The document discusses the importance of creating a user-centric, adaptable taxonomy that aids in effective communication both internally and externally within an organization. It outlines practical steps for developing such a taxonomy, emphasizing customer focus, simple language, and consistency across channels, while also encouraging regular review and documentation. A well-designed taxonomy enhances content discoverability, supports marketing efforts, and remains flexible for future changes.

1. Creating a Future-Proof Taxonomy
MavenMini: Content-Driven User Experiences
September 2016

2. Creating a Future-Proof Taxonomy
INTRODUCTION

3. INTRODUCTION
• Taxonomy
–Is the vocabulary your organization uses to
communicate with your audiences
–It includes the words your business uses to
categorize and identify:
•Products, services, audiences, industries, etc.
–While there is no single right way to build a
taxonomy, it’s important to create one that works
internally, externally, and is able to grow over time.

4. WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DON’T
HAVE A GOOD TAXONOMY?
•Inconsistent language creates confusion from customers
–e.g. Your website navigation says one thing, and your blog content says
another
•Confuses internal teams, and may cause them to
“invent” their own vocabularies or terms

5. A GOOD TAXONOMY...
•Provides a common vocabulary that you share with your
customers
–Doesn’t require a steep learning curve
•Organizes information effectively
•Improves content discovery
•Enhances all your marketing efforts (can extend well
beyond a website or online experience)

6. IMPORTANT
•Don’t think of a taxonomy as simply a “website” thing
•It’s not just categories for your blog, or the way content is
categorized in your CMS
•While it may have very technical, specific applications, it
should come from the heart of your organization and
extend to your customers

7. HOW TO MAKE A FUTURE-PROOF
TAXONOMY
1.Focus on Your Customers
2.Use Simple, Relevant Language
3.Build Beyond a Single Channel
4.Go Broad and Shallow
5.Plan for the Long Term
6.Define and Document

8. Creating a Future-Proof Taxonomy
1 | FOCUS ON YOUR
CUSTOMERS

9. 1 | FOCUS ON YOUR CUSTOMERS
• The taxonomy you create is to help your audience find the information they
need and ultimately purchase something from you.
• If you don’t understand who you are selling your products/services to, then
you won’t be able to create a taxonomy that meets anyone’s specific
needs.
• Your audience needs to be able to find information in a way that makes
sense to them.
• Talk to your customers, run user experience testing, examine search logs
for terms used, and examine keyword tools such as Google
Keywords/Trends and similar tools.
• Look at how your competitors are organizing their content.

10. HOW TO DO IT
• Research your own website’s search history
– What terms do people use to search within your site?
• Test, test, test -
– A/B test on your current site with terms
– A/B test on Google AdWords
• Don’t be distracted by your competitors’ new website
– They may be trying to “sound smart” by using the latest terms, but
they may be alienating customers who don’t know the terminology

11. Creating a Future-Proof Taxonomy
2 | USE SIMPLE,
RELEVANT LANGUAGE

12. 2 | USE SIMPLE, RELEVANT
LANGUAGE
• How customers and prospects talk about your products and services may
be very different from how your employees talk about them.
– Be wary of internal-speak.
– Your customers don’t care how your company is structured. They only
want to solve a problem or get an answer to a question
• Let your customers drive the language and complexity of the taxonomy
structure:
– What terms are they searching for within your site?
– How are they finding your content - what terms, articles, etc. are
driving them there?

13. 2 | USE SIMPLE, RELEVANT
LANGUAGE
• Balance Industry Jargon with Usability
– When in doubt, keep your language simple and straightforward. Avoid
trendy jargon where possible.
• Your customers may not be “up” on the latest buzzwords in the
industry so tread lightly in regards to adopting the latest terms.
– Remember that your content needs to be found. Using terms that are
not part of the general vernacular may prohibit people from finding
and/or understanding your content

14. HOW TO DO IT
• Keep your terminology at a lowest common denominator-level
– This may vary depending on your audience, but instead of using the
fanciest words
• Test, test, test
– Easy:
• Get a few people with varying levels of knowledge (that fit in your
audience demographics) to review
– Intermediate:
• Do a card-sorting exercise where people are asked to put subject
matter in each of the taxonomy categories you’ve chosen

15. Creating a Future-Proof Taxonomy
3 | BUILD BEYOND A
SINGLE CHANNEL

16. 3 | BUILD BEYOND A SINGLE
CHANNEL
• Build and share your taxonomy across all your marketing channels,
departments, and divisions to ensure a common language and
understanding of your taxonomy.
• You may be focused on your website, but your marketing channels need to
stay consistent. Think about the other communication channels your
taxonomy/categorization will need to extend to.
• Think from the customer perspective:
– They don’t look at each business unit as separate and having its terms
– Because they don’t pay attention to departments and other segments
within your organization, they expect everything created by you to
utilize the same language

17. 3 | BUILD BEYOND A SINGLE
CHANNEL
• Make it Functional
– The taxonomy you design should focus on content that is needed to
drive functionality.
– Make sure your taxonomy supports:
• Search
• Website navigation
• Personalization and other customer experiences
• Integration with other business applications

18. HOW DO DO IT
• Map it out
– Make a map (similar to an information architecture) of all of the
channels and properties that will use your taxonomy
– Determine each channel’s unique needs to make sure you are not
forgetting anything
• For instance:
– An external blog might have categories and tags that are
different from those you use on your main website
– Your Paid Search may have ads with specific words/CTAs
that work well for acquisition

19. Creating a Future-Proof Taxonomy
4 | GO BROAD AND
SHALLOW

20. 4 | GO BROAD AND SHALLOW
• The most useful taxonomies are those that are broad and shallow, not
narrow and deep.
– Broader taxonomies also allow for more future flexibility
• Find a balance between being authoritative and complete and being
accessible.
• Remember both your end users as well as your content creators:
– If you make your taxonomy too difficult to use and manage, it will
cease to be useful

21. HOW TO DO IT
• Consider the following:
– Make it about your users
• Don’t make a department map that your customers will need to try
to navigate
• Try to group things based on the questions/challenges/problems
your customers have
• How broad is too broad?
– Remember that giving people too many choices makes it harder for
them to make a decision
• (2) may be too few, but (10) may be too many; e.g. primary

22. Creating a Future-Proof Taxonomy
5 | PLAN FOR THE LONG
TERM

23. 5 | PLAN FOR THE LONG TERM
• “Future-proof” may not always be possible, but know your taxonomy will
change over time.
• New products and services will be added requiring new categories and
topics, new metadata will support personalization and new approaches to
search.
• Plan to regularly examine your existing structure and modify it as needed.

24. HOW TO DO IT
• Talk about what will be happening in the next 12-18 months
– Are there any shifts in the business, major product launches, etc. to be
aware of?
• Phase In Complex Taxonomies
– If you have a fairly extensive taxonomy, or you want to build for future
changes, consider implementing the taxonomy in stages.
– Taxonomy isn’t helpful if there isn’t content to support it
• Consider deploying those elements when you have the right
content in place

25. Creating a Future-Proof Taxonomy
6 | DEFINE AND
DOCUMENT

26. 6 | DEFINE AND DOCUMENT
• Every taxonomy design effort should begin with a
clearly documented and shared understanding of the
following:
– Who is the audience?
– What are we “taxonomizing” or tagging?
– Why are we doing it?
• It should be easy for everyone in your organization to
learn and understand how to use it, where it applies,
and how it can be extended

27. 6 | DEFINE AND DOCUMENT
• This documentation will extend to several documents
related to a website, including:
– Information Architecture
– Technical Specifications
– Content Writing Guidelines
– In addition to other internal documents for other
departments within your organization

28. HOW TO DO IT
• Make taxonomy everyone’s responsibility
– Create centrally-located document that outline terms/categories
• Make sure someone is in charge
– Changes to your taxonomy should go through a process with
approvals
– Be careful about adding new categories/branches; though
sometimes it is necessary
• Don’t make the documents too technical
– Non-technical people will ignore or think it’s not for them… IT
IS!
• Do regular reviews

29. How to Make a Winning Taxonomy
CONCLUSION

30. CONCLUSION
• A Good Taxonomy:
–Is easy to use and understand by ALL audiences
–Is adopted by ALL internal audiences
–Doesn’t “break” when it needs to be extended
–Applies to all of your marketing and business
channels

31. QUESTIONS?
• Greg Kihlström
–@gregkihlstrom
• Carousel30
–@carousel30
–www.carousel30.com