Toronto | June 11–13

Toward a Search-Optimized Mobile First Information ArchitectureInformation Architecture for the Modern Website

Bryson MeunierDirector, SEO StrategyResolution Media@brysonmeunier+Bryson Meunier

Toronto | June 11–13, 2012 | #sesto

Search Optimized Information Architecture or ‘Siloing’

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Upper Funnel

Long Tail

Bruce Clay on Siloing: http://www.bruceclay.com/seo/silo.htm

Toronto | June 11–13, 2012 | #sesto

Benefits of a Search Optimized Information Architecture

• It enables you to cover the range of possible keyword combinations that your target audience uses, thus capturing a higher proportion of targeted visitors.

• It enables you to fill gaps in content that you did not appreciate prior to doing keyword research.

• It enables you to gain market intelligence on your target audience, which helps you better address the needs of the audience that you attract from Google.

• It enhances internal link equity. Search engines use the same algorithm to assess whether two pages are relevant to each other as they do to judge if a page is relevant to a keyword phrase. If the pages that link to one another on your experience have related keywords, Google will judge them as relevant to each other, and that will tend to increase their PageRank from your internal links.

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Source: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9177323/Tips_to_create_search_optimized_information_architecture

Toronto | June 11–13, 2012 | #sesto

Benefits of a Search Optimized Information Architecture

“Search is a learning tool. Through search log analysis, which we touched on in chapter 6, you can gather useful data on what users actually want from your site, and how they articulate their needs (in the form of search queries). Over time you can analyze this valuable data to diagnose and tune your site’s search system, other aspects of its information architecture, the performance of its content, and many other areas as well.”

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Source: Information Architecture for the World Wide Web: http://books.google.com/books?id=2d2Ry2hZc2MC

Toronto | June 11–13, 2012 | #sesto

Keyword and Concept Research Critical to SEO

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• “Think about the words users would type to find your pages, and make sure that your site actually includes those words within it.”

Design and Content Guidelines, Google Webmaster Guidelines• “Anticipating these differences in search behavior and accounting for them while

writing your content (using a good mix of keyword phrases) could produce positive results”

• “Designing your site around your visitors' needs while making sure your site is easily accessible to search engines usually produces positive results.”

Google SEO Starter Guide

Toronto | June 11–13, 2012 | #sesto

• Analyzed mobile and desktop volumes for top 24,138 keywords according to Adwords Keyword Tool and Google Insights for Search

• Mobile Search accounts for 22% of all Google searches on average according to sample

Google queries reveal differences in search behavior

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Toronto | June 11–13, 2012 | #sesto

Fin

an

ce

• 77% of total search volume for [atm] and 99% of volume from [atm locations] comes from mobile devices

Din

ing

an

d N

igh

tlife • 88% of searches for [restaurants], 97% of searches for [bars] and 80% of searches for [restaurants near me] come from mobile devices In

tern

et &

Te

leco

m • 69% of [apps for android] and 73% of [download ringtones] searches come from mobile devices

Google queries reveal differences in search behavior

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Toronto | June 11–13, 2012 | #sesto

Is Search Optimized Information Architecture Still Possible in a Fragmented Modern World?

Restaurant Home Page

Menu

Nutrition

Jobs Locations Printable Coupons

Company Information

Locations

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Toronto | June 11–13, 2012 | #sesto

Google gives official recommendation for mobile smartphone SEO

• “Google recommends webmasters follow the industry best practice of using responsive web design, namely serving the same HTML for all devices and using only CSS media queries to decide the rendering on each device.”

• “If responsive design is not the best option to serve your users, Google supports serving your content using different HTML. The different HTML can be on the same URL (a setup called dynamic serving) or on different URLs, and Googlebot can handle both setups appropriately if you follow our setup recommendations.”

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Full details at https://developers.google.com/webmasters/smartphone-sites/

Toronto | June 11–13, 2012 | #sesto

Responsive Design Formats Existing Content

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Information Architecture for Desktop Website Information Architecture for Responsive Website

Toronto | June 11–13, 2012 | #sesto

Bad mobile sitemap mimics the desktop Good mobile sitemap limits possible actions and includes link to full site

Source: “Mobile Information Architecture”, Mobile Design and Development, Brian Fling (O’Reilly 2009)

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Toronto | June 11–13, 2012 | #sesto

Mobile First Responsive Web Design

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Start with a simple information architecture

Make it responsive

Toronto | June 11–13, 2012 | #sesto

@brysonmeunier

“[mobile first responsive web design] neglects the penalty imposed on desktop users when you give them a design that's suboptimal for bigger screens and better input devices (see sidebar on mouse vs. fingers). If desktop users were a minute minority this might be acceptable, but almost all websites get substantially more traffic (and even more business) from desktop users than from mobile users. So, while we do want to serve mobile users, we can't neglect desktop users — who, after all, pay most of our salaries.”

Jakob Nielsen, Nielsen Norman GroupMobile Site vs Full Site, April 10, 2012

Toronto | June 11–13, 2012 | #sesto

Sometimes Dedicated Mobile Sites are More Responsive

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eSurance Desktop Site and Sitemap

eSurance Mobile Site and Sitemap

Toronto | June 11–13, 2012 | #sesto

Responsive

Dedicated

Some Categories Need Dedicated Mobile Sites

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Toronto | June 11–13, 2012 | #sesto

Some Categories Need Dedicated Mobile Sites

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Toronto | June 11–13, 2012 | #sesto

Some Categories Need Dedicated Mobile Sites

@brysonmeunier

Toronto | June 11–13, 2012 | #sesto

Toward a Search-Optimized Mobile First Information Architecture

Understand the differences between what your mobile user expects and what your desktop user expects and build your mobile site accordingly

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1

Toronto | June 11–13, 2012 | #sesto

Toward a Search-Optimized Mobile First Information Architecture

Build a mobile home page at m.domain.com that addresses the mobile user’s goals with link to full site and responsive duplicate pages OR build a mobile first responsive design driven site if goals are same.

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Desktop Homepage

Mobile Sites/Apps Loans

Mortgage

Calculator

ATM/Locations

About Us

Mobile Homepage

Mobile Assistant

ATM/Locations Near Me

Mobile Wallpapers

Key

DesktopMobileResponsiveEquivalent

Sample Banking site with hybrid mobile IA

2

Toronto | June 11–13, 2012 | #sesto

Toward a Search-Optimized Mobile First Information Architecture

If dedicated mobile site is built, use page annotations and redirects to ensure Google understands equivalent content

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Source: Google Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide: http://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted_dlcp/www.google.com/en/us/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf

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Toronto | June 11–13, 2012 | #sesto

Dedicated Mobile Sites Do Not Result in Less Organic Traffic

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Full study at distilled.net/blog/mobile/how-the-winners-do-mobile-seo-guest-post/

Toronto | June 11–13, 2012 | #sesto

Dedicated Mobile Sites Do Not Result in Less Organic Traffic

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1. On the desktop page, add a special link rel="alternate" tag pointing to the corresponding mobile URL. This helps Googlebot discover the location of your site's mobile pages.

2. On the mobile page, add a link rel="canonical" tag pointing to the corresponding desktop URL.

Options for sitemaps and HTTP headers at https://developers.google.com/webmasters/smartphone-sites/details

Toronto | June 11–13, 2012 | #sesto

Implications for Bing?

@brysonmeunierSource: StatCounter Global Stats: http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_search_engine-ww-monthly-201105-201205-bar

Toronto | June 11–13, 2012 | #sesto

Bryson MeunierDirector, SEO StrategyResolution Mediabmeunier@resolutionmedia.comhttp://www.brysonmeunier.comhttp://www.resolutionmedia.com@brysonmeunier+Bryson Meunier

Scan to download Google Mobile Search Rankings White Paper:

http://resolutionmedia.com/white-papers/rank-higher-in-google-mobile-search

Thank You!