Get Satisfaction Main Points:

• Creates a connection to your community of site visitors
• Offers a transparent, free flowing dialog
• Offers an entry point into a conversation
• Create and retain site visitors
• Improve the website the right way. Get users/site visitors involved in the process. What they want. What they don’t want.
• Repository of questions and ideas
• Widget to place on website (Topic Search Widget or Live Topic Widget)

The screenshot below was taken from the Get Satisfaction website and it outlines the basic functionality.

• Search box is visible and easy to locate
• Search button contains meaningful text. Use words such as Search or Go (limitations)
• Provide relevant summaries for each search result
• Clearly organize the search results
• Provide recognizable hyperlinked titles for each search result
• Support synonyms
• Declare custom search terms and the pages they link to. Access the log files and filter out the most common searched terms. Make sure these terms are added to your search and are pointed to their most meaningful pages.
• Compensate for common misspellings (think Google and their popular Did you mean)
• Provide support for common search tasks such as refining a search, starting a new search, results pagination, etc.
• If no results are returned provide the following information: a search box with the current search term in it, list similar terms, list correct spelling of the term, hints for the user such as try a broader search term, access to advanced search and display sitemap.

Review the list and start reading. How do you think this list measures up? Is it on track? What other books would you recommend?

The short and dirty version is this: Siloing is a method that SEO professionals use on web sites to rank better with search engines. This method has been proven to work in the past to significantly increase page relevance and rankings. When you group like content that is similar in theme, you are creating a silo. The downside to this is that if you crosslink between silos of different themes you are diluting the silo.

When it comes to creating an information architecture for a web site, using silos can be quite daunting if you’re not familiar with how they work. I’m currently working on a project where it has been requested that I port some content over to the silo structure.

Here are the issues that I foresee:

• Moving Content — moving content to another location and renaming the files is an SEO nightmare. Even if you do perform 301 redirects, you’re still going to lose some of the link juice that went along with the original page.
• URL Structure — for SEO purposes you want to place keywords that people are searching for in the URL string. In this situation it makes the URL’s extremely long.

A solution to the second bullet point above is simply to shorten the naming conventions in the URL string while maintaining some form of keyword structure. Google (and maybe other search engines) use a technology called LSI or Latent Semantic Indexing. LSI is where the search engines group together information that share similarities. In other words, a relationship is created between information. Instead of focusing primarily on page names and URL structures, pay closer attention to the content within the page.

Although SEO silos have been proven to be a great method to rank well, I’m concerned with creating a great user experience first which means usability is on the top of my list. Creating an information architecture that is effective and easy to understand by the end-user is key in any design.

My knowledge is limited when it comes to SEO silos. This is why I’d like to hear from other professionals that have experience with them. Looking forward to your comments.

Method 1
Use the rel=”nofollow” attribute on links that are not relevant to site content.

Method 2
Use a CGI script/ This is an advanced method but it is prefererred as the rel=”nofollow” attribute can sometimes be ignored by search engines. To find out more about this method, read this article about preventing theme bleeding.

Has anyone test either of these methods? If so, what has worked or hasn’t worked?

While there are both copywriters and search engine marketers out there that specialize in writing highly optimized content for search engines, they are forgetting about a very simple and basic fundamental practice, the user experience. I’ve noticed a gap lately between search engine optimization and the user experience that keeps getting wider. Are we sacrificing the user experience for optimized content that doesn’t mean anything to anyone except the search engines? The user should always be our main focus and there does exist a balance between SEO and the user experience. We just need to work harder to find that balance and achieve web site zen.

Your rankings in the search engines are not increasing. You start to panic. What do you do? Your marketing manager tells you to add some more pages. The copywriter and search engine marketer work together to write some highly optimized content that serves no purpose to the end user. They pass it over to the web development team and they publish it. Sound familiar?

The above imaginary content are not relevant to anything. In fact, it is usually thrown into the architecture so only confuse people that land on the page. Creating traction and developing a strong presence is a high priority but so is the user experience. Your visitors and there time are precious commodities. If your web site leaves a bad taste in their mouth, they’ll more than likely never come back. Remember. happy users = company growth.

I’d like to hear what other people have to say about this. Agree? Disagree? What have you experienced?

If you’re interested in usability and user-centered design then I suggest you check out Rosenfeld Media’s website. While you’re there, also check out the webinar series. For around $125 you can’t go wrong.