The hottest news around the web and the buzz from people are waiting for the final rounds and announcements of Microsoft-Yahoo search deal partnership. It is expected that in coming next week we will hear more of this, as European commission is about to give its approval soon. But if we look on to past Microsoft has faced tough time with them for some millions of money. On the other side the European commission which has members across different state, may have different concerns. If they feel that Google is quite dominating then they might think in a different way and approve the proposals. But overall it still looks that everything is not going to be easy and can take little more time to get a clear picture.
Well, if you look back Yahoo has made many changes to optimize their business models and are coming up with new things. Even if we compare the percentage of combined share of Microsoft-Yahoo Vs Google, Google still retains its position. This was predicted by comscore data which also said that combined share will be around 28%. Even though the two marketing leading forces from search industry are willing to join but to compete Google they still need to attain new heights in the coming years.
Website Architecture is an important foundation for you on page optimization which gives clear pathway for visitors and search engines to understand your website. There is no meaning if we are driving quality traffic without having a optimized site architecture. Why? Read ahead…
Impact of Poor Site Architecture:
- Visitors not able to find information quickly.
- Visitors unable to navigate and find their information.
- Poses limitation for search crawlers to crawl the web pages.
- Poses limitation for search crawlers to understand the relevancy between pages.
- No hierarchical flow of information resulting in poor landing page optimization.
- The technology being used for site architecture does not support features to have search engine friendly web pages.
- Poor placement of key web elements like widgets, article detail page etc.
Key Considerations for Optimized Site Architecture:
- If you are using any CMS or other system make sure that it has flexibility to create search engine friendly pages.
- Position your web elements at effective areas of web page which can be articles, widgets, listing detail pages, etc.
- Create the top-level navigation in such a way that it can comfortably hold all unique types of detailed content for the web site.
- If you are having a large website a directory structure with 3 level deep is optimal consideration.
- Maintain a relevancy between the top and subsequent level of category pages.
- A good taxonomy or optimized category can help visitors in finding the information quickly and give search crawlers to understand the subject matter easily.
- Optimize navigation structure like menus and breadcrumb to connect top and sub navigation levels.
- An optimized navigation will help visitor to reach any part of website from any given landing page.
- Include secondary and other pages lists like contact information and other non-centrals pages and link them wherever required.
- If you are working on revamping a website then A/B testing can be done to find which style of site architecture suit’s best for your site audience.
- The naming system of directories, files and URL structure is very important. Make sure you stick to relevancy and make meaningful words to frame them.
- Different pages will have different value and the placement of pages within site is very important.
- Usability aspects and information architecture should be built to cover the optimal site architecture needs.
Being in the field of SEO I have come across various interviews at start-up as well as branded companies. During these experiences I learned a lot of things about different kinds of opportunities, company expectations, companies involved in SEO services, nature of interviewing candidates, evaluating skills and many other observations. I hope my below compilation of findings for newbies and intermediates will help them to achieve success in their interview.
Preparation:
- First and the foremost important thing study the required job profile closely.
- Compare the requirements against your skills and expertise.
- Make sure your fundamentals are quite strong in all the areas.
- Study the company, its presence among SEO industry, achievements, culture etc from web resources.
- Take a look on the company website, carry out SEO analysis of current state and possible scope of optimization. This should be short and precise like some important findings.
- A print outs of above analysis shown in interview makes a good impression representing that you are proactive and have done your home work well.
- Prepare a questionnaire based on the job description given and skills required for the profile.
- Prepare a report on your achievements that can summarize your credits well.
At Interview:
- Well begin with full confidence and eye contact with interviewer.
- Every answer should be to the point.
- Most interviewer would like to know how you started off your career, reasons for moving in different company, make sure you prepare yourself for such answers in advance.
- You must be able to demonstrate your skills with some reports.
- Since some SEO points can run into debatable ones, try to normalize them and conclude them by saying its solely on your experience and personal opinion.
- At times you should avoid routine answers given by most candidates like to gain rankings we have to do article submission, SMO etc.. instead explain how you are going to do them.
- Bring out some remarkable points in your discussions like “I created my own strategy in achieving the company’s first lead for the new product” or “I was one among the marketing team who saw the potential market through social media that company utilized to increase their customer base.
- It would be good to mention the challenges involved in project and what was your approach in tackling them.
- Since SEO has to deal with designers, developers, content writer and other people show how effectively you were capable of getting the work done from them.
- Showcase your reputed clients you worked for and their feedback.
- If you have done your homework, show them some reports representing potential scope of optimization for company’s website.
- An interviewer is more comfortable if you are good at multiple things like experience with variety of tools, proactive approach, self motivated and quick learner.
A lot of people over the web wants to do SEO for their website. But some are not sure why they are doing it! Yes many people are simply opting it just because one or more of the following reasons:
- Their competitor is doing SEO for their website.
- They heard the buzz on the web.
- Fear of losing the market share.
- Belief of not adopting the web marketing trend.
- Belief that web popularity must exist.
Unless and until there is no clear objective and clear advantages are identified it will be sad to even think of SEO. One should think of SEO if you feel positive about one or more things of following points:
- Your visitor/customer is utilizing web as a source to find people/company like you.
- People are using the web information to make buying decisions.
- You saw the existence of market share and would like to harness it.
- You want to reach out to customer beyond geographical boundaries.
- You want to establish a brand image.
- You have products or services that can benefit a large audience.
So you see thats the difference! One must be clear as to why you want SEO and it has to serve the purpose. Really not all the website needs SEO and therefore one must go through these points before a final decision on SEO is made.
While SEO guys around the world strive to move on a higher learning curve to understand the algorithms, search engines are continuously improving on the variety of search results being served in their SERP’s. Lets see what can be predicted for the year 2010:
- Spammers trying to manipulate search rankings are going to be the worst affected.
- Increase in analytical and optimization tools.
- Expect a stiff competition.
- Metrics from trusted sources for sophisticated analysis.
- SERP’s to have mix attributes of information from varied sources.
- Website loading time can be a new factor among the ranking criteria.
- Expect more investment in SEO projects.
- Social Media importance to continue on a broader scale.
- Google will retain its top position among search engines.
- Real time search suggestions will get more enhanced.
- Companies will foresee the mixed potential advantages of web market.
- New add-ons and filters from Google will keep SEO guys to buzz around their R&D.
Whatever things coming in, we can surely expect a new pathway to reach our visitors is there i.e. fruitful and it opens up new ways to reap the success for each one of us.