Creating a friendly site structure to improve search presence.

1. SEARCH RANKING CRASH COURSE
@PolePositionMkg
#SearchRankCC

2. WEBSITE REBUILD
CREATING A FRIENDLY SITE STRUCTURE TO IMPROVE SEARCH PRESENCE
@PolePositionMkg
#SearchRankCC

3. WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: INTRODUCTION

4. WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: INTRODUCTION
Search engines find Users navigate to
important pages important pages
Search
friendly
website
Search engines
Users quickly get to
value page
relevant pages
relevance

5. WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: INTRODUCTION

6. Three components of great architecture
WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: INTRODUCTION
Link &
URL & Site
Navigation
Structure
Structure
Document &
Page Structure

7. URL & Site Structure
WEBSITE REBUILD
Part 1
@PolePositionMkg
#SearchRankCC

8. Choosing your domain name
WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: URL & SITE STRUCTURE
Get your own
Keep it short
 b-e-a-utiful.com
 PerfectBeauty.blogspot.com
 HowToImproveYourImage.com
Make it
memorable  TotalBeauty.com
 PerfectBeauty.com
 BeautyIsBeautiful.com
Use keywords
if possible

9. What to do with alternate domains
WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: URL & SITE STRUCTURE
Abbreviated
301 redirect
Misspellings .com
.net, .org

10. WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: URL & SITE STRUCTURE
Fix bad canonical issues
www.example.com
example.com/
www.example.com/index.html
example.com/home.asp
Use canonical tag!
<link rel="canonical" href="http://www.example.com"/>

11. Make your URLs search engine friendly
WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: URL & SITE STRUCTURE
Keep it Short
site.com/category/page-name.php
Use Keywords
site.com/chanel/perfume/alure.html

12. WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: URL & SITE STRUCTURE
Keep your home page at the root level

13. Prevent secure / non-secure page duplication
WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: URL & SITE STRUCTURE

14. Prevent breadcrumb page duplication
WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: URL & SITE STRUCTURE
1 Product
2 URLs
www.thehomedepot.com/building-materials/electrical/books/123book
www.thehomedepot.com/doors-windows/doors/books/123book

15. Use hyphens, not underscores
WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: URL & SITE STRUCTURE
Hyphens
eMarketingPerformance.com/my-dog-ate-my-homework/
Vs
Underscores
eMarketingPerformance.com/my_dog_ate_my_homework/
Is that a space?

16. WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: URL & SITE STRUCTURE
Avoid using session IDs

17. WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: URL & SITE STRUCTURE
This directory structure is too flat
Home

18. WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: URL & SITE STRUCTURE
This directory structure is too tall
Home

19. This directory structure is just right
WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: URL & SITE STRUCTURE
Home
Keyword Keyword Keyword

20. Link and Nav Structure
WEBSITE STRUCTURE
Part 2
@PolePositionMkg
#SearchRankCC

21. Organized site navigation
WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: LINK & NAV STRUCTURE
Home Basket
Search Contact
Categories & Brands
Link to Link to Most
Primary Site Important
Sections Pages

22. WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: LINK & NAV STRUCTURE
Clean footer navigation

23. WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: LINK & NAV STRUCTURE
Always use breadcrumbs

24. WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: LINK & NAV STRUCTURE
Keep anchor text descriptive

25. Use keyword rich link text
WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: LINK & NAV STRUCTURE
No: Click here to learn more about preparing personal tax returns.
No: Click here to learn more about preparing personal tax returns.
Yes: Learn more about preparing personal tax returns.
Yes: Click here to learn more about preparing personal tax returns.

26. WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: LINK & NAV STRUCTURE
Link to related products

27. WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: LINK & NAV STRUCTURE
Build optimizable filters, not pagination

28. Keep search engines out of cart pages
WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: LINK & NAV STRUCTURE
Index product pages
Don’t allow
cart links to
be followed

29. Don’t block content from engines
WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: LINK & NAV STRUCTURE
Pages found through
password protected search, forms,
areas dropdowns or select
boxes

30. WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: LINK & NAV STRUCTURE
Employ consistent linking

31. WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: LINK & NAV STRUCTURE
Implement search friendly links
Good Link

32. Run away from search un-friendly links
WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: LINK & NAV STRUCTURE
Bad Link

33. Avoid meh-friendly links
WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: LINK & NAV STRUCTURE
Meh Link
JavaScript:window.open(‘http://www.smartfurniture.com/p
roduct/5670/’, ‘newWindow’)

34. Blocking pages via the robots.txt file
WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: LINK & NAV STRUCTURE
User-agent: *
Disallow: /includes/
Disallow: /land/
Disallow: /RP/
Disallow: /cgi-bin/
Disallow: /misc/
Disallow: /archive/
Disallow: /can-spam.php

35. Blocking pages via robots meta tag
WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: LINK & NAV STRUCTURE
<meta name=“robots"
content=“noindex,nofollow”/>
<meta name=“robots"
content=“noindex,follow”/>
<meta name=“robots"
content=“index,nofollow”/>
<meta name=“robots"
content=“index,follow”/>

36. Blocking pages using the
WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: LINK & NAV STRUCTURE
<a rel=“nofollow”
NOFOLLOW attribute href=“blocked.htm”>
Blocked Link</a>
Ads
Untrusted
Sites
Category
& Tag
Pages
Rel=“NoFollow”

37. WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: LINK & NAV STRUCTURE
Find and fix broken links

38. 301 redirect old URLs
WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: LINK & NAV STRUCTURE
Old New
X
redirect
Link
Visitors
&
Engines

39. Doc and Page Structure
WEBSITE STRUCTURE
Part 3
@PolePositionMkg
#SearchRankCC

40. Create strong link hierarchy
WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: DOC & PAGE STRUCTURE
Amazingly similar Home
to directory
structure!
Topic A Topic B Topic C

41. Link to related content wherever possible
WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: DOC & PAGE STRUCTURE
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur
adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor
incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut
enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud
exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea
commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in
reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum
dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint
occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa
qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
mollit anim id est laborum.
• mollit anim id est laborum
• mollit anim id est laborum
• mollit anim id est laborum
id est laborum
id est laborum

42. Create fan-freaking-tastic content!
WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: DOC & PAGE STRUCTURE
Clearly written
Accurate
Keyword driven
Text, not images

43. Organize your content
WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: DOC & PAGE STRUCTURE
Purpose Beginning Middle
Provides Exposes
End
Benefits Need
Call to
Personas Personalities
Action

44. Proper HEADING tag hierarchy
WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: DOC & PAGE STRUCTURE
<h1>One H1 per page.</h1>
<h2>Use outline format.</h2>
<h3>Keep content organized</h3>

45. Streamlined code: No bloat!
WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: DOC & PAGE STRUCTURE
No
• HTML Tables
No
• On-Page Styles
No
• On-Page Javascript

46. Clean code helps
WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: DOC & PAGE STRUCTURE
Increases
Improves Page
code/text Speed
Reduces
Code ratio
Errors

47. WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: DOC & PAGE STRUCTURE
Validated HTML
Cleaner
Code

48. Use image ALT attributes
WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: DOC & PAGE STRUCTURE
• Yes, some people • Browsers for the
still surf with visually
images off. Image impaired will
navigation read the
disappears. descriptions of
images
Text only Accessible
browsers browsers
Mobile Search
browsers Engines
• Generally not an • Additional
issue with smart keyword signal.
phones, but for those Make sure you use
who pay for it right!
downloads…

49. WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: DOC & PAGE STRUCTURE
Ensure multi-browser accessibility

50. WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: DOC & PAGE STRUCTURE
Build mobile compatible
sites

51. WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: DOC & PAGE STRUCTURE
Ensure sight-impaired accessibility

52. Create printer friendly CSS, not pages
WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: DOC & PAGE STRUCTURE
Use CSS to
Style Print
Duplicate
Content Free

53. WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: DOC & PAGE STRUCTURE
Don’t force cookies until needed

54. WEBSITE STRUCTURE
Wrap up
@PolePositionMkg
#SearchRankCC

55. WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: CONCLUSION
Delight your visitors

56. Keep making it better
WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: CONCLUSION
The Pole Position Marketing Library
http://www.polepositionmarketing.com/library

57. Don’t forget usability
WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: CONCLUSION
issues
19 usability improvement areas
• Website design • Help and FAQ
• Global navigation • Login & my account
• Content • Privacy & security
• Home page • Site maps
• About us page • Audience engagement
• Contact us page • Customer satisfaction
• Product pages • Point of purchase
• Shopping cart • Visitor trust
• Forms and errors • Accessibility
• On-site search • General issues

58. WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: CONCLUSION

59. WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE: CONCLUSION

60. Thank You!
Next Up Content Overhaul
Get noticed, drive traffic and convert visitors with
relevant content marketing