SES London 2010: Successful Information Architecture

Moderator:
Heather Lloyd-Martin, CEO, SuccessWorks

Speaker Profile

Speakers:
Shari Thurow, Founder & SEO Director, Omni Marketing Interactive
Alan Perkins, Head of Search Marketing, SilverDisc Limited

Description:

This is a very concise description of the session:

This session is about how successfully architecting sites for search engines and how specific page elements and design technologies may impact your ability to gain good organic listings.

Subjects: Directory and file structure, server-side includes (SSIs), 404 error trapping, JavaScript, robots.txt use, frames, and secure area usage

Insights:

  • User expectance is different from IT view and SEO has to match user expectations, not IT.
  • Recommended book: Information architect for the world wide web by Louise Rosenfeld , http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/

Shari Thurow:

  • Knowing keywords tools still does not make you a copywriter. 
  • Consistency in Information Architecture, site navigation and urls.
  • Do not assume: test, test and test your architecture.

Alan Perkins

  • SEO is all about the content on your site and links into it.
  • IBM defined pages in the core of the web. A core page needs to link to our site.
  • Best IA skeleton: hierarchical
  • Tim Berners Lee: Don’t change URLs, change content within them, but not them.
  • URLs ending with / are the best
  • Don’t use urls with .html end since tech might change and you will be forced to change URLs
  • Ensure IA allows deep linking into your site.

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