Information architecture is increasingly important in all aspects of business. Search engines and users are placing the burden of information organization and structure on website owners and rewarding or penalizing brands according to their accessibility. From domain structure to sitemap hierarchy to page layout, content architecture can directly affect lead generation, website engagement and conversion rates. Not understanding best practices or performing diligent testing can quickly impede search engine rankings and user experience. Learn the necessary steps required to properly architect your website's content and data.

1. 01
WORLD IA DAY 2016 PRESENTATION TITLE HERE
MILWAUKEE,
WISCONSIN, USA

2. JACKIE
BURHANS
DIRECTOR OF
RESEARCH &
MARKETING
@ascedia
jburhans@ascedia.com
The most important thing I do at my agency is
educate my clients about their visitors and help them
understand how user experience (UX) and content
architecture is connected to conversions

3. Empathy
In my 11 year career I have attempted to understand
my audience and engage them.
The key has been empathy.
There are several tips here to apply this concept but
what I hope you leave here inspired with a new
perspective on how to approach digital content.

4. The web is a utopia of information and ideas. I like to
direct the infrastructure of that information. I like
getting people from point A (a search query) to point
B (information). That’s possible today more than ever

5. That hasn’t always
been the case.

6. I got into the industry in 2004.
Much of the internet’s organization was figured out.
The internet used to be a mess.

7. The internet is like a library with no
catalog where all the books get up
and move themselves every night

8. Search engines made content accessible and
organized. Google quickly became an industry leader,
dictating more so than anything else how content
should be structured on the internet. This was
massively based on matching keywords in queries to
keywords in content.

9. Businesses strategically researched keywords that
their target audiences were searching on and placing
them into their websites in an effort to rank on search
engines and drive traffic to their site.

10. • Don’t be evil
Google made sure businesses didn’t deceive search
engines or users. If you played nice you could rank.
Content consumers demanded content creation and
the internet saw an influx of content.

11. Blogging became a way for businesses to put out
more content about more keywords and drove a lot of
traffic to their sites.

12. But the internet grew quickly and it got more and
more difficult to find the information you were
looking for.

13. There was a lot of noise. Search results were less and
less relevant as content exploded. Google wrote
algorithms to identify content that was spammy to
find the most relevant content.

14. Google has made literally hundreds of updates to
their algorithm every year in an effort to keep search
results relevant and useful to searchers.

15. QUALITY CONTENT
The most significant algorithm update for content
architecture became known as Google Panda which
weeded out low quality sites. As content architects
we had to start being deliberate in the content we
created focusing on quality and uniqueness.

16. Several things happened
• The amount of content on the internet skyrocketed
This worked for a long time. Marketers and
copywriters could research keyword opportunities
and write copy that their audience was searching on.
It was very straightforward.
But then, several things happened.

17. An explosion of connectivity

18. • More ways to connect to the internetThere were more ways to
connect to the internet

19. Mobile searches skyrocketed

20. MOBILE searches skyrocketed
• Mobile stats here
Subsequently, mobile searches skyrocketed and last
year mobile searches surpassed desktop searches.

21. Time spent on social media
increased greatly

22. Social media
• New ay to consume media
As users were more connected to
information, there was a demand to be
more connected to each other

23. User Generated Content

24. This led to an influx of user generated content. Users
were contributing product information and driving
the conversation

25. Voice Search

26. Voice search
• Natural language
Voice search introduced searches based on natural
language. We speak differently than we type. So this
changed the game.

27. • We need to accommodate them.
Attention spans are dropping- if we don’t architect content
how users want to consume it, they will move on.
So what does all this mean?

28. When the world became constantly connected to
each other and to real time information, users
demanded a new way to access information (and
even new information to access)

29. This shook up marketers. No one knew the future of
SEO and success had been redefined. Everything we
knew about ranking was no longer accurate.
Conferences are filled with marketers threatening
“SEO is dead”. I think in a sense that is correct.

30. Instead of optimizing for
search engines, the power
has shifted from content
creators, to content
consumers. Accepting this is
the difference between
surviving this industry shift
and not.
This image is a great
example of what is
happening. Previously we
could pave the path for
users- pave it, make it wide
enough for 2-way traffic,
light it. But users are now
savvy enough and
empowered enough to
create their own path. They
will take the path they want.
We need to accommodate
them if we want to remain
relevant.

31. A complete
algorithm
refresh I said Google was leading the charge so let’s look at
how they responded. The “Hummingbird” algorithm
update was a complete overhaul. Other changes were
tweaking the algorithm. This one completely changed
the game to accommodate natural language search.
Natural language searches are constructed differently.

32. Google Hummingbird knew how to understand
search context. Let’s say you want to go to brunch
with your friends. If you sat down at your desktop and
opened Google, you might type “best brunch
restaurant”. That’s a great keyword. Google can
understand all of those words and as a marketer I can
even create content about “best brunch restaurant”.

33. But when you ask “OK Google” or “Siri” you might say
“where’s the best place to get brunch?” Google now
needed to understand that “place” means restaurant.
Google can also understand where you are to provide
geographically relevant results. And Google will
scrape review websites to find the best places rated
for brunch. And, they’ll give you wait times.

34. This sums it up well (from Search Engine Land).
Google is looking less at queries and more at
understanding the context of search. From a
business’s standpoint and as a marketer, if you want
to drive traffic, you need to change your approach.
This approach is also how Google populates the
Knowledge graph.

35. • Knowledge graph
The knowledge graph contains snippets of
information scrapped from the most reliable sources.
This area was created for mobile users. The idea is to
provide mobile users with answers to their natural
language searches without needing to navigate to a
webpage. Often, this information takes up 100% or
more of a mobile user’s screen. Organic results are
less relevant.

36. Much of this information is provided with mark up
language that you can identify in the code of your
webpage. Schema.org is the resource for
understanding this markup.
Search engines are getting better at identifying this
information without markup so providing accurate,
valuable content is the best way to get into the
knowledge graph.

37. So understanding the information
your users want to access is key.
Empathy.
So, there is still a keyword
component, we want to know the
terminology our audience is using
but its more about understanding
their behaviors.
How they access information, from
what devices, where they are
located, how much time do they
have to consume your information,
what other information are they
exposed to, can they access the info
you offer somewhere else more
conveniently? (because they will)
We must create value.

38. "Subscribers, fans, followers, leads and
customers choose when and where to
interact with your brand. They do not
differentiate between marketing
departments and channels.”
-pr2020.com

39. So how do we structure information when Google
keeps changing their algorithm and users keep
consuming content differently but we still have
content we want exposure to?

40. Be thought leaders

41. It’s a played out buzz word, but we need to
be thought leaders. The only brands that
will survive are the thought leaders.
According to Google Panda we must be
relevant & valuable.

42. Make content Accessible

43. Make it responsive.
Mobile accessibility is a
ranking factor along with
engagement statistics like
bounce rate. Google won’t
send users to a site with
poor experience.
Marketers should always
work with UX professionals
because our goals are
aligned.
Design for mobile first and
it will force you to ask
tough questions about
what content is valuable.

44. Design it for them

45. Design is a funny word. Some
people think design means how
it looks. But of course if you dig
deeper, its really how it works.
“
”
Design for your users. If you are creating web
experiences and don’t have a ux professional
Don’t expect marketing conversions
A good UX professional knows design and knows
marketing and knows your users. Tie user behavior to
your aesthetics.

46. Provide the content they
ask for

47. Hairstyle.com discovered that their users searched for
and “pinned” on Pinterest things like “date hair” or
“wedding hair” so they created an entire new website
around these content demands. They created
valuable content from user research as opposed to
simply filling their site with these keywords.

48. Determine the data your
audience needs on demand

49. Search engines are providing on demand
information at the top of search results. Use
markup to communicate important on-demand
information to search engines like product photos,
prices, reviews, author information etc.
(schema.org)

50. Be where your audience is

51. Be on social media, Yelp, blogs. Not a single organic
result for “best headphones” was a brand website. Its
“pcmag” “tech radar” and “digital trends”. You will
not beat these sites organically so provide valuable
content on your site for them to scrape and link to.
This includes any industry niche sites or publications
that may be relevant to your brand.

52. Make it easily sharable

53. Your users want to share. Make it easy.
Let them be your brand ambassadors.

54. Let’s Meet Diane
Let’s get in our audience’s shoes:
Diane wants to cook dinner for her
family. She will have many digital touch
points to do so.

55. Diane might Google recipes.
In this example you see markup on the
recipes – the cook times, the reviews, the
photos, the yield information is all markup.
This provides dynamic search results with
higher click through rates (schema.org)

56. She might use voice search to find a grocery store.
She might ask Google to “Navigate to natural grocery
store”. To be relevant to this search your physical
address must be up to date on your Google page, on
your website, on review sites like Yelp.

57. Diane might price check on her phone at the store.
This means being where your audience wants you to
be. If she is price checking on an app, your brand
information better be accessible and correct on the
app. Check apps and industry tools for your brand.

58. Diane might user her iPad while cooking. If you
ant her to use your site for her recipe, you must
understand her limited ability to interact with
ur site while she cooks. It should be responsive.
should be easy to navigate from one step to the
next while she cooks. She may be flustered or
ulti-tasking. Make it easy for her. Consider what
she is doing when she is accessing content.
Empathy.

59. Diane may review the products she buys based on her family’s reaction to her meal. If she can do that directly on your site,
you can own that content and that conversation and provide support wither responses or additional content on your site. If
she can’t do it on your site, she will go elsewhere to do it and you won’t have control, but Google will index that content with
your brand name so searchers will find it.
Its important to provide methods for user generated content.
Don’t let others dictate your brands conversation.

60. She might want to talk about it on social media. Let
her. Make it easy. Let her be your brand ambassador.

61. Digital content is now a part of
every aspect of our audience’s
lives so anything irrelevant won’t
be tolerated
Unsolicited pushed messages are
just noise on the vast open air of
the internet

62. We aren’t simply selling brands.
We’re architecting the internet of
information, cultivating thought,
catalyzing ideas. We have a
responsibility to provide value.

63. And Google will make sure you do.

64. If you forget
everything I said
The internet isn’t just a marketplace.
Its communities, its connections.

65. Empathy
Understand your user.