#pubcon @RyanJones

How Information Architecture and SEO Work Together

SEO & IA

#pubcon @RyanJones

RYAN JONESAssociate Director SEO - SapientRazorfish

Chief Buzzword Officer - WTFSEO.com

2006 Time Person Of The Year

@RyanJonesLinkedin.com/in/jonesy

RyanMJones.comWtfseo.com

There’s Nothing Quite Like Gazing Into Your Own Eyes On Stage

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TOP SEOS IN IOWA

Remember These Guys Later

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Iowa is a state. IA is a science. IA is way more interesting.

What IS IA?Information Architecture (IA) is the structural design of shared information environments; the art and science of organizing and labeling websites to support usability and findability.

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SEO & IA Share The Same Goals!

FINDABILITY

The ease of which information contained on a website can be found, both from outside the website and by users already on the website.

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SEO & IA Share The Same Goals!

Context

ContentUsers

Is this SEO or IA?

It’s BOTH

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What Makes Up IA?

SitemapPage Types

Page Structure

Navigation

Global ElementsContent Organization

Story Outline

Object Placement

WireFrames

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SEO & IA Share The Same Goals!

What Happens To SEO If IA Sucks?• More Duplicate or Competing Content

• Increased Crawl Budget• Bad Internal Linking & Poor Pagerank Flow• Lower User Satisfaction and Decreased KPIs• Distributed Topical Authority

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Without Considering Search, IA is Much Easier

We used to think of IA as creating a “bridge” from the homepage to the other pages of a website.

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Users Don’t Start at Your Home Page. They Can Enter Anywhere

But Actual Users Take Paths Like

This

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We Design Sites Like This

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But They End Up Looking Like This

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When They Should Look More Like This

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If @Joehall were here, He’d have this slide.See Joe’s Article at Hallanalysis.com

Main Ideas Define the Organization.

E.G. categoriesSupporting content:

blog posts etc. Follow your sales

funnelConversion Points. Product pages, Sign

ups, Forms, etc

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We mapped URL length against page authority0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 120000

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0

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LEN Page Authority

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The URL path doesn’t matter. It’s how you actually get there.

Click Depth From The Home Page Is What Matters

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I Like Using Power Mapper To Measure Click Depth

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Use Analytics Data To Inform

Your Navigation & Breadcrumbs

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Mobile First Indexing Is Coming.

Hamburger Menus

Does Your IA Translate To Mobile? Can You Do Better Than A Hamburger Menu?

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Mapping IA Techniques To SEO

Card Sorting = Keyword Mapping

User Flows = SEO Content Strategy

Card Sorting uses actual index cards to make “piles” or “categories” of content. During this process we can map our SEO keywords to pages and eliminate duplicate content. We can also inform and create the main navigation.

All users are trying to achieve a goal. IA attempts to organize the site structure to match the customer’s journey toward that goal. SEO does the same thing – often uncovering content needs in the process. SEO has evolved toward designing for users – and that’s the goal of IA.

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Common SEO IA Mistakes

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Mistake 1: No StructureExamples: news site without categories.

Mistake 2: Inconsistent NavigationExamples: Multiple ways to access the same content.

Mistake 3: No Category PagesMistake 4: Bad Internal Linking

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Let’s Get To The Examples

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Make Sure Your CMS Isn’t Creating IA and SEO Issues.

An example of

Categories Run Amok

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Harley Davidson has 2 different URLS Based On How You Got There.

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Remember Our IOWA SEO?

Don’t Be these Guys

1,020 pages of similar content with different city names.

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There’s 3 ways to find “socks” on REI – Based on “personas”

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This REI Product Lives in Two categories

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But It Only Has One Product URL & Schema Breadcrumb

Both Links (previous slide) take me here:

https://www.rei.com/product/103565/smartwool-phd-nordic-light-elite-socks

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Tips For Good IA That Works With SEO

1. Have a Goal and a Purpose2. Use Site Analytics and Personas3. Keep your Site KPIs in Mind.4. Start with Mobile and expand to desktop.5. Be Consistent6. Everything should have only one home.

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Here’s A Political Slide That Won’t make People Angry

Ask not what your users can do for your website. Ask what your website can do for your users.

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THANK YOU! @RyanJonesLinkedin.com/in/jonesyOwdy.co/ryanjones

RyanMJones.comWTFSEO.COM