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Designing enterprise Web sites for search engine visibility has been a major thread of this column since I started writing for MediaPost several years ago (side note: I will hit my 100th column in a few months).  URL structures, redirection plans, dealing with process obstacles, and putting research up front have all been topics I’ve previously covered.  Today I am going to build on a column that I wrote almost a year ago, entitled “How Search Fits Into The Redesign Process.” To start, a list of major considerations for designing an enterprise Web site for greater search visibility is provided below. (Please read that column for more info on each of the following points):

I was recently going through a discovery process with a Fortune 500 executive who was guiding his company’s Web site redesign, and I inquired directly about the search aspects of the project. His response: “Search is not relevant to this process.” Contrary to what he was saying, search was in fact critical to the overall process; he was just clearly unaware of his company’s campaign history and investment in the search channel. In light of this response, seemingly old and worn advice is worth another spin or two around the block, especially if it will help convey the natural search value of a legacy Web presence.

In enterprise marketing, it is not a question of whether your company’s site is going to be redesigned or not, it is simply a question of when. Most companies do some kind of major redesign or tweak every two years, and if they haven’t just relaunched, they are planning for the next one. So the “when” is most often “now,” no matter where you are in the process. The important thing to remember here is that search should be a key consideration at every stage of the process, whether it is selecting a provider, setting requirements, producing comps, coding or site deployment.

So how do you fit natural search into the process? Here are a few ideas to start:

Use site language and messaging that is consistent with the user’s perception of your product or service.
For the most part, search engines are still very literal, and truly effective semantic intelligence still lies far ahead. Position content and language that reflects the way users search, in order to rank for those terms. The path to understanding this language is through linguistic and keyword research, and also by studying and knowing your target. Language and keywords impact and guide information architecture and content strategies, among other aspects.

Read your log files (and/or review analytics reports).
If you want to know what you stand to lose in a site redesign, take a look at what you are currently gaining in terms of traffic, visibility, revenue, and conversions. Are there any particular Holy Grail terms like “travel,” “shopping,” or “banking” that may be giving you a lot of traffic? See a section of a site that is referring a ton of long-tail terms? You will likely find some areas that are worth preserving.

Ensure that RIAs are both crawlable and indexable by search engines.
Rich Internet technologies that are implemented without search engines in mind can instantly render a once-thriving natural search program into total obscurity. Flash and Ajax are key tools in the design and development toolbox, but considerations must be made for search upfront.

Avoid the creation of URL canonicalization issues.
When you change phone numbers, the phone company will leave a recorded message telling the new number to the person who called your old number. This is the effect a 301 permanent redirect has on a search engine — it applies the old URL and backlinks to the new URL; the search engine is happy, and your site is happy. A canonicalization problem occurs when 302 redirects are pointed to permanently moved pages. I have seen instances where clients have gone through four or five redesigns using 302s, and a string of six-to-eight redirects points to a single page, each with its own set of inbound links. This basically makes it difficult for engines to determine the “real URL” to show in results and apply backlinks to. How do you fix it? See the next point.

Set up a redirection plan.
In just about every redesign project, at least some content is removed, and URLs go away. Help the engines and your users by using a 301 redirect to point them to the most similar page on your site, or the site map, home page, or custom 404 page. Spend the time to map out which URLs are going away, and where they should be pointed. And don’t sit on the plan —do it on the day or evening that a site is pushed out of production.

Don’t remove content that supports coveted rankings without assessing risks first.
One mistake I see frequently is when content is removed from a site, with no replacement content to support the valuable rankings and visibility it has previously created. Before axing existing site content, determine how difficult it would be to re-attain the ranking, the ranking’s importance in terms of traffic and revenue, or if it is your CEO’s favorite pet ranking. Then create a plan for bridging new content, or leaving it alone.

Include search as both a business and technical requirement before planning has even started.
If search is not a consideration and priority early on, then it will be 10 times harder and more expensive to try to re-engineer at the end of or after the project.

Ensure that there is a voice for search within the Web site team structure.
Having a search specialist as part of the Web design team (and implementing their recommendations) will do a lot to ensure a healthy transition in the redesign and relaunch process, in addition to the potential for growth. The list above is useless without some subjective strategy behind it. Get experienced search optimization help that is fit to your company’s unique situation, needs and goals, and make it an integral part of the redesign process.

These are just a few considerations to get you started. Feel free to add your own thoughts and considerations for redesign at the Search Insider blog.

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Rob Garner is strategy director for digital marketing company iCrossing and writes for Great Finds, the iCrossing blog. Contact him via email at rob.garner@icrossing.com,and follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/robgarner.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Designing Web Sites For Search Visibility

Branding has been a rather complex topic since the advent of brand named goods, originating with maker’s marks on certain blacksmithing products, proceeding through guild-approved stampings on quality goods, and progressing into the names we know and associate with major brands, such as Chevy, Barnes and Noble, Starbucks, and Wendy’s. Some brands are virtually immortal – manufacturer Beretta has retained its name since the 1500s, and continues to be a leader in the field of military armaments.

In many ways, branding is as much an art as it is a science, a technique of knowing how to read the mercurial moods of the purchasing public. In the age of the digital marketplace and an ever-connecting world population, new challenges and ideas present themselves to the savvy business. Anyone with a brand to promote must heed these signs or find themselves left behind.

Vox Populi

An increasing trend in digital branding is the user-driven brand. Traditional branding relies on the parent company presenting a particular image they wish associated with their item – Chevrolet and Ford wish to project a brand associated with ruggedness, leading to the “Ford Tough” and “Like a Rock” slogans of the late 1990s. User-driven branding, on the other hand, appropriates an image cultivated from the product’s user base and embraces it, allowing the people to choose how they associate with the brand.

Spelling Challenged Kittens

Perhaps one of the most intriguing overnight branding success stories is that of the popular image blog, “I Can Haz Cheezburger?” LoLCats are user-generated images of felines in various adorable or questionable poses, with humorously misspelled captions attached. That is it; no product to sell, just funny images uploaded to social message boards and forum – the phenomenon began in earnest with the weekly ‘Caturday’ on the highly controversial site 4Chan.

Cheezburger was an effort to archive these pictures more permanently in a blog format, without the socially rambunctious atmosphere of some other boards, nothing more. Within two years the company was purchased for two million dollars, has created a number of products such as books and garments, and has gathered users’ humorous misspellings into an actual Constructed Language project that is translating major texts. The brand is clearly associated with its humble beginnings, and continues to draw input from users – in particular, the LoLspeak project itself is entirely user-driven in a wikipedia style collective effort.

Trendy Kids and their Toys

Apple’s “Get a Mac” and “Mac vs PC” commercials are already entering into modern legend as far as branding efforts go. Apple was shunted aside as the standard home computer by the proliferation of Windows-based machines, and Mac users developed a reputation for the odd computing enthusiast.

However, just as the cultural image of the nerd and geek were slowly turned into countercultures and social trends of their own, Apple picked up on these movements and re-branded itself as the tool of the ‘indie’ kids eager for something different. While not as direct an example as with LoLCats, it still demonstrates the influence a user base can have on a brand that they personally identify with. An audience decided to embrace a certain image, and this image allowed Mac to launch itself into the modern resurgence it has enjoyed.

Dudes and Dells

Recently, Dell Computers closed their popular Customer Care message board. These were user forums Dell set up in 1997 to cater to customers who weren’t interested in fighting with telephone tech support, or wanted a solution other than hauling their PC across town to a big-box shop for repair and refit. The boards allowed users to contact actual Dell employees with their grievances, and were a major cornerstone of Dell’s long-standing claim to superior customer service and support. Dell users spread their experiences by word of mouth and internet communication, and the Dell brand became synonymous with its dedicated user base.

When Dell announced the decision to close these boards in 2005, the decision caused a bit of an uproar. Longtime fans and users of the board protested en masse. Dell claimed good reasons for their decision – technical services were for registered purchasers, and the forums couldn’t be made completely secure against identity theft when personal information was exchanged. However, the users still protested and raised equally good cases, citing story after story about how the Customer Care boards were part of the reason they had stuck with Dell so long. In a final compromise, Dell chose to keep open their non-technical support boards so customers could still participate in discussions of Dell technology and practices, and share ideas with other Dell users. The people spoke, and Dell took the time to let their users continue to affect the brand.

The Big Picture

Each of these three stories presents a case in which the customers shaped the destiny of a major brand. Is this the path for every company? Of course not. However, the Internet and the web provide companies with more tools than ever to reach their audiences. Word of mouth is more efficient than ever before, and customers can cause the rise or fall of major businesses through their online contacts. Companies interested in maximizing the effect of their brand should do more than ‘look into’ putting their goods on a website – they need to seriously consider letting their audience, the people that buy the brand, help define the brand.

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Enzo F. Cesario is a Copywriter and co-founder of Brandsplat. Brandcasting uses informative content and state-of-the-art internet distribution and optimization to build links and drive the right kind of traffic to your website. Go to http://www.Brandsplat.com/ or visit our blog at: http://www.brandsplatblog.com/

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Branding In The Digital Age

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