I had a search engine optimization (SEO) epiphany recently that involved site architecture and the mental models of web searchers.
Website information architects try to determine how users categorize, organize and label information on a site. Information architects use a number of methods to determine the best site architecture, including but not limited to:
- Field interviews
- Direct, one-on-one observation of users/searchers performing their normal, daily tasks
- Usability testing
- Data from web analytics software, site search engines, and so forth
On a website, an information architect’s goal is to determine a formal site navigation and other forms of page interlinking, ones that best correspond to the mental models of the site’s users. An effective site architecture should enable users/searchers to accomplish their goals more easily and efficiently. With every click, a user’s /a> should be reinforced and validated without distracting, confusing or annoying the user. Additionally, a site’s information architecture should communicate the “aboutness” of page content to both search engines and site visitors.
After three iterations of usability testing on one particular business-to-business healthcare website, I noticed something interesting: pages that the in-house SEO professional created did not match the mental models of the primary and secondary target audience. Words such as “fluff,” “propaganda,” and my personal favorite, “what the expletive,” were used to verbally describe these pages. Furthermore, these same words appeared in test participant comments and category/section labels.
Digging a little deeper, I also noticed that all of their competitors created web pages that did not match user/searcher mental models. Yet these pages were ranking well. So even this company’s competitors were not creating sites to accommodate user/searcher mental models.
Why would any website owner create an /a> where a considerable number of SEOed pages belong in the category labeled, “What the expletive?” Why do SEO professionals continually build pages, and entire websites, that do not match searcher mental models?
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I had a search engine optimization (SEO) epiphany recently that involved site architecture and the mental models of web searchers.
Website information architects try to determine how users categorize, organize and label information on a site. Information architects use a number of methods to determine the best site architecture, including but not limited to:
- Field interviews
- Direct, one-on-one observation of users/searchers performing their normal, daily tasks
- Usability testing
- Data from web analytics software, site search engines, and so forth
On a website, an information architect’s goal is to determine a formal site navigation and other forms of page interlinking, ones that best correspond to the mental models of the site’s users. An effective site architecture should enable users/searchers to accomplish their goals more easily and efficiently. With every click, a user’s /a> should be reinforced and validated without distracting, confusing or annoying the user. Additionally, a site’s information architecture should communicate the “aboutness” of page content to both search engines and site visitors.
After three iterations of usability testing on one particular business-to-business healthcare website, I noticed something interesting: pages that the in-house SEO professional created did not match the mental models of the primary and secondary target audience. Words such as “fluff,” “propaganda,” and my personal favorite, “what the expletive,” were used to verbally describe these pages. Furthermore, these same words appeared in test participant comments and category/section labels.
Digging a little deeper, I also noticed that all of their competitors created web pages that did not match user/searcher mental models. Yet these pages were ranking well. So even this company’s competitors were not creating sites to accommodate user/searcher mental models.
Why would any website owner create an /a> where a considerable number of SEOed pages belong in the category labeled, “What the expletive?” Why do SEO professionals continually build pages, and entire websites, that do not match searcher mental models?
/a>
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