Websites that are organized for search optimization typically get much better rankings for search terms. Sometimes websites naturally get optimized since a good SEO structure is much the same as the structure for good usability. The website usability expert Jakob Neilson argues for some of the same kinds of changes as SEO expert, Jeb Blair.


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So is that a strange coincidence? Not really. The people who give out the grades for SEO are the same people that want the web to work well for users and be easier for search engines to organize in their indexes – Google. Google has created the rules to reward people who have good usability on their websites.

So what are the rules in terms of website structure?

    Rule 1: Get right to the point.

    In case you missed it, right above the search results, Google reports how long it took them to serve up their results – in hundredths of a second. Any company that focused on efficiency for their customers, will also want the rest of the Internet to be as helpful. So if your site shows your products, spell it out on the home page. Don't use a general link that just says "Products" and make visitors dig into the website to find what they are looking for.

    Rule 2: Keep getting to the point with good organization

    If you have different categories of products, what is often the next most important thing to a visitor who has arrived looking for a product? One of the categories, right? Look at a search for "widgets". As of this moment, Yahoo widgets site ranks at the top. Their entire home page is devoted to helping the visitor find a useful widget with links for: types of widgets, most popular widgets, create your own, new widgets, search for widgets, widgets in other countries. There is only one other piece of content on the site, an advertisement to generate income. (Yahoo does not have quite the income stream that Google has.)

    Rule 3: Use categories people are looking for.

    Your company may be very proud that it makes Gidget brand Widgets and Paradox brand widgets, but if those are not names that the rest of the world is looking for, then you need to consider renaming the category something that people are looking for, or incorporating the generic name into the category. So you decide on using the category terms and now you are ready to plunge ahead, right? Wrong. You need to make sure that the categories searchers use as they search are the same categories you are using. Companies often develop their own jargon that does not represent the most general usage. In this case you need to research the terms. Go back to the Google keyword research tool, https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal, described in the last article and look again to see what shows up and with what frequencies. Then look around at the landing pages for the searches on those terms, or look at the Google images. Do they match up with the term you think they should?

    Rule 4: Put the most competitive search terms at higher levels on your website.

    If there are too many categories or there are subcategories, it is useful to put the most frequently used and likely the most competitive at the top of the website, linking from the home page. Your ability to get good rankings for these terms depends partly on the link value or "link juice" of your website and it is most likely focused at the home page and top two levels.

    Rule 5: Don't go too deep in creating your website.

    Three levels may be as deep as the search terms go in indexing your website.

    Rule 6: Look for my article next month: Link Juice for a Healthier Website

In the meantime, experiment with Rules 1 through 5 and see how your site rankings start to improve.

To see if SEO is right for your business, contact Jeb at jblair@praxisagency.com.