copyright 1998-2006 grantastic designs, inc. usability and seo: two wins for the price of one by...

Copyright 1998-2006 Grantastic Designs, Inc.

Usability and SEO: Two Wins for the Price of One

ByShari Thurow

Webmaster/Marketing DirectorGrantastic 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


Term highlightingin ad titles

Term highlighting


Term highlightingin ad titles


Term highlightingin ad copy


Term highlightingin main search results


Term highlightingin HTML title tags


Term highlightingin snippets or meta-

tag descriptions


Term highlightingin URL (Web address)


Putting it all together again…


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


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


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.


Important usability concepts:

Information architecture vs. navigation

Sense of place

Scent of Information (Jared Spool)


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.


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.


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)


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!


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


Subdirectories:

One subdirectory

www.domain.com/boots/hiking.html

Two subdirectories

www.domain.com/boots/leather/hiking.html


Subdirectory vs. subdomains:

Subdirectory URL structure

www.domain.com/boots/hiking.html

Subdomain URL structure

boots.domain.com/hiking.html


Case Study


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


Results:

From August 2004 – October 2006

Number of page views =

Page view per visitor =

Search engine referrals =

Link development also increased significantly.


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.


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).


Search Engine Visibility

From New Riders

Companion site at:

SearchEnginesBook.com

2nd edition availableMarch 2007

copyright 1998-2006 grantastic designs, inc. usability and seo: two wins for the price of one by...

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