copyright 1998-2006 grantastic designs, inc. usability and seo: two wins for the price of one by...
Post on 12-Jan-2016
212 Views
Preview:
TRANSCRIPT
Copyright 1998-2006 Grantastic Designs, Inc.
Usability and SEO: Two Wins for the Price of One
ByShari Thurow
Webmaster/Marketing DirectorGrantastic Designs, Inc.
Copyright 1998-2006 Grantastic Designs, Inc.
Goals of this presentation:
Usability and search How they are related
What is Web site usability?
Important usability concepts• Information architecture vs. site navigation
• Sense of place
• Scent of information
Interface• Site navigation
• Cross-linking (as part of the page layout)
• Site map
• URL structure
Case study
Copyright 1998-2006 Grantastic Designs, Inc.
Copyright 1998-2006 Grantastic Designs, Inc.
Term highlightingin ad titles
Term highlighting
Copyright 1998-2006 Grantastic Designs, Inc.
Term highlightingin ad titles
Copyright 1998-2006 Grantastic Designs, Inc.
Term highlightingin ad copy
Copyright 1998-2006 Grantastic Designs, Inc.
Term highlightingin ad copy
Copyright 1998-2006 Grantastic Designs, Inc.
Term highlightingin main search results
Copyright 1998-2006 Grantastic Designs, Inc.
Term highlightingin HTML title tags
Copyright 1998-2006 Grantastic Designs, Inc.
Term highlightingin snippets or meta-
tag descriptions
Copyright 1998-2006 Grantastic Designs, Inc.
Term highlightingin URL (Web address)
Copyright 1998-2006 Grantastic Designs, Inc.
Putting it all together again…
Copyright 1998-2006 Grantastic Designs, Inc.
Copyright 1998-2006 Grantastic Designs, Inc.
Web site usability serves two purposes in SERPs:
Relevancy HTML title tags Snippets (body copy)
Encouraging clicks to your site HTML title tags Snippets (body copy) Meta-tag descriptions URL structure
Copyright 1998-2006 Grantastic Designs, Inc.
Usability addresses ALL search behaviors:
Querying
Refining
Expanding
Browsing/surfing
Pogo-sticking (Jared Spool)
Foraging
Scanning (eye-tracking)
Reading
Berrypicking
“The Design of Browsing and Berrypicking Techniques for the Online Search Interface” by Marcia Bates
http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/bates/berrypicking.html
Copyright 1998-2006 Grantastic Designs, Inc.
What is Web site usability?
The ease with which visitors are able to use a Web site.
A quality attribute that assesses how easy user interfaces are to use (Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox, August 25, 2003).
Task oriented.
Balance between user (customer) goals and business goals.
Copyright 1998-2006 Grantastic Designs, Inc.
Important usability concepts:
Information architecture vs. navigation
Sense of place
Scent of Information (Jared Spool)
Copyright 1998-2006 Grantastic Designs, Inc.
Information architecture vs. navigation:
Architecture is the organization of site content into groups.
How files are arranged on a Web server
How Web content is placed in categories
How content is organized and grouped
Navigation is part of the user interface - how the user is able to browse a Web site.
Copyright 1998-2006 Grantastic Designs, Inc.
Copyright 1998-2006 Grantastic Designs, Inc.
For this usability test, participants were asked one question, “What page are you viewing?”
100% answered correctly.
Reason? This navigation scheme (interface) supported the site’s information architecture.
Result? Web pages appear more keyword focused to BOTH search engines and site visitors.
Copyright 1998-2006 Grantastic Designs, Inc.
Interface:
Portions of the Web site interface that communicate information architecture and keyword focus to BOTH search engines and site visitors include:
Site navigation scheme(s)• Text links• Navigation buttons• Image maps• Menus• Flash links
Cross-linking Page layout URL structure (Web address)
Copyright 1998-2006 Grantastic Designs, Inc.
URL structure is part of the interface:
Hyphens vs. no hyphens
www.help-desk-software.com is not better than…
www.helpdesksoftware.com
Potentially problematic characters: &, ?, =, $, +, %
? = Stop Sign Indicator
Do not want the same content delivered over and over again (Session IDs and site search results)
Potential spider “traps”
Keywords in the URL - usability counts!
Copyright 1998-2006 Grantastic Designs, Inc.
Suppose your site sells hiking boots:
Which URL is your target audience most likely to remember?
1. http://www.site.com/hikingboots.asp
2. http://www.site.com/products.asp?cat_no=25
3. http://www.site.com/products.asp?cat_no=25&cat_sortorder=asc
Copyright 1998-2006 Grantastic Designs, Inc.
Subdirectories:
One subdirectory
www.domain.com/boots/hiking.html
Two subdirectories
www.domain.com/boots/leather/hiking.html
Copyright 1998-2006 Grantastic Designs, Inc.
Subdirectory vs. subdomains:
Subdirectory URL structure
www.domain.com/boots/hiking.html
Subdomain URL structure
boots.domain.com/hiking.html
Copyright 1998-2006 Grantastic Designs, Inc.
Case Study
Copyright 1998-2006 Grantastic Designs, Inc.
MedicineNet.com/WebMD.com:
The Client Online healthcare media publishing
company Healthcare information and news
feeds
The Goals Increase average page view per visitor
to generate more ad revenue Increase overall number of page views Increase qualified search engine traffic
(both new visitors and current visitors)
The Solution Search Usability Heuristic Analysis™ Improve interface: site navigation and
cross-linking
Copyright 1998-2006 Grantastic Designs, Inc.
Results:
From August 2004 – October 2006
Number of page views =
Page view per visitor =
Search engine referrals =
Link development also increased significantly.
Copyright 1998-2006 Grantastic Designs, Inc.
Conclusion:
Site architecture defines: Information organization (categorization)
Information hierarchy
Keyword focus
… to BOTH search engines and site visitors.
A site’s information architecture and interface should communicate to both search engines and site visitors the information that you believe is most important on your Web site.
Copyright 1998-2006 Grantastic Designs, Inc.
Conclusion (cont’d):
Give search engines easy access to keyword-rich content through: Site navigation scheme(s)
Relevant cross-linking
Site map
URL structure
Usability counts! Web site usability is extremely important for receiving high-quality link development (popularity).
Copyright 1998-2006 Grantastic Designs, Inc.
Search Engine Visibility
From New Riders
Companion site at:
SearchEnginesBook.com
2nd edition availableMarch 2007
top related