May 5, 2009
An Event Apart Seattle, WA

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findabilitybliss

@aarron

Findability

3
simple goals

find your site

find stuff in your site

rediscover your site

Beyond SEO

the common thread

Findability is not ...

Findability is ...

Content

great content +
web standards =

great content +
web standards =
findability bliss

The Standards
Connection
Semantic Markup: machine readable
Accessibility: legible to search engines
Progressively Enhance: remove barriers
Microformats: re-discoverable

Semantic Message

“Aboutness”

Position Keywords

<title>

<h1>

<h2>
&
friends

<strong>
&
<em>

<a ...>here</a>

title=“here”

alt=“here”

More Keyword
Placement
Your URL
Logo file name
Naturally in your content (<= 7%)

<h1 id=\"logo\" title=”description”>
Site or Organization Name
</h1>
/* css */
#logo {
text-indent: -9999px;
background: url(image.gif);
width: 200px;
height: 25px;
}
image replacement

mezzoblue.com/tests/revised-image-replacement/

Bad Karma?

mezzoblue.com/archives/2008/05/05/image_replac/

apple.com

Keyword Research?

WWMD?

delicious.com

adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

Check Your Work

Ranks.nl

Ranks.nl

Sensational-SEO.com/

Sensational-SEO.com/

Find Your
Competitors

Accessible Message

present the entire message

<img src=\"logos.gif\" alt=\"Client logos\" />
<a href=\"#footnote\" title=\"Image
description\">about this image</a>
<div id=\"footnote\">
<h4>Our Clients Include … </h4>
<ul>
<li> Yahoo! </li>
<li> John Deere </li>
<li> CNN </li>
…
</ul>
</div>
description link

<acronym title=\"Web Content
Accessibility Guidelines\">
WCAG
</acronym>
<abbr title=\"Georgia\">GA</abbr>
anticipate search behaviors

What about
JavaScript?

Ajax Pitfalls

Ajax Pitfalls

Progressively
Enhance

make it work without JavaScript support

http://www.udm4.com/
navigation can’t rely on JavaScript

What About Ajax?

Ajax Problems
No unique URL
JavaScript required to load
Not search engine friendly

Ajax Solutions
Don’t use it for mission
critical content
Use the Hijax Approach
Fetch content server-side

Portable Content is
Re-discoverable

<div id=\"hcard-John-Stewart\"
class=\"vcard\">
<span class=\"fn\">John Stewart</span>
<div class=\"org\">The Daily Show</div>
<div class=\"adr\">
<div class=\"street-address\">123 Some
Street</div>
<span class=\"locality\">New York</span>,
<span class=\"region\">NY</span>,
<span class=\"postal-code\">12345</span>
<span class=\"country-name\">USA</span>
</div>
</div>
hCard microformat

soupstudios.com/contact/

<div id=\"hcalendar-An-Event-Apart\"
class=\"vevent\">
<a href=\"http://aneventapart.com\"
class=\"url\"><abbr
title=\"2009-05-04T09:00-05:0000\"
class=\"dtstart\">May 4th 9am</abbr> :
<abbr title=\"2009-05-05T20:00-05:00\"
class=\"dtend\">5th 5pm, 2009</abbr> :
<span class=\"summary\">An Event Apart</
span> in <span class=\"location\">Seattle,
WA</span></a>
<div class=\"description\">For people who
make websites.</div>
hCalendar microformat

microformats.org

Do search engines
recognize microformats?

Will I get a ranking boost
from validating?

Findable Websites Are
Successful Websites

Your Clients Demand It

Thanks
http://buildingfindablewebsites.com

BuildingFindableWebsites.com

slideshare.net/aarron
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findabilitybliss