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Jul
21
Building Trust Between SEO & IA
July 21, 2008 | Leave a Comment
AS A MEMBER of the the Information Architecture Institute I sometimes get a plethora of emails about various topics such as wire frames, poly hierarchies, duplicate website content and other IA and SEO related subject matter. Last week an email was set out to the distribution list from Jenny Wallace who is currently working on her Master thesis titled "How Search Engine Optimization and Information Architecture can build a reciprocal trust relationship between information providers and information consumers ". As my recent post about change management, resistance and trust with the Online Marketing Industry may suggest, the topic of trust and relationships between teams, departments or suppliers and customers is one that fascinates me.
The best part, and sometimes the overbearing part too, is that some of the emails sent to the distribution list generate a lot of response from IA/UX experts from around the world. And every so often a response comes through like the one I am about to share with you now.
In response to Jenny’s request Steve Baty , UX expert and Management Consultant for Meld Consulting in Australia , offered the sound and thorough advice about building trust between teams and their responsibility to the user/customer. Full transcript of Jenny’s question and Steve’s response follow:
Hi All,
I’m finishing up my masters in Interaction Design and Information Architecture at the Univ. of Baltimore, and I wanted some IA input on my topic: How Search Engine Optimization and Information Architecture can build a reciprocal trust relationship between information providers and information consumers. Any thoughts?
Thanks,
Jenny,
I think that’s a fantastic these topic and I wish you well during this difficult time of finalising it for submission.
The notion of trust in this relationship is primarily one - to my mind - of meeting expectations for the information consumers. The consumer will, frequently, land on a page deep into the site content hierarchy and will immediately begin assessing the page for relevancy based on the high-level content labels presented to them. This is clearly where a partnership is most strongly required between IA and SEO practitioners, so that the visually-dominant labels (headings, titles, sub-headings, bold terms etc) are closely aligned to the original search terms that brought the consumer to the site in the first place.
Trust online is a highly fragile thing, and visitors to a site - particularly when originating within a search engine - will be twitchy to begin, so it is imperative that relevance is established quickly, clearly and unambiguously. It should be the case that the higher-level content labels are the ones most closely tied to the search terms - and it’s here that the semantic structure of the HTML comes to the fore.
It is also important to recognise the conflict inherent in the relationship between SEO and IA. Although the goal of SEO should be to attract pre-qualified potential consumers to site, quite often this is interpreted to mean "attract as many people as possible". For the IA, this represents a real conflict of interest: they’re being tasked with structuring site content to suit the needs of an audience who - by rights - should never be considered in the information architecture.
And it is here that trust can be destroyed very, very quickly: SEO tactics that are designed to draw in visitors with only a very tenuous interest in the actual product or service on offer; and those visitors being presented with content that has little or no relevance to their needs.
One last point: the information architecture strategy for a site must explicitly accommodate visitor behaviour that does not initiate on the home page. Each and every page must provide the sort of context and relevancy triggers for the visitor so that they can not only decide to continue their journey on the site, but also can see clearly how to commence that journey.
Once again - good luck with your thesis.
Steve
Now I know enough about SEO to be dangerous and I know even less about IA but I do know that trust largely translates into quality. If a user trusts that what your website has to offer is what it is they want, in the mind of that user your website has a certain level of quality that they desire. Factor in additional characteristics beyond a relevant landing page like product or service selection, ease of site navigation, simple checkout or contact process and that ‘quality score’ increases dramatically. So in many ways, as Steve suggests, its not only trust but also relevance that is a major contributor to the quality of a website that will ultimately turn users into life-time customers. It is this common goal where both SEO & IA should focus to design and implement the best user experience possible.
Related Articles:
Trust in the Little Things
Online Marketing Quality: I Know It When I See It
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Jul
18
Yahoo! Unmapped
July 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment
NEW NOTICE TODAY from our pals at Yahoo! Search Marketing.
We wanted to let you know that a limited number of keywords in your account that are currently linked to synonyms, or “mapped,” will soon become unmapped to give you more control over your keywords. As you may know, we use various matching technologies to link some bidded keywords to other terms that a searcher might use synonymously to look for them. This mapping connects some keywords with related synonyms, such as “car insurance” with “auto insurance.”
What’s Changing
Recently, advertisers have voiced a need to manage some of these synonyms separately, so that they can use separate bidding and creative strategies, and business goals. To give you more control over your ads, we plan to remove a limited number of keyword mappings on July 29, 2008.What does this mean for your account?
You may still receive traffic for these terms through the Advanced match type even after these terms are unmapped. For better control, however, we suggest adding these “new” terms to your existing account, along with new bids and ads. If you choose to add the new terms, keep in mind that they will be rejected as duplicates prior to July 29, if you are adding to the same ad group as your existing bidded term.
This notice came with a few keywords for one of our accounts showing the exisiting keyword and what looks to be realted Search Queries. There is no indication whether or not these reports will be automatically emailed or availble within the UI.
It was only a matter of time before Yahoo! followed in Google’s footsteps yet again. Now only of they can create a desktop editor…
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Jul
12
“Too often our changes are technically perfect - the boxes are neatly arranged, columns add up, procedures are in place - but we fail to acknowledge the human aspect.” - William Bridges
ONE THING THAT should be apparent if you work in an agency/consultancy setting is that whether you are an expert at SEM, SEO, Affiliate or any other Online Marketing channel, excelling at your core competency is not enough. Managing client paid search accounts or pulling together a strategic SEO plan to improve organic search results will only be successful if you also manage the ‘human side’ of the equation. Taking the human side of things into account early on in a relationship is critical to success both internally and externally and is the foundation for building trust.
Regardless whether this new relationship is a transition between a client’s in-house online marketing program being outsourced to an agency or a client switching agencies, there is a significant amount of change management involved even before you can begin to focus on the the nuts and bolts of campaigns, keywords, meta tags etc. With any amount of change also comes a certain amount of resistance. This post will focus on the Cycle of Change, some key tips on how to identify and join the resistance in order to succeed and focus on some of the types of resistance I have encountered from an agency perspective.
Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes, Turn and Face the Strange
As I mentioned there is a certain level of change that takes place when a client hires an agency for the first time or switches agencies for the first, second or third time… And with this changing of the guards there will be a level of resistance that needs to be embraced. Yes, I said embrace the resistance - it’s the only way to manage the change successfully.
It is outside the scope of this post to cover every detail of change and resistance but ultimately if you find yourself in either of the aforementioned scenarios there will be varying levels of resistance that you will encounter in your new partnership. Initially at the beginning of the engagement the agency and the client will be at different stages of change. By using the Cycle of Change it is easy to put into perspective where you are compared to where your client is in the first days/weeks of the relationship. The Cycle of Change is a management tool that is divided into the following 6 segments:
1. Random Incidents - little information for the need for change.
2. Recognition - recognizing a problem and the need for change.
3. Initial Actions - taking the first steps to initiate change.
4. Implementation - discovery period of new ideas to manage change.
5. Integration - making new ideas the standard way of doing business.
6. Waning Activity - reevaluate the new standards and make the necessary changes for sustainability.
Typically when an agency contract is signed there has already been some level of Random Incidents and Recognition of a problem for which a change on the client side is in order. In the initial stages of the relationship it is critical to fully understand where your clients Senior Management - typically the decision makers - thinks they are along the cycle and where your day-to-day contacts - typically the ones previously responsible for SEM or SEO - are along the cycle. Usually they are not at the same stage and herein lies the recipe for resistance. One example of this is when Senior Management hires an agency to increase online revenue, but the Marketing Team is at odds internally with IT and Merchandising. Hiring or switching agencies is not the problem from the Marketing Teams point of view. This disconnect between management and marketing will make it difficult for the new agency to effectively implement its strategy. Your marketing contacts may resist certain parts of your strategy because they have tried your proposed tactics before and failed due to internal bureaucracy beyond your control. Or they may feel that they could do the job just as well as the agency if the internal issues were resolved.
In either case there are several types of resistance to look out for including, confusion, denial, sabotage, easy agreement and silence. Understanding where the client is along the cycle of change will better prepare you for anticipating what type of resistance you will encounter. And even though you, as the agency, are supporting the client with their best interests in mind, you will always encounter some level of resistance. When this occurs, according to Rick Maurer * , there are five basic touchstones to use as a reference point and to keep you and the client on the same page moving along the cycle of change at the same pace. Those touchstones are:
- Maintain Clear Focus
- Embrace Resistance
- Respect those Who Resist
- Relax
- Join with the Resistance
These touchstones are regarded as unconventional ways of dealing with resistance since we tend to only look at problems from our perspective and do not dive deep enough under the surface to understand the true root of the issues. I agree that these may be the unconventional ways of managing resistance, but the conventional ways of dealing with resistance hardly ever work. So the next time you find yourself in a situation where you have resistance either internally or externally instead of giving in or applying force to get those who resist to agree with you try to see things from their perspective and find common ground in order to move ahead along the cycle of change together.
* The Cycle of Change, the examples of resistance and the five touchstones are from the brilliant mind of Change Management Expert Rick Maurer and his book Beyond the Wall of Resistance: Unconventional Strategies that Build Support for Change . I can hardly do the book and his advice for dealing with change and resistance its due justice in a blog post so I highly recommended you find yourself a copy and read for yourself.
Additional Resources:
Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change 
Why Change Management is Critical to Web 2.0
And a special ‘thank you’ to Mary Federico who is an Organizational Behavior consultant and author I had the pleasure of working with for several years. Mary introduced me to the works of both William Bridges and Rick Maurer.
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Jul
4
le Tour de France & SEO
July 4, 2008 | 1 Comment
THIS IS MY favorite time of year - tomorrow begins the 95th Tour de France. I have been a avid fan of professional cycling since my days as a teenager building bikes in the basement of Oakmont Bicycle Shop (now HumanZoom ) and watching Greg Lemond win his second Tour in 1989. This year is especially significant since a few of my colleagues have been working on an SEO project for Versus.com . Hats off to Adam Figueira and Brad Epstein for their work on Versus SEO engagement so far and to interim Account Manager Alex Cohen.
Versus (formerly OLN) has been airing live coverage of the Tour for the past 8 years. In addition to its daily TV coverage, this year the Versus Tour coverage is offering live online streaming coverage of Stages 1 & 2 prior to the TV coverage for those early birds like me who want their Tour coverage before the sun rises. Throughout the 23 day race you can also catch updates on Versus Daily Reports by legendary cycling commentators Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen . Also providing his widely famous color commentary and equally wild pronunciation of the French language is former Team 7-11 cyclist ‘Bobke’ Bob Roll .
Two years ago I had the chance to see Floyd Landis win on the Champs Elysees in person. This year I am off at at the Jersey Shore during the first week of the Tour. Whether in person or watching online and/or TV - regardless of doping and scandals - the Tour de France is the greatest three week sporting event
the world has ever known.
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Jun
29
Principles of Analytical Thinking | Paid Search Campaign Organization
June 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment
ONE OF THE key factors in building a paid search campaign for success literally begins with a logically planned and executed campaign and ad group structure. It’s amazing how many poorly organized paid search campaign structures I have assessed over the last few years. It is especially surprising since it has been well documented that relevancy is one of the main ingredients of Google’s Quality Score. Smaller sets of like keywords with ad creatives specific to those keywords makes a more sound and targeted ad group ultimately driving more effective traffic at a lower cost.
I suppose that either lack of resources, lack of understanding or just plain carelessness are some of the root-causes of poorly organized campaigns. The interesting thing is that it’s not terribly difficult to design a campaign structure for Quality Score. It’s actually much harder to reverse engineer an several hundred ad groups each with 1000’s of keywords that are dissimilar. How anyone can effectively measure user behavior and work toward efficiency in such a state is beyond me.
Paid Search Campaign Criteria
When thinking about how to set up your paid search campaign structure it is critical to think about each of your products, categories or services as separate entities. In the 2007 Norman Bodek translation of Dr Shigeo Shingo’s Kaizen and The Art of Creative Thinking
Of the two types of grouping criteria - contrasting and continuous - ‘it is essential for dividing criteria to be as clear and distinct as possible’. With that in mind, continuous groups make poor candidates for campaigns and are better suited as ad groups. Ensuring that your campaigns are as contrasting as possible is ideal for setting up a structure that is logical, easy to report on and makes optimization and expansion more effective.
As an example, if you are building a campaign for a clothing retailer that sells mens and womens clothing (pants, shirts, jeans, shoes, coats, etc) it is more effective to divide the campaigns by gender rather than by product:
CAMPAIGN >Ad Group
MENS >Pants >Shirts >Jeans…
WOMENS >Pants >Shirts >Jeans…
Rather than:
PANTS >Mens >Womens
SHIRTS >Mens >Womens
In this case, division by gender allows the ad groups to become more granular and more relevant over time. This is also essential in helping you to decide how to allocate budget towards your higher performing categories or brands, gives you better understanding into buyer behavior and prioritizes testing, expansion and optimization.
Resources:
Excerpt from Kaizen and The Art of Creative Thinking
Enna - Lean & Kaizen Materials
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