In my previous article, I talked about infrastructure architecture at a very high level, outlining what it is, why you should care about IA and its' major components.
Now I'm going to talk about the first component or system of IA - organization systems and how you can use some of your SEO knowledge and strategy to create one that meets your reader's needs. A critical success factor for any web site to stand out, be bookmarked and visited often is how the content and data is organized.
We understand the world around us largely by how we organize the information we receive. The way we answer questions reveals how we classify data and content. We have to organize what we receive so we understand it, explain it and have some measure of control.
When we organize our web content, information and data, we're doing it so our readers get their questions answered - hopefully sooner rather than later, and accurately as well. When we organize our web sites, we have to keep our end user in mind - it needs to make sense to her.
As the internet grows, the challenge of presenting that information is a responsibility we all have to accept and fulfill. It's great that we all have the freedom to publish whatever we want, but if we really care about it being found and used, then we are responsible to organize it in an easy-to-use manner.
We all suffer from information overload. It's not going to go away. So how do we conquer or mitigate it?
It's almost too simple to say "organize it!" Well, yeah...duh. But one hurdle we bump up against is that we don't think and organize our own thought processes the same way anyone else does. What makes sense to me as an organization system might look like a hoarding situation to someone else.
Let's look at some organization schemes, as they are called in the IA world, and which one is right for you. Or a combination!
Exact Organization Schemes
These are easy. Think of telephone directories and staff listings. Pretty straight foward information. You can list by first name or last name. This is an alphabetical organization scheme, and it's very common because it's easy to use.
Your could organize your content by chronology - either most recent or oldest data topside. It's up to you, but what would your target audience prefer? Examples of these include blog posts, press releases or special events.
Then we have geographical organization. News, weather and politics come to mind. If I'm here in Washington DC, wondering if conditions are good for sailing, I don't want to be bothered about the weather down in Richmond, VA.
Now let's move up to something more challenging. In IA, we also have ambiguous organization schemes. These divide information into categories that may defy an exact description or fit more than one subject.
However, these are the organization systems readers prefer, because we often don't know what we're looking for. Remember, information seeking is interactive and iterative. Sometimes we stumble upon something serendipitously.
Ambiguous organization schemes can be set up by topic or subject. Or they can be driven by tasks and processes which usually involves interactive web applications.
To make this more complicated, what if your organization system is best set up by the type of audience that visits your site? Do you get more one-offs, or do you have visitor loyalty where most of your readers come back time and time again?
If you have a really large interactive site, you may create a hybrid organization system that blends several schemes into one large organization system.
Again, keep in mind that I'm staying at the 30,000 foot level here. These articles are designed to open your mind to the opportunities and possibilities IA can do for your web site and business. There's a lot more to organization schemes than what's here.
With that said, let me come back around the original purpose of me writing these articles: IA and SEO. How does SEO figure into the organization system component of IA?
Keywords.
Remember, knowing the keywords and phrases our target market uses to find our business solutions, is the foundation of your SEO strategy. Another way to leverage your keyword research is to figure out if the more popular words they use can be applied to organizing and prioritizing your content and information.
Suppose you sell dog products, and your keyword research and web analytics show you that organic dog food is very high on your searcher's need for information. You happen to sell several brands. Since you know this, you can now organize (re-organize) your web content to make sure organic dog food is front and center on your web site.
Or maybe you run a business where you offer consulting services on senior services. Maybe your clients and prospects depend upon you more than anything else to guide them through complexities of selecting an assisted living facility for loved ones. It just so happens you've spend the last few years compiling very detailed and updated information on places in a 200-mile radius. Organize this content so it's prominently displayed on any landing page your target market reads on your site.
I've talked a little bit here about one major facet of infrastructure architecture - the organization system and schemes. Depending upon your site content and data, you could use several schemes to efficiently organize the information for your target audience to find quickly. Using your keyword research and web analytics, consider incorporating that knowledge into making a very user-friendly organization scheme that will keep your visitors on your site longer, read more pages and take the desired call to action to hire you for their problems.
Next up will be labeling systems within infrastructure architecture.
Nancy E. Wigal
Search Engine Academy Washington DC
Get SEO-trained and certified in one of our two, three or five day SEO training courses in the Washington DC area. Custom SEO training and consulting is also available upon request. Call 202.725.1422 for more information.
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