For the past few years, I have been silently listening to and observing other search engine optimization (SEO) professionals speak and write about the topic of search-engine friendly web site design. I’m the one in the back with the black wig, sunglasses, mustache, and trench coat. All joking aside, I am genuinely interested in how other web designers/developers approach this topic. Is their approach different from my approach? Are there design elements that I, perhaps, might have overlooked?
What concerns me is how the term “search engine friendly design” has been twisted to have different meanings, mostly centered around URL structure. Granted, part of having a search engine friendly web site is providing access to keyword-focused content. Nevertheless, whenever I listen to my colleagues address this topic, I notice that the “design” portion of search engine friendly design is notoriously missing. Where is the discussion about allocation of screen real estate, use of graphic images, text formatting, animation, color selection, and other important design decisions? A URL (web address) is not the only part of a web page’s interface.
Access, URL structure, and the interface
As many SEO professionals already know, the first part of the spidering process is access. A web page’s content is not analyzed until search engines are able to access the content first. The ability for a search engine to access site content is often referred to as crawlability or indexation. Factors that affect a search engine’s ability to crawl a web site include site navigation, cross-linking, information architecture, and URL structure.
A site’s URL structure is crucial for search engine access. Additionally, in search engine results pages (SERPs), keywords in the URL are highlighted to increase user confidence in search results. However, a page’s URL structure is not the only part of the interface. Let’s see how a web page looks with only the URL structure displayed:
Users see a page full of white. They do not see text, graphic images, or colors. When users look at this particular URL structure, they assume that they should be viewing an article about osteoporosis. But they do not see anything except white.
I show this graphic image to illustrate a point. Web site design is composed of many elements. It is not a single element. Likewise, search engine friendly design is not composed of a single element. If a web designer’s only skill is to create crawler-friendly URL structures, then perhaps people should look for another web designer, one whose skills encompass the wide range of design elements.
Information architecture and interface design
Even if a site’s overall URL structure is crawler-friendly, it does not mean that search engines can easily access content. How pages are linked to each other also impacts search engine visibility. In other words, a site’s information architecture is another crucial component of search engine visibility.
Many SEO professionals and web designers/developers commonly confuse the terms “information architecture” and “interface.” The interface (design and page layout) should not be created until after the information architecture is determined. Some components of information architecture include:
What concerns me is how the term “search engine friendly design” has been twisted to have different meanings, mostly centered around URL structure. Granted, part of having a search engine friendly web site is providing access to keyword-focused content. Nevertheless, whenever I listen to my colleagues address this topic, I notice that the “design” portion of search engine friendly design is notoriously missing. Where is the discussion about allocation of screen real estate, use of graphic images, text formatting, animation, color selection, and other important design decisions? A URL (web address) is not the only part of a web page’s interface.
Access, URL structure, and the interface
As many SEO professionals already know, the first part of the spidering process is access. A web page’s content is not analyzed until search engines are able to access the content first. The ability for a search engine to access site content is often referred to as crawlability or indexation. Factors that affect a search engine’s ability to crawl a web site include site navigation, cross-linking, information architecture, and URL structure.
A site’s URL structure is crucial for search engine access. Additionally, in search engine results pages (SERPs), keywords in the URL are highlighted to increase user confidence in search results. However, a page’s URL structure is not the only part of the interface. Let’s see how a web page looks with only the URL structure displayed:
Users see a page full of white. They do not see text, graphic images, or colors. When users look at this particular URL structure, they assume that they should be viewing an article about osteoporosis. But they do not see anything except white.
I show this graphic image to illustrate a point. Web site design is composed of many elements. It is not a single element. Likewise, search engine friendly design is not composed of a single element. If a web designer’s only skill is to create crawler-friendly URL structures, then perhaps people should look for another web designer, one whose skills encompass the wide range of design elements.
Information architecture and interface design
Even if a site’s overall URL structure is crawler-friendly, it does not mean that search engines can easily access content. How pages are linked to each other also impacts search engine visibility. In other words, a site’s information architecture is another crucial component of search engine visibility.
Many SEO professionals and web designers/developers commonly confuse the terms “information architecture” and “interface.” The interface (design and page layout) should not be created until after the information architecture is determined. Some components of information architecture include:
- How content is organized, grouped, and labeled
- How content is placed in categories
- How individual web pages link to each other Read more...
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