Fitzwilliam Institute - Website Architecture, Red Cardinal, Dec 10 2008

Website Architecture
How To Build A Website For
Search Engines & Visitors

Richard Hearne :: www.redcardinal.ie

December 10 2008

Copyright © 2008 Red Cardinal Ltd.

i. Introduction

Who?

Richard Hearne
Red Cardinal Ltd – www.redcardinal.ie
What?

Search Engine Optimisation
Website Usability
Conversion Optimisation
Web Strategy


ii. What We’ll Cover This Evening

Site Architecture Introduction – what is it,
and why should I care?
SEO – 101 Primer
Site Architecture for Usability
Site Architecture for SEO
Website Audit - Diagnostic Tools & Tests
Review


1.1 Site Architecture – what is it?

Site Architecture:

...an approach to the design and planning of websites
which, like architecture itself involves technical, aesthetic
and functional criteria. As in traditional architecture, the
focus is properly on the user and on user
requirements. This requires particular attention to web
content, a business plan, usability, interaction design,
information architecture and web design. For
effective Search Engine Optimisation it is necessary to
have an appreciation of how a single website relates to
the World Wide Web.


2. SEO 101 Primer

SEO:

The manipulation of on-site and off-site factors to
deliver the highest organic search engine visibility
for keyword-searches likely to benefit your business‟
bottom-line.


2.1 SEO 101 – Some Stats To Get You Thinking

65% 90%
Probably more than 65% of Likely number of searchers
searchers never leave who click on Organic
Page 1 listings. More commercial
searches may get 25-30%
clicks on Paid!

2.2 SEO 101 – SEO Vs. PPC
ORGANIC SPONSORED


2.3 SEO 101 – Click Through Rates

42%
12%
8%

#10 gets
About 2%
of clicks

2.4 SEO 101 – Ranking Algos

Relevance Authority

• Search Phrase in title? • Age of site
• Search Phrase on page? • Domain trust
• Search Phrase in inbound • Backlink profile
anchors?
• Inbound links?
• Domain theme?
WARNING: Google likely uses 200+ signals in its ranking algorithm


2.5 SEO 101 – EXERCISE 1

1. Go to www.google.ie
2. Enter a non-branded search term related to your
business or service (e.g. „plumber in dublin‟, „flights to
spain‟)
3. Check the top 10 results – how many include the
search term in the displayed result title?


2.6 SEO 101 – 10 Rules For SEO Success

1. Good Site Architecture
2. Unique Relevant Page Titles
3. High Quality Page Copy – Include Keywords
4. Internal Linking
5. Help The Bots
6. Reach Out – Build Quality Links
7. Avoid Flash and JavaScript (for content)
8. Set Up Your Server to Kill Duplicate Content
9. Use Tools from Search Engines
10. Don‟t Gamble


2.6.1 SEO 101 – Good Site Architecture

We’ll talk more about site architecture a little later 

For now let‟s try another exercise:
1. Go to www.google.com
2. Search for the name of your business (e.g. „fitzwilliam
institute‟)
3. If your business name is quite unique you should
expect your site to return at #1


2.6.2 SEO 101 – Unique Relevant Page Titles

Page Titles Are One of the Strongest SEO Signals

http://www.google.ie/search?q=skoda+oil+cooler

What Makes a Good Page Title?
• Includes Targeted Keyword
• Relevant to page
• Unique
• Less than 70 characters
• Is Human-Readable
We‟ll return to page titles when we check out Tools!

2.6.3 SEO 101 – High Quality Page Copy

Search Engines primarily index text
Quality copy attracts quality links
Visitors more likely to „act‟
Builds authority
Include relevant keywords on-page – title,
description, header, content, link anchors
Fresh content may be a „signal‟ to search engines
Beware „Thin Content‟ – ROT: Min 200 Words p.p.


2.6.3.1 SEO 101 – EXCERCISE 2: Keywords

How can I find out what keywords to use?
Adwords is a goldmine :
1. Login to http://adwords.google.com
2. Go to Reports -> Create Report -> Click Search Query
Performance, Level of Detail = “Account”, View = “summary” ->
Create Report
Other Tools:
1. http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/
2. http://www.keyworddiscovery.com/search.html
3. https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal


2.6.4 SEO 101 – Internal Linking

Navigation Boiler-Plate
Contextual Linking –
WikiPedia
100 Links per page!
Always use strong anchor
text - ”Click Here”
Signal current location, e.g.
Breadcrumb, active
state
http://developer.yahoo.com/
ypatterns/index.php

2.6.5 SEO 101 – Help The Bots

Search Engines “bots” crawl the web
They discover content via “links”
Sometimes bots cant access pages due to weak
architecture
Sometimes you want to block bots
“Canonicalisation”
Robots.txt
XML Sitemaps


2.6.5.1 SEO 101 – EXCERCISE 3: Helping the Bots

How can I check for robots.txt?
1. In your browser enter http://www.mysite.com/robots.txt
What use is an XML Sitemap?
1. Tells search engines about your pages
2. May assist in search engine discovery of your content
3. Try http://www.mysite.com/sitemap.xml
What is “Canonicalisation”?
1. Generally when your server serves content on both www and non-
www URLs
2. Try http://www.mysite.com and then http://mysite.com
3. If content on both then you‟re not helping the bots


2.6.6 SEO 101 – Reach Out, Build Links

Hyperlinks one of the most important „signals‟
Anchor text used is all important
Reach out to your partners and immediate network
and ask (beg) for links
Reach out to sites that link inappropriately and
request changes
See who links to your competition - replicate
All POCs – PRs, Emails, Newsletter, RSS etc.


2.6.7 SEO 101 – Avoid Flash and JavaScript (for content)

Flash & JavaScript:

Media 
Functionality 
Copy 
Navigation 


2.6.8 SEO 101 – Set Up Your Server to Kill Dupe Content

Back to Canonicalisation and duplicate URLs
Let‟s introduce Google‟s “site:” operator:
2. Enter site:www.mysite.com
This tells you how many pages Google has indexed from
your site
3. Go to the last page – do you see “In order to show you
the most relevant results, we have omitted some
entries very similar to the [xxx] already displayed.
If you like, you can repeat the search with the omitted
results included.”?

2.6.9 SEO 101 – Use Tools from Search Engines

We’ll talk a lot more about tools shortly 

For now let‟s try another exercise:
2. Search for the name of your business (e.g. „fitzwilliam
institute‟)
3. If your business name is quite unique you should
expect your site to return at #1


2.6.10 SEO 101 – Don‟t Gamble

SEO can often be “Rocket Science”

If it sounds too good to be true it probably is.
Make sure you know and understand what your SEO is
doing at all times.
A ban is a nasty thing to have to explain.
Cheating is not a long-term sustainable SEO strategy.


2.7 SEO 101 – Review

You should now be able to:
1. See how many pages Google has indexed from your
site
2. See if Google has crawled and indexed duplicate
content on your site
3. Conduct some basic keyword research
4. Find robots.txt and sitemap.xml on your site
5. See if your site suffers from canonical URLs
6. Understand the basics of SEO 


3 Website Architecture

1. Public-facing HTML pages, images and folders
NB - We‟re not worried about back-end architecture

2. Architecture includes navigation structures
3. Determines how visitors and users access our
content, and directly contributes to User
eXperience (“UX”)
4. Determines how Search Engines access our
content
5. May determine the overall success of your site!


3.1 Site Architecture – why should I care?

Good Architecture Bad Architecture

Usability Quickly to-the- Clumsy &
point bouncing out
Navigation I know where I‟m Where am I? Get
going me out of here
SEO Pages found, Poor search
indexed & ranked visibility
Conversions Improve goal Increased drop-
success out
Maintenance Intuitive patterns Hello 404 Page
& structures Not Found


3.2 Site Architecture – Basic Types

Basic Architectural Types:


3.3 Website Architecture – Most important pages

From an IA perspective pages near the
top of the pyramid are generally
more important
From an website architecture point of
view click-paths determine
importance


3.3.1 Website Architecture – EXERCISE 1: Click-Paths

Home

T1P1 T1P2

T2P1 T2P2

T3P1 T3P2 T3P3 T3P4 T3P5


3.4 Website Architecture – The Filing Cabinet Analogy

Cabinet = Domain
Drawer = Primary Site Category
Folder = Secondary Site Category
File = Tertiary Site Category
Document = Product Item Page


3.4.1 Website Architecture – EXERCISE 2: Find a spare bulb!

1. Go to http://www.micksgarage.ie
2. Find a spare headlight for your make
and model of car
Category = “Bulbs”
Drawer = “Alfa Romeo”
Folder = “date range”
File = “Bulb Type”
Document = “More Details”

Did you find the bulb for your car?


3.5 Website Architecture


3.5.1 Website Architecture – EXERCISE 3: Map MicksGarage.ie

Home

Buy or My Your
Feedb
Depts News Sell accou Baske Faq Info Blog
ack
Cars nt t
Car
Make Part
Finder

Downl
Model
oads

Engin About
Year
e Us

Speci
Produ als
cts

Sitem
Produ ap
ct

Conta
ct


3.6 Site Architecture – Which Is Best

For smaller sites, say <25 pages, I generally advise go flat with 1-2 tiers:

For medium-to-medium sized sites, I’d build around my users:
Keep the clickpath to a minimum – make it as quick and
painless for me to drill down to the content that matters
Build around a taxonomy that makes sense to users not to
the business


3.7 Website Architecture – Large Site Usability

1. Generally sites with > 100-200 pages require
site search. Research shows that 10-20% of
site users will avail of search, the remainder
using navigational links.

2. Larger sites can also benefit from a
BreadCrumb

Did anyone notice that the breadcrumb on MicksGarage.ie was broken?


3.8 Website Architecture – Death by Pagination

1. Pagination is the use of multiple pages to
display large numbers of entries. Most
commonly found in large ecommerce sites

2. Would you page through all 88 pages?
3. Pagination also causes SEO issues
4. The best sites generally avoid using pagination
devices


3.9 Website Architecture – Qualitative data

Analytics are your friend – stats are a fantastic weapon
when justification is needed to make changes and take
risks
But analytics only tell you what – QUANTITATIVE

Qualitative data is the holy grail – use online surveys to
gather qualitative data from your users

http://4q.iperceptions.com – free qualitative data!


3.10 Website Architecture – Thoughts on Conversion

What is the ultimate
goal of your site?
What do you want
visitors to do?
Do you make it easy
for them to act?
Have you used clear
cues to prompt
users?
Have you tested?


3.11 Website Architecture – Review & Recap

2 Main factors that should determine your architecture:
1. Your content
2. Your users
Always build taxonomies around usability, don‟t ever take
your own word for it!
Consider conversion paths, and use strong calls-to-action
For smaller sites keep your structure flat, larger sites can
go deep but try to remain within 4 tiers
Use site search, breadcrumbs, and design best principles


4 Website Architecture for SEO

What We‟ll (try to) cover:
1. How Search Engines value pages
2. The difference between internal and
external links
3. What a click-path is and why it matters
4. How we can use free tools to find and
diagnose site problems


4.1 Website Architecture for SEO – Quick Overview

1. Search Engines value pages based on links pointing at
those pages
2. Links can be internal (from within your site), or external
(from other websites)
3. The number of clicks from your homepage sends a
signal to search engines of the general importance of
the deep page
4. Search Engines give you so much „equity‟ – the more
crap they find the more equity you lose
5. For larger sites getting architecture right can lead to
serious bottom-line improvements


4.2 Website Architecture for SEO – Click-Paths

Home

T1P1 T1P2

T2P1 T2P2

T3P1 T3P2 T3P3 T3P4 T3P5

In this case T1P1, T2P2 and T3P5 all
have equal click-paths from Homepage


4.3 Site Architecture for SEO – Flat Types

Flat architectures can benefit SEO:

But be aware of another SEO RUT: Try to keep the number of links on
any page under 100!


4.4 Site Architecture for SEO – Duplicate Content

What happens when search engines find duplicate content?

Home

www.micksgarage.ie/
www.micksgarage.ie/ CarSpec.aspx?mode
Skoda_Oil+Coolers =drilldown&DeptID=2
46&Make=Skoda

Page Page
Page
1 2

Canonicalisation (discussed earlier) is another form of duplicate content


4.5 Site Architecture for SEO – Time for a change 

Let’s find out how we can get Google to tell us about our site problems!

https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/


5. Website Audit

1. Check that your site is indexed by Google
- Query “site:www.mysite.com” (without the quotes) on google.com

2. Check for Canonicalisation
- Does your site resolve on both www and non-www?

3. Check for duplicate content
- Using the same site operator from (1) above go to the last result page, check for “In order to show you the most...”
- Then take any string of text from your page, enter it into Google surrounded by double-quotes, and search

4. Check for duplicate page titles and Meta Descriptions
- Using Google Webmaster Tools – Diagnostics -> Content Analysis

5. Are all your key pages within one or two clicks of homepage?
- Do you know what your key pages are?

6. Are you using robots.txt or an XML sitemap?
- Do you know what your key pages are?

7. Have you conducted research to benchmark your site?
- Using both quantitative and qualitative research?


If you have any questions about the lecture
send me a mail – richard@redcardinal.ie
Start the subject line with “Fitzwilliam Institute”
and I‟ll be less likely to miss it 
You can also find me on LinkedIn:
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/2/828/341

Richard Hearne, Red Cardinal Ltd.

www.RedCardinal.ie

Fitzwilliam Institute - Website Architecture, Red Cardinal, Dec 10 2008

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