findability bliss through web standards
DESCRIPTION
Connecting with your audience is objective number one for any website. Findability—the discipline of helping users discover the content they seek—not only helps businesses get their message out, but it improves the user experience, too. The secret to attaining findability bliss, both with search engines and beyond, lies in the wisdom of web standards.TRANSCRIPT
An Event Apart Seattle, WA May 5, 2009
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Findability
simple goals3
find your site
find stuff in your site
rediscover your site
Beyond SEO
the common thread
Findability is not ...
Findability is ...
Content
web standardsgreat content +
=
findability bliss
web standardsgreat content +
=
The Standards Connection
Semantic Markup: machine readable
Accessibility: legible to search engines
Progressively Enhance: remove barriers
Microformats: re-discoverable
Semantic Message
“Aboutness”
Position Keywords
<title>
<h1>
<h2>&
friends
<em>
<strong>&
<a ...>here</a>
title=“here”
alt=“here”
More Keyword Placement
Your URL
Logo file name
Naturally in your content (<= 7%)
<h1 id="logo" title=”description”> Site or Organization Name</h1>
/* css */#logo { text-indent: -9999px; background: url(image.gif); width: 200px; height: 25px;}
image replacement
mezzoblue.com/tests/revised-image-replacement/
Bad Karma?
mezzoblue.com/archives/2008/05/05/image_replac/
apple.com
Keyword Research?
WWMD?
delicious.com
adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Check Your Work
Ranks.nl
Ranks.nl
Sensational-SEO.com/
Sensational-SEO.com/
Find YourCompetitors
Accessible Message
present the entire message
description link
<img src="logos.gif" alt="Client logos" /> <a href="#footnote" title="Image description">about this image</a>
<div id="footnote"><h4>Our Clients Include … </h4><ul> <li> Yahoo! </li> <li> John Deere </li> <li> CNN </li> …</ul></div>
<acronym title="Web Content Accessibility Guidelines"> WCAG</acronym> <abbr title="Georgia">GA</abbr>
anticipate search behaviors
What about JavaScript?
Ajax Pitfalls
Ajax Pitfalls
Progressively Enhance
make it work without JavaScript support
What About Ajax?
Ajax Problems
No unique URL
JavaScript required to load
Not search engine friendly
Ajax Solutions
Don’t use it for mission critical content
Use the Hijax Approach
Fetch content server-side
Portable Content is Re-discoverable
<div id="hcard-John-Stewart" class="vcard"> <span class="fn">John Stewart</span> <div class="org">The Daily Show</div> <div class="adr"> <div class="street-address">123 Some Street</div> <span class="locality">New York</span>, <span class="region">NY</span>, <span class="postal-code">12345</span> <span class="country-name">USA</span> </div></div>
hCard microformat
soupstudios.com/contact/
<div id="hcalendar-An-Event-Apart" class="vevent"><a href="http://aneventapart.com" class="url"><abbr title="2009-05-04T09:00-05:0000" class="dtstart">May 4th 9am</abbr> : <abbr title="2009-05-05T20:00-05:00" class="dtend">5th 5pm, 2009</abbr> :
<span class="summary">An Event Apart</span> in <span class="location">Seattle, WA</span></a>
<div class="description">For people who make websites.</div>
hCalendar microformat
microformats.org
Do search engines recognize microformats?
Will I get a ranking boost from validating?
Findable Websites AreSuccessful Websites
Your Clients Demand It
Thanks
http://buildingfindablewebsites.com
BuildingFindableWebsites.com
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