It’s not enough just to rank highly and drive keyword traffic these days (if you can even do that after Google’s Panda algorithm update). You also need to win over the customer by providing breakthrough experiences that anticipate their needs while providing real, tangible value. The new generation of SEOs understands this, which is why they’re also focused on information architecture and user experience.
In this session, you’ll see world-class examples of how you can bring these disciplines together in your companies and organizations in order to delight your users, plug holes in your conversion rate, and drive more qualified traffic. No “best practices” or baseless theories here – just real-life tactics that solved problems and drove conversion. SEOs and IA/UX pros don’t need to butt heads (or headbutt!) when they can collaborate together to improve the cross-channel experience.
Are you having trouble meeting the needs of your users while growing your traffic? This is the panel for you.
Originally presented by Jonathon Colman, John Goad, Mike Pantoliano, Michael King, and Ben Lloyd at the first-ever Seattle Interactive Conference (SIC 2011) in Seattle, Washington.
You can learn more about Jonathon Colman at http://www.jonathoncolman.org/
9. Speakers
John Goad [AddThree]
@JohnGoad
Mike Pantoliano [Distilled]
@MikeCP
Michael King [Publicis Modem]
@iPullRank
Ben Lloyd [Amplify Interactive]
@Blizzle
10. Speakers
John Goad [AddThree]
@JohnGoad
Mike Pantoliano [Distilled]
@MikeCP
Michael King [Publicis Modem]
@iPullRank
Ben Lloyd [Amplify Interactive]
@Blizzle
11. SEO is UX for Robots
John Goad
SEO
@johngoad
AddThree.com
13. Humans
Humans leverage robots everyday looming for
your content.
Publisher to Computer to Computer to Human.
We’re #1
Know how your humans are using computers and
language to find content discovered by robots….
Good
14. Robots
Robots have limitations.
Robots don’t read.
Robots don’t see.
But they have tons of friends and
they love to make high quality
introductions.
16. How
Think like a bot ….
Some of the same “human” rules apply* on a
high level.
Be the robot …
Humans first… then robots.
* not all
17. Client
Well established internet based insurance provider
(that does not want me to use their name).
I am in insurance …
I need credibility but have fallen
off of page 1 to page 6.
Last SEO’s IA and content
recommendations lost 75% of my
organic traffic.
18. Problem
At first meeting client stated….
“I have a team in India buying links for
me is that bad?”
UH OH…..
Real Problem
Client created over 20,000 pages of 3rd
party veterinarian listings that watered
down the main site content.
Lost Authotity
19. Solution
Re-Focus
With Robot.txt file we excluded the directory
that contained the veterinarian listings.
This increased the strength of the
main content.
20. Results
Client bounced back with better than
original visibility.
• Credibility restored …. back on page 1.
• Organic traffic back up to pre engagement
levels.
75%
Total increase in Organic referrals.
21. Win
Robots help you…
Make new friends and influence
people.
People find you.
People link to you.
People talk about #you.
Help them help you.
22. Thanks
@johngoad
John Goad
Director of Free Traffic
john@addthree.com
23. Speakers
John Goad [AddThree]
@JohnGoad
Mike Pantoliano [Distilled]
@MikeCP
Michael King [Publicis Modem]
@iPullRank
Ben Lloyd [Amplify Interactive]
@Blizzle
24. Not Just More Traffic,
Better Traffic
Smart IA and Site Navigation
Mike Pantoliano This presentation is available here:
@MikeCP http://dis.tl/sic-seo
Distilled
40. Take Away
Export your navigation into Excel
Get search volume from GKT
Brainstorm/mine for new keywords
41. Take Away
Are you missing out on organic
landing page opportunities?
42. Thanks!
Mike Pantoliano
@MikeCP
Distilled
http://dis.tl/excelninja
http://dis.tl/xenu-excel
http://dis.tl/faceted-nav
43. Speakers
John Goad [AddThree]
@JohnGoad
Mike Pantoliano [Distilled]
@MikeCP
Michael King [Publicis Modem]
@iPullRank
Ben Lloyd [Amplify Interactive]
@Blizzle
44. Let’s Be Friends
Michael King
SEO Manager
@ipullrank
Publicis Modem
Download these slides http://slidesha.re/uxplusseo
45. Building a user experience
without SEO in mind is like
building a car with no engine.
46. I don’t believe in bad
user experience for
the sake of SEO.
Stop making ugly sites and blaming it on the need for SEO
47. Do Less of this Do More of this
Make compelling experiences with utility
48. Any Creative that thinks SEO will
limit their abilities to deliver a
quality product isn't very (ahem)
creative.
Yeah, it’s an orphan.
What you gonna do
about it?!
SEO is a springboard not an anchor
49. User Experience is only
compromised by SEO when it is
retrofitted to the design process
Inject SEO into the design process as early as possible
50. SEO absolutely MUST be an active
consideration and ideally the driver of
every step of a site build
SEO = DNA
51. UX is very important to SEO because
there is evidence that Googlebot and
Bingbot may be headless web
browsers.
See: http://ipullrank.com/googlebot-is-chrome and http://bit.ly/sT0Vvj
Google also just revealed that they can crawl AJAX
52. Most importantly SEO is about
helping people find what they want
and presenting it to them in a way
that they expect.
Need States
Navigational Business Goals
Informational Navigational
Transactional Informational
Transactional
The old keyword classes are dead; identify need states
53. I’m done ranting, let’s talk about the mistakes that I’ve learned from
54. Your development and Creative
teams will just do what works. To
them building for Search is
utterly unnatural. Don‘t let them
build anything before you see it.
Cheech & Chong’s Magic Brownie Adventure was an awesome
campaign developed by my team but the site was built with no
SEO considerations at all. Not even a page title.
Never leave your Creative or Tech team to their own devices
55. LG’s site is a nightmare for a variety of
reasons but one of my favorite is the 1997
frames-inspired navigation that features over
200 links and is impossible to mouse over
properly.
Faceted navigation is an option when handled properly
56. Giant flash videos
are cool, right?
Sometimes your team or the
client will be so far off the mark
that there is nothing you can do
but wait for the redesign.
What do you
mean navigation
should be text?
Some battles you cannot win.
57. Use expandable DIVs to keep large blocks of text from being obtrusive to design
The Expandable DIV is your best friend.
58. Drive the Content Strategy by preparing an SEO Copy Brief that thoroughly
outlines the information architecture with regard to target keywords and
identify the objectives and target audience.
Keyword-relevant information architecture MUST come from SEO
59. Adding considerations at the
wireframe stage allows everyone to
be on the same page about how
and why SEO is to be accomplished.
Apply pressure during the Wireframe phase to ensure success.
60. Social Listening/
Keyword Push Live /
Need State Creative / Copy /
Mapping / Conversion Rate
Determination/ Tech
Information Optimization /
Keyword Development
Architecture Measurement
Research
SEO Defines SEO Validates SEO Drives
Info Architecture User Experience Measurement
Get involved throughout the lifecycle from strategy to measurement
61. Scout Labs
Alterian SM2
Social Mention
Mine the conversation in social media for personas and keywords
63. 1. 2. 3. 4 5. 6. 7.
Motivation Decision-
Research Booking Pre-flight Travel Post-travel
to travel making
How do I crystallize my
Need States
What is out there that travels so that they are
I want to collect new Of the options available, Who’s going to help me What do I need to do to Who can I rely on to help
would be fun and easy to share, and
experience, add to my what is feasible given fine tune and make the activate my trip so that me make the most of my
interesting to do alone provide inspiration to
personal story, and time & budget plan possible? it’s as easy as possible? trip?
and/or with the people I me and others
create special memories constraints?
care about? evermore?
Occasion: Get Ideas: Search for: Search for: Locate: Connect: Organize:
Examples of What’s happening
-Season/Holiday Key trip info: -With local info -Memories/events
From friends, family,colleagues, Activity and experience options -Cheapest flight options based
-NY’ eve -Luggage rules -With resources (guides, gurus) -Evidence you’ve been there/
extended social media network, at different destinations on timings
-Valentine’s D -Check in time -Activity ideas Memorabilia
bloggers, TV personalities, - Cheapest flight options based
-Honeymoon -Terminal to go to -New ideas
movies, activity groups & forums on destination (look for promos
-Birthday gift and time suggestions) -Currency exchange
-Anniversary Compare: -Ways to and from airport
-Stag do Destination options based on -Travel tips Record: Package:
-Reunion Search for: timings, costs, and ease of -Experiences
-Accomplishment Occasion or experience sought getting there Compare: -Memories Trip takeouts so as to extend the
benefits gained from the trip
-Time off on google, publications, forums,
social media groups,etc
Time options vs. budget across
key providers
Book: -New ideas, contacts, knowledge
-Car hire
-Accommodation
Experience: -Airport bus Share:
-Broaden horizon Commit: To build on and showcase who
-Hobby/skill To a scenario you are
-Well-being/R&R
-Adventure
Manage:
-Landscape (sea, mountain, Info updates, efficient and easy
plant) task completion
-Weather (sun, snow, wind)
Research Commitment Experience
Inspiration
Discoveries in social listening must dictate the SEO, content strategy and UX
We used social listening to identify need states and build personas
64. 1. 2. 3. 4 5. 6. 7.
Motivation Decision-
Research Booking Pre-flight Travel Post-travel
to travel making
Occasion Activity Destination Offering Simplify Connect Remember
Core Semantic Groups We identified the need state
Flights
matched the client’s business
goals and mapped them to
semantic groups to dictate the
information architecture.
Country/Region Logistics
Timing
City/Airport
Cheap Flights
Map need states to core semantic groups to develop site maps
65. Identify what people want and present it in a way that matches their
expectations using the language they expect in order to provide the best
user experience to your target audience and improve conversion.
We mapped those to our keyword research and developed content
66. Navigation and sub-
navigation reflect need
states
UX and content
developed with the
concerns of our
personas
We built a user experience indicative of these considerations
67. We improved rankings and
conversions dramatically by
marrying these concepts.
Bookings
Organic Traffic
Turns out we’re pretty good at this.
69. Search Keyword-Level
FB:Admin Demographics
Referrers
Placing a site on Facebook’s OpenGraph and having a user opt-in allows
you to get their FB data whenever they come to your site. Matching that
with search referrers gives you demographics at a keyword-level.
KLD Source Code: http://ipullrank.com/code/keyword-demographics/
70. OWNER
Curious George Gamer Film Purist Tech Geek
• 18-32 • 18-32 • 22-40 • 22-40
• Male • Male • Male • Male
• Loves indie rock • Loves all music • Loves film soundtracks • Loves Techno
• Wishes he had a beard • Wishes he could move out • Wishes he could live in the • Wishes you would stop
his mom’s basement movie Avatar invading his online privacy
• 5000 Searches Monthly • 600 Searches Monthly • 1000 Searches Monthly • 100 Searches Monthly
• Conversion Rate 5% • Conversion Rate 2% • Conversion Rate 0.5% • Conversion Rate 0.2%
This data allows you to determine which of your target personas dominates
traffic and conversions for a given keyword.
For more applications of KLD see: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/keyword-level-demographics
71. What Normal Users See What Curious George Sees
Curious George
• 18-32
• Male
• Loves indie rock
• Wishes he had a beard
Using the FB data user experiences can be tailored dynamically to
reflect properties of the persona when they visit.
Use social data to improve the user experience and conversion
72. UX and SEO are good buddies
now and they are going places!
UX SEO
74. Speakers
John Goad [AddThree]
@JohnGoad
Mike Pantoliano [Distilled]
@MikeCP
Michael King [Publicis Modem]
@iPullRank
Ben Lloyd [Amplify Interactive]
@Blizzle
76. Quotes
“I like having a selection, I just don't like
making a choice”
-Carrie Renee Mathews
Jam Study:
“The presence of choice might be
appealing in theory… in reality, people
might find more & more choice
debilitating”
-Professor Sheena Iyengar, Columbia University
77. Choices
Ever try to pick a paint color?
Did you know there were
THAT MANY shades of
white?
How about order from a
restaurant menu that’s 5
pages long?
78. Links
•SEO Says: “Too many on-page links”
•Designer should hear: “The Navigation is Overwhelming”
•Site Owner/Client freaks out about cutting down user options
- SEO Benefit: Improved spidering = more pages available
for search
- Design & U/X Benefit: Contextual navigation = improved
usability
- Site Benefit: more visitors, better usability = ROI
80. Internal
Links
1. Major duplicate content issue resolved
2. Nav change to news
3. Nav change to events
4. Nav change to posts
5. Minor duplicate content issue resolved
81. Template
Changes
Example:
Simple Template Changes
Sidebar links
Number of posts
82. Directory
Changes
Example:
Simple Template Changes
Cut down on columns
Sidebar links are
contextual
83. Post
Changes
Example:
Post-Level Changes
Keep the links contextual
85. Organic
Search
1. Major duplicate content issue resolved
2. Nav change to news
3. Nav change to events
4. Nav change to posts
5. Minor duplicate content issue resolved
Welcome to our Seattle Interactive Conference (SIC) session, “SEO and UX are Like Chocolate and Peanut Butter”. If you’re here to see Sir Mix-A-Lot, I’m sorry, but he spoke earlier.
I’m Jonathon Colman, the in-house SEO for REI. We seek to inspire, educate, and outfit for a lifetime of outdoor adventure and stewardship. If you’re local, you already know about us from our Flagship Store just off I-5. If you’re in town for Seattle Interactive, try to stop on by while you’re here.I’ll be moderating your all-star panel of SEOs who understand the importance of both UX (user experience design) and IA (information architecture), but I first wanted to give you some insight as to our perspective here. So let’s jump in…
For years, these two disciplines – SEO and UX– have been practiced separately from one another. They’re done by different people working on different teams in different divisions in different buildings operating under different goals. And both disciplines have done relatively well for themselves. But you know who’s lost in this? Customers, visitors, and users.
We heard all of our great speakers yesterday and today – Vanessa Fox, Rand Fishkin, Duane Forrester, Ian Lurie, Maile Ohye, and several others – talk about why it’s so important that we keep the user in mind when we practice SEO. And that includes the search engines themselves as users. Search engines, robots, spiders, crawlers – whatever you want to call them – are consumers of our content, too.All these brilliant folks essentially said the same thing: design for users, but be smart about the search crawlers, too.
Here’s why that’s such an important idea: robots didn’t pop into existence all by themselves – we made them. They have some of our characteristics. Heck, let’s get straight to the point – we tell them what to do, where to go, how to perform every operation. They couldn’t function without us.And it’s getting harder for us to function without them. Why? Because amongst other things, robots serve as our wayfinding agents, finding knowledge for us or showing us how to get from Point A to Point B. Next time you pull out your iPhone and use the Maps app, you’ll see what I mean.But in order for robots to serve us, we need to focus on their experience and find ways to help them be successful, just as we do our human users.
Why is it important for us to get this right? Because times are hard. Many of us are out of work. And if we spent half as much time learning from each other and working with another as we tend to do fighting, we’d be a lot more productive. And it’s these micro-steps, when scaled up throughout our industries, that can turn an entire economy around.
How do we start doing that? By focusing on innovation – and Siri is a great example of what that looks like. Siri on the iPhone 4S (or iPhone 4, if you’re a hacker), is essentially a search utility. She helps you find where you are, where you’re going, where your friends and family are, and so on And she’s been cleverly designed to rely upon one of the greatest interfaces ever created: the Human Voice. This is what innovation looks like when designers and searchers work together.There’s a million more Siris out there, waiting to be created. And the folks in this room – you – are the ones who will make that happen.
We’re lucky to have such a great cast of speakers on our panel today. With us are John Goad from AddThree, Mike Pantoliano from Distilled, Michael King from Publicis Modem, and Ben Lloyd from Amplify Interactive. This is truly an all-star panel and I’m especially looking forward to the Q&A portion of our talk so that we can pump them for information.
Up first is John Goad.
NEW friends from the longtail
NEW friends from the longtail
NEW friends from the longtail
NEW friends from the longtail
NEW friends from the longtail
Your site’s navigation is the skeleton behind a strong information architecture. It’s the primary way a user interacts with your site, so ignoring it is neglecting a HUGE part of the user experience. But it’s also the way the search engines will crawl through and understand your site. Today I’m going to talk about a specific change that was made to a site’s navigation that improved the user experience AND increased traffic and sales.
We have a brand new site, or new site redesign, and we can approach the IA and site navigation from square one. I’m going to talk about a specific example where this wasn’t quite possible.
Consider that as we go deeper into the site, the keywords for each page become less competitive. This is why it’s extremely important to make sure that our site’s navigation provides Googlebot and users an intuitive path. No, you’re not going to get tons of links to your product pages, but keeping them indexed, properly keyword targeted, and well linked internally provides you with an excellent chance of getting a ton of long-tail traffic.Sure, this is nice, but large sites can really struggle
Big eComm site with 100,000 high end stationary products. How do you present these products without overwhelming? Faceted Navigation… And there are tons of ways to implement faceted navigation
Let’s cover what made the user experience so good, but what about it was so bad for SEO
AJAX used to apply filters. URL stays constant, content loads dynamically.
AJAX used to apply filters. URL stays constant, content loads dynamically.
AJAX used to apply filters. URL stays constant, content loads dynamically.
Remember that bit about competition earlier? Suppose “wedding invitations” is extremely competitive.
AJAX used to apply filters. URL stays constant, content loads dynamically.
AJAX used to apply filters. URL stays constant, content loads dynamically.
Jam study:Tested displaying & offering samples: 24 jars of jam vs 6 jars of jamMore people stopped by the large display & sampled jam, BUT more people bought from the smaller display (30% purchased from small display, 3% purchased from large display)