Michael King's presentation at Seattle Interactive Conference 2011.

1. UX + SEO
Let’s Be Friends
Michael King
SEO Manager
@ipullrank
Publicis Modem
Download these slides bit.ly/seoplusux

2. RANT
Building a user experience
without SEO in mind is like
building a car with no engine.

3. RANT
I don’t believe in bad
user experience for
the sake of SEO.
Stop making ugly sites and blaming it on the need for SEO

4. RANT
Do Less of this Do More of this
Make compelling experiences with utility

5. RANT
Any Creative that thinks SEO will
limit their abilities to deliver a
quality product isn't very (ahem)
creative.
Yeah, it’s an orphan.
What you gonna do
about it?!
SEO is a springboard not an anchor

6. RANT
User Experience is only
compromised by SEO when it is
retrofitted to the design process
Inject SEO into the design process as early as possible

7. RANT
SEO absolutely MUST be an active
consideration and ideally the driver of
every step of a site build
SEO = DNA

8. RANT
UX is very important to SEO because
there is evidence that Googlebot and
Bingbot may be headless web
browsers.
See: http://ipullrank.com/googlebot-is-chrome and http://bit.ly/sT0Vvj
Google also just revealed that they can crawl AJAX

9. RANT
Most importantly SEO is about
helping people find what they want
and presenting it to them in a way
that they expect.
Need States
Navigational Business Goals
Informational Navigational
Transactional Informational
Transactional
The old keyword classes are dead; identify need states

10. </RANT>
I’m done ranting, let’s talk about the mistakes that I’ve learned from

11. MISTAKE
Your development and Creative
teams will just do what works. To
them building for Search is
utterly unnatural. Don‘t let them
build anything before you see it.
Cheech & Chong’s Magic Brownie Adventure was an awesome
campaign developed by my team but the site was built with no
SEO considerations at all. Not even a page title.
Never leave your Creative or Tech team to their own devices

12. MISTAKE
LG’s site is a nightmare for a variety of
reasons but one of my favorite is the 1997
frames-inspired navigation that features over
200 links and is impossible to mouse over
properly.
Faceted navigation is an option when handled properly

13. MISTAKE
Giant flash videos
are cool, right?
Sometimes your team or the
client will be so far off the mark
that there is nothing you can do
but wait for the redesign.
What do you
mean navigation
should be text?
Some battles you cannot win.

14. SUCCESS
Use expandable DIVs to keep large blocks of text from being obtrusive to design
The Expandable DIV is your best friend.

15. SUCCESS
Drive the Content Strategy by preparing an SEO Copy Brief that thoroughly
outlines the information architecture with regard to target keywords and
identify the objectives and target audience.
Keyword-relevant information architecture MUST come from SEO

16. SUCCESS
Adding considerations at the
wireframe stage allows everyone to
be on the same page about how
and why SEO is to be accomplished.
Apply pressure during the Wireframe phase to ensure success.

17. SUCCESS
RECIPE
Social Listening/
Keyword Push Live /
Need State Creative / Copy /
Mapping / Conversion Rate
Determination/ Tech
Information Optimization /
Keyword Development
Architecture Measurement
Research
SEO Defines SEO Validates SEO Drives
Info Architecture User Experience Measurement
Get involved throughout the lifecycle from strategy to measurement

18. SOCIAL
LISTENING
Scout Labs
Alterian SM2
Social Mention
Mine the conversation in social media for personas and keywords

19. Show your
Work.
Here comes a case study!

20. CASE
STUDY
1. 2. 3. 4 5. 6. 7.
Motivation Decision-
Research Booking Pre-flight Travel Post-travel
to travel making
How do I crystallize my
Need States
What is out there that travels so that they are
I want to collect new Of the options Who’s going to help me What do I need to do to Who can I rely on to help
would be fun and easy to share, and
experience, add to my available, what is fine tune and make the activate my trip so that me make the most of my
interesting to do alone provide inspiration to
personal story, and feasible given time & plan possible? it’s as easy as possible? trip?
and/or with the people I me and others
create special memories budget constraints?
care about? evermore?
Occasion: Get Ideas: Search for: Search for: Locate: Connect: Organize:
Examples of What’s happening
-Season/Holiday Key trip info: -With local info -Memories/events
From friends, family,colleagues, Activity and experience options -Cheapest flight options based
-NY’ eve -Luggage rules -With resources (guides, gurus) -Evidence you’ve been there/
extended social media network, at different destinations on timings
-Valentine’s D -Check in time -Activity ideas Memorabilia
bloggers, TV personalities, - Cheapest flight options based
-Honeymoon -Terminal to go to -New ideas
movies, activity groups & forums on destination (look for promos
-Birthday gift and time suggestions) -Currency exchange
-Anniversary Compare: -Ways to and from airport
-Stag do Destination options based on -Travel tips Record: Package:
-Reunion Search for: timings, costs, and ease of -Experiences
-Accomplishment Occasion or experience sought getting there Compare: -Memories Trip takeouts so as to extend the
benefits gained from the trip
-Time off on google, publications, forums,
social media groups,etc
Time options vs. budget across
key providers
Book: -New ideas, contacts, knowledge
-Car hire
-Accommodation
Experience: -Airport bus Share:
-Broaden horizon Commit: To build on and showcase who
-Hobby/skill To a scenario you are
-Well-being/R&R
-Adventure
Manage:
-Landscape Info updates, efficient and easy
(sea, mountain, plant) task completion
-Weather (sun, snow, wind)
Research Commitment Experience
Inspiration
Discoveries in social listening must dictate the SEO, content strategy and UX
We used social listening to identify need states and build personas

21. CASE
STUDY
1. 2. 3. 4 5. 6. 7.
Motivation Decision-
Research Booking Pre-flight Travel Post-travel
to travel making
Occasion Activity Destination Offering Simplify Connect Remember
Core Semantic Groups We identified the need state
Flights
matched the client’s business
goals and mapped them to
semantic groups to dictate the
information architecture.
Country/Region Logistics
Timing
City/Airport
Cheap Flights
Map need states to core semantic groups to develop site maps

22. CASE
STUDY
Identify what people want and present it in a way that matches their
expectations using the language they expect in order to provide the best
user experience to your target audience and improve conversion.
We mapped those to our keyword research and developed content

23. CASE
STUDY
Navigation and sub-
navigation reflect need
states
UX and content
developed with the
concerns of our
personas
We built a user experience indicative of these considerations

24. CASE
STUDY
We improved rankings and
conversions dramatically by
marrying these concepts.
Bookings
Organic Traffic
Turns out we’re pretty good at this.

25. The
Next
Level
So what else can we do?

26. SOCIAL
DESIGN
Search Keyword-Level
FB:Admin Demographics
Referrers
Placing a site on Facebook’s OpenGraph and having a user opt-in allows
you to get their FB data whenever they come to your site. Matching that
with search referrers gives you demographics at a keyword-level.
KLD Source Code: http://ipullrank.com/code/keyword-demographics/

27. KEYWORD
OWNERSHIP
OWNER
Curious George Gamer Film Purist Tech Geek
• 18-32 • 18-32 • 22-40 • 22-40
• Male • Male • Male • Male
• Loves indie rock • Loves all music • Loves film soundtracks • Loves Techno
• Wishes he had a beard • Wishes he could move out • Wishes he could live in the • Wishes you would stop
his mom’s basement movie Avatar invading his online privacy
• 5000 Searches Monthly • 600 Searches Monthly • 1000 Searches Monthly • 100 Searches Monthly
• Conversion Rate 5% • Conversion Rate 2% • Conversion Rate 0.5% • Conversion Rate 0.2%
This data allows you to determine which of your target personas dominates
traffic and conversions for a given keyword.
For more applications of KLD see: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/keyword-level-demographics

28. RESPONSIVE
DESIGN
What Normal Users See What Curious George Sees
Curious George
• 18-32
• Male
• Loves indie rock
• Wishes he had a beard
Using the FB data user experiences can be tailored dynamically to
reflect properties of the persona when they visit.
Use social data to improve the user experience and conversion

29. OBLIGATORY
CAT PICTURE
UX and SEO are good buddies
now and they are going places!
UX SEO

30. THANKS!
Michael King
SEO Manager
www.ipullrank.com
michael.king@publicismodem.com
@iPullRank