Coast Digital Blog

This post has one essential theme for you to take on board....
 
People use search engines using words. Search engines find and index relevant content using words. Design and develop your website using words not images.
 
Put words at the centre of everything you do when designing and building a website and the signs are good that you will develop a website that caters for a wide range of user types, including search engine robots.

If you consider robots just as you would a visitor, using accessibility settings/features and search engine optimisation (SEO) should become an easier concept to get your head around.
 
A simple concept - use words
A large part of building a search-friendly website involves putting words onto the page. For example, wherever possible design and build a webpage using:

• text for the navigation (even if supplementary to a main, image-based navigation)
• text for the links (not a graphical button of 'read more' etc), and 
• text for the content (not just big pretty pictures)

There are grounded reasons for images
Of course there are compelling reasons to include images within a website - primarily for the creation of a visually appealing and engaging user experience.

Another common use of images is to display products to the end-user, perhaps in a lifestyle scenario to create interest and desire. Other uses for imagery in a website include its use in the primary navigation: (example: apple.com).     

 
If the navigation's visual appeal can’t be achieved through CSS (and with an experienced designer it normally can), an image-based navigation might be required.

However, if you go down this image route, ensure that it is backed up with both descriptive alt text (and no, don't think you can stuff keywords into the ALT text - you'll be caught for spamming) and secondary navigation that is based on links.
 
Some may suggest that navigation based on text might not be the most visually appealing, but it does help both the user reliant on (or choosing to use) accessible forms of navigation. And indirectly this helps search engines to crawl and index a website.... to repeat 'search engines use words and word phrases to index a website.'
 
Searching the web using images
Of course search engines are getting smarter, and in Chris's recent post on our blog about using image ALT text in search engine optimisation, Matt Cutts of Google alludes to some of the challenges facing Google with image-based search.

However, currently even the might of Google cannot review and index an image on its visual merits alone. Instead, Google encourage you to name the image filename accurately/descriptively and include some helpful/assistive image alt-text.

Remember - search engines use words because people search using words
Above all else - focus on the words on the page. Deliver great text-based content and only use images to display the product or describe the lifestyle. Moreover, focus on the content on your website before you worry yourself with gaining links to your website.

1. Remember a sitemap has a dual purpose

At Coast Digital we’ve always advocated the use of website sitemaps. As a sitemap.html/.xml file has historically been the best way to inform search engine robots of all – or at least, the most important – web pages on a site.

Placing a sitemap link in the footer of pages is simply good practice search engine marketing, but it’s also worth remembering a sitemap can function as a powerful user navigation tool too.

In the same way that as users we expect to find a homepage link at the top-left of a web page (or linked from a company's logo), and an ‘about us’ link in the top navigation bar towards the right-hand side, we may also reasonably expect to find a sitemap link in the footer.

We don't write the rules though, and as Jakob Neilson helpfully points out in his book 'Homepage Usability', your website will almost certainly not be the first a user has visited. In fact chances are they’ll have visited thousands before they arrive at your site.

Over time web users inevitably build up preconceptions. So it’s worth remembering that the less a user has to think about your layout the more time they can spend accessing your information and products. Why distract them with a convention-breaking design when all you are going to do is provoke frustration?
 
2. Remember to display a link to your sitemap

When optimising a website for search engines it can be easy to lose sight of your objectives. Sure, it’s great to get a good position in the search engine results pages (SERPs), but the ultimate goal is for users to easily find the most relevant pages on your site.

Sitemaps are often hidden or put 'behind' a website because they generally appear as a series of categorised links, and the visual value isn’t immediately apparent. In fact sitemap layouts often don’t reveal a hierarchy of importance.

If certain pages are more important than others or contain account or profile details requiring frequent access, then developing a visually appealing sitemap or even a mini-sitemap to signpost on every page is a good solution.
 
3. Use sitemaps and mini-sitemaps to assist navigation

You'd be amazed at the usage website footers get in terms of navigation. There are reports of 65-70% of a website's total navigation being via sitemap footers.

If you think about it, it makes sense; header navigation is often used to promote products. Instead mini-sitemap footers such as the examples below - from Apple.com, LinkedIn.com and Waterscape.com - help new and existing web visitors quickly identify the important parts of a website.

• In the case of Apple, the user is shown a link to important Apple products, accessories and software.
• For LinkedIn, important service elements such as how to find an individual’s profile, or set-up/manage an account are given emphasis.
• In the Waterscape example, the sitemap footer is used to promote specific regions and activities. 
   

Apple.com

LinkedIn.com

Waterscape.com

4. Think about the added benefits of a mini-sitemap

More and more websites – especially blogs – are using streamlined or mini-sitemaps in their footers. Personally, I think they provide some solid benefits:

• By incorporating only relevant links, mini-sitemaps provide a great user experience.
• A mini-sitemap quickly enables new users. It makes clear what a website does and the content it contains.
• A mini-sitemap acts as a quick-link navigation tool for existing users.
• Links on every page inform search engines about which pages – in the opinion of the website owner – are the most important.
• A footer sitemap will help the webmaster to quickly add more links to a page.
• The links in a sitemap can contain helpful anchor text describing the linked pages, which will further assist with SEO.

As search marketing specialists we regularly come across potential clients who are interested in search engine optimisation (SEO) services. Many of these have already invested heavily in ‘all-singing-all-dancing’ websites, and then as almost an afterthought consider looking into search marketing.

As a result we're often faced with websites that look great but just aren’t search engine-friendly, or even user-friendly for that matter. It can be difficult to break it to the client that their new website needs extensive work, especially if a vast amount of money may have already been spent.

When we encounter this situation we work with both parties to achieve a search-friendly website by either advising the design agency on changes, or by implementing them ourselves – with permission of course. But you may be thinking how can this be avoided?

Think of SEO at design concept

The most important time to think of search engine marketing for your future website is at the design stage. Make sure your design agency has the knowledge and skill to build a search engine-friendly site. Ask to see examples of their work. You may find that they are not as well equipped as you first thought, or as they may have claimed.

Power to the people

If you’re having an e-commerce site built, especially if it’s going to be powered by a CMS, (content management system) make sure you have full control.

Check that you can make the following changes freely:

• Define META data for individual product pages and site content
• Incorporate a proper content structure using Headings (H1, H2 etc)
• Add pages freely to your site navigation and/or other navigation modules (i.e. footer links)

Summary

As we have seen, many make the mistake of focusing mainly on the design of their new website, neglecting search engine optimisation at what can be great expense. Make sure you pick a design agency carefully and ensure they build you a search-friendly site that can be optimised in the future, either by yourself or a search marketing agency.

If you find yourself in a situation where your site needs extensive SEO work then don’t despair, Coast Digital are highly experienced and capable, and can help guide you through the necessary changes. 

Here are my musings on the relative merits of quantitative versus qualitative research in web development. I hope you'll find the information of value to your daily work. I've conducted various types of research online but it should be clear which method I think adds the most value to our clients’ businesses.
 
If this post interests you and you want to find out more you can't beat Jakob Nielson’s website at Useit.com (he would be willing to gain usability at the loss of visual design - but his heart's in the right place).

If you would like to further discuss Coast Digital's experience of user reviews and web design work then drop us a line - we'd be delighted to speak with you about your business needs.
 
Quantitative research
Quantitative research has the potential to give you reams of data and strong statistical significance. It also gives you lots to talk about, but ultimately only provides feedback against the criteria and questions you asked. Ask the wrong questions and nothing of much value will come back.
 
Quantitative research often requires significant time investment at the inception stage - say the set-up of a user satisfaction questionnaire - but once the survey has been developed it can be rolled out across the internet for minimal overhead.
 
The beauty of quantitative research is that you can collect all this data and run some statistical analysis to prove that the results aren't flukes, and, with a little interpretation, draw some conclusions and pretty bar charts. It’s great to wow people with the sheer weight of information but just how relevant is it in web development?
 
Qualitative research
Those with leanings towards mathematics often believe that qualitative research is the poor cousin of stats-based research; because the sample sizes are small there can be little statistical significance and nothing can be truly proven. 
 
Qualitative research in web development does have its challenges:

• You need to source and recruit relevant test candidates.
• The person conducting the user testing or interviews can unwittingly 'lead' users into making statements they wouldn't have made without prompting.
• Each individual user session takes a considerable amount of time to conduct, record and analyse.
• Expanding the sample size to compensate for a lack of statistics is both prohibitively expensive and needless.

However, what qualitative research lacks in statistics, it makes up for in depth of information and potential for insight. Read on...

Qualitative user review testing - a sound solution for web development
In web development or web redesign work you need specifics; information about areas of weakness or opportunity not generalisations or measures of feelings.

You might feel that you can cut corners by sitting down and brainstorming what features your new website should include and how users should interact with it. And you might think you've got some brilliant ideas, but, chances are they're based on hunches and gut-feelings.
 
From my experience, if you are tasked with finding out why a website isn't performing, you can't beat getting people to use it:

• Set them objectives, goals, scenarios and sit back and watch. 
• Do not get too drawn into the tasks themselves; simply sit in as an impartial observer and ask the user to “think aloud”. 
• If the user gets stuck at any point in a process on a website ask them "what are you thinking?" 
• Make notes, or even better, record the whole session on video and/or screen recorder and analyse the session later. 

When it comes to valuable research outputs, you simply cannot beat a summary document highlighting the core areas that already work and those that need additional developement work.

This document should be backed up and cross referenced with a copy of the actual videoed sessions. This way you should successfully remove conjecture and personal opinion from your research piece.
 
In conclusion
When it comes to web development I would encourage you to steer clear of bulky surveys and personal hunches. Instead, strike through the middle; invite a limited set of core users to use your website and observe them. You’ll be absolutely amazed by how many valuable and actionable items their feedback produces.