An Evolved Approach to Site Architecture and Healthy Ecosystems

@heymatthobbs#evolve13

Matt HobbsSenior Content Strategistat National Builder Supply

Content Strategy Applied 2013

An thoughtful approach to building an ecosystem of valuable online content…

…that’s stays visible in today’s evolving inbound marketing channels.

What you’ll hear today

From the trenches

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1. Build a clearly defined site architecture to meet your communication objectives

2. Develop insight-driven content to fill out that structure

3. Go the extra mile to build relationships– With end users on social channels– With search engines

4. Some sweet resources

What we’ll cover in this session. Sound good?

Site structure and information architecture

Building a foundation

Does the content and language on your site provide valuable context for users?

Choosing your words wisely

How to win

Set a content strategy to meet your objectives.

Apply honest logic to describe that content.

http://cseweb.ucsd.edu/classes/sp12/cse130-a/static/spock_logic.jpg

Choosing your words wisely

What kinds of content will help create a positive, valuable experience?

Example: Sam’s Spice Company

How do all of your content pieces fit together?

Or: which aisles should contain which products?

http://teachwithclass.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/puzzle-pieces.bmp

How to win

Assign categories and sub-categories.

Use keyword research tools and perform test searches to understand how search engines categorize that same information.

Information Architecture: How your words fit together

How your words fit together

How your words fit together

Can spiders easily crawl and digest your site’s content?

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Is your site crawler-friendly?

Is your site crawler-friendly?

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How to winHide the confusing parts (faceted navigation).Highlight important parts (breadcrumbs, selection pages).

Does your site have consistent, readable URLs?

Clean, readable URL structure

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How to winUse the logical extensions of core keywords. Establish “speaking URLs.”

Clean, readable URL structure

Samspice.com/shop/caribbean-spices/jerk-seasoning

Blocking and tackling

Unsexy SEO Checklist (abridged)

Clearly-defined information architecture

Unique, valuable content

“Speaking” URLs

Smart use of NOFOLLOW tags, ROBOTS.TXT

Clean sitemap submission

Title, description, and alt tags

“Technical SEO is more important, not less.”

Adam Audette (Rimm Kaufman Group) MozCon 2013

Building content users will appreciate and share

Filling out your structure

If you can validate your hunches with data-driven consumer insights,

you can be confident your content will resonate with your audience.

Hunch + Data = Great Content

Where our team finds consumer insights

Cold toilet seat woes (social insights from Twitter)

Where else?• Listening tools

(Lithium, Radian6)• Blog comments• Social comments

Take Google search volume data with a grain of salt. These are trends (not hard and fast).

– This shouldn’t be a big issue if you’re only using this as a gut check

Validating hunches with keyword data

Where we “cultivate and grow our insights” - The Insight Farm

A few insights, hand-picked from the farm

A few examplesCreating content from consumer insights

How to bring attention to a $700 luxury toilet seat

Insight: “Two toned cabinets are everywhere on Pinterest.”

The article ended up ranking pretty well, too

Get aggressive on testing content delivery (UX)

Leverage Google On-Page analytics to fuel AB testing

vs

Building relationships with consumers

Valuable social interactions

A bit of history

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Our first giveaway entry form on NBS.com

A slicker, more elegant way to give our followers cool stuff

“Silver Bullet” contentViral style marketing

Essential Luxury

Practical Delightful

Landing PagesBuyer GuidesHow To’s

Web ComicsInfographics

Harlem Shake

Trend ArticlesEditorials

What I mean by “Silver Bullet”

Half Way

“What Your Toilet Says About You”

The Good– Big opportunity for social buzz (“flavor of the day”)– Backlink opportunities (for being awesome)

The Bad– Requires extra time and resources to produce– If you’re making this stuff, you’re not solving

problems

The Good and Bad of Silver Bullet

You tell ‘em, Morgan

Now listen here. Don’t you go spending one minute on “Silver Bullet” content until you’ve built a foundation of meaningful content.

http://scrapetv.com/News/News%20Pages/Entertainment/images-5/morgan-freeman-3.jpg

Building relationships with search engines

A growing necessity for brands to stay visible

Search engines are getting better at burying nonsense.

Authoritative entities will be the only survivors

The days of Wild West SEO are pretty much over.

http://www.twentysteps.com/matt-cutts-the-enforcer/

Play where the search engines want you to play

Structured dataThe future of SEO

What is structured data?

Easily digestible meta data on a website…

…that enables crawlers to identify and understand the information on a site…

…and index / scrape that information appropriately.

Why does structured data matter?

Benefits of Structured Data– Direct communication of information (easy for

crawlers to understand what’s what)– Eye catching, richer listings on the SERP

Structured data highlighter (Google Webmaster Tools)

Hey there, little kitty cat

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Only the chosen few will survive

http://www.google.com/insidesearch/features/search/knowledge.html

More usable SERPs

Paid Ads to help you find treatment

Quick explanation from a credible source

What is COPD image?-break down annotations on PLAs, paid, content scrape

WHO DAT! (sorry… but not really)

Paid ads to help you find tickets “About” info (and Google+?!?)

Do a search. Get “the answer.” Do another search.

Why bother clicking onto The Weather Channel or Weather Underground?

Valuable information > a list of 10 links

What do all of these examples have in common?

Structured data from credible, healthy ecosystems

An ecosystem of content to fuel inbound marketing

Superior User

Experience

Structured Data

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

Wrapping upAlmost done here…

Structure and information architecture is essential if you want people to find your content through search channels.

Content built on behavioral insights will gain more traction in the social world.

Once your foundation and structure are set, layer Silver Bullet content into your mix.

What we covered this morning (30,000 feet)

Superior UX and structured data is the future of tactical SEO, which is really just marketing.

Go the extra mile to build a relationship with users AND search engines (Trusted Stores, Google+).

What we covered this morning (30,000 feet)

Don’t invite people over for BBQ if you haven’t cleaned the bathroom

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1. Keep your thumb on the changes. Remain calm.2. Play your game– Build a structurally-sound ecosystem of valuable content

and experiences– Live in a world of solving human problems and find ways

to add value through web experiences

Keep the wheel steady. Steady as she goes…

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Want to nerd out on Technical SEO?

Thanks y’all!Any questions?

Feel free to connect with me on Twitter:

@HeyMattHobbs#evolve13