cost a lot. Although local SEO can take some time, the results are well worth it. Not only will you get more customers, but you’ll also have a stronger presence on the internet and on social media. The benefits of SEO are numerous. SEO’s first benefit is its ability to get your site noticed by potential customers.

Better rankings in search results are more likely to attract new customers. As the world becomes increasingly competitive, it’s important to maintain your presence online in order to stay ahead of the competition. Proper SEO will make you stand out in this market. Better rankings will result in higher profits. How can you increase the traffic to your website? There are several ways to increase your website’s traffic. You can start by improving your website’s visibility and launching an SEO campaign for your small business.

How can I drive more foot traffic in my store? 

SEO will increase foot traffic to your shop. SEO will help increase foot traffic to your store. If you have a physical shop, you will get more customers. The better the visibility of your physical location, the more likely consumers will visit. For small businesses, it can be a great way to increase sales.

Local SEO can help your business stand out among the rest by increasing traffic. This will increase your website’s visibility and help you attract customers.  Your business’s website will be ranked higher when people search for your products and services in the same area. This can be a significant boost to your bottom line. SEO is a key part of any local marketing strategy. 

Why SEO is important for your online success? 

SEO is key to small-scale local businesses getting noticed online. When users search for a product or service on the internet, they’ll most likely visit a store that is listed on the first page. Listing on the first page of local search results will increase your chances of getting new leads. Search engines are easy to use and understand which makes SEO so important for small businesses.

A small business can benefit from SEO by increasing its online visibility.  Your website will appear more often on Google, and you will get more customers. Its website will appear on all major search engines. Potential customers will find your site easier by optimizing it. Your customers will feel more comfortable and confident when they find your business. This will increase your traffic.

SEO can increase your sales and drive traffic to you website. Nearly half of all Google search results are local. It means that people who search for products or services in their area will see it more often in the search results. A well-optimized local business listing can also help your business stand out from the competition. Your website will be more likely than any other business to be found in Google Maps if it’s listed.