An expert panel discussion on SEO and UX convergence covered the following key points in 3 sentences: The panel discussed how SEO and UX should be considered together from the beginning of a website design process, rather than retrofitting SEO later, and provided examples of how overly complex navigation harms both user experience and search engine optimization. Speakers also emphasized that identifying user needs and intent through research is crucial to developing an information architecture and content that benefits both users and search engines. Case studies demonstrated how mapping user needs to content and site structure can dramatically improve organic traffic and conversions when SEO and UX work in harmony.

2. SEO + UX
A Brief Introduction
Jonathon Colman
In-house SEO at REI
about.me/jcolman
Twitter @jcolman

3. Converge
SEO UX

4. Converge
Design
for people
Account
for robots

5. Humans
design
robots.
So there’s
part of us
inside them.

8. Speakers
 John Goad [AddThree]
@JohnGoad
 Mike Pantoliano [Distilled]
@MikeCP
 Michael King [Publicis Modem]
@iPullRank
 Ben Lloyd [Amplify Interactive]
@Blizzle

9. Speakers
 John Goad [AddThree]
@JohnGoad
 Mike Pantoliano [Distilled]
@MikeCP
 Michael King [Publicis Modem]
@iPullRank
 Ben Lloyd [Amplify Interactive]
@Blizzle

10. SEO is UX for Robots
John Goad
SEO
@johngoad
AddThree.com

11. Users
5000 Searches Monthly 5000 Searches Monthly Billions of Monthly
Conversion Rate 5% Conversion Rate 5% Searches
*Conversion Rate Varies
*it depends

12. Humans
Humans leverage robots everyday looming for
your content.
Publisher to Computer to Computer to Human.
We’re #1
Know how your humans are using computers and
language to find content discovered by robots….
Good

13. Robots
Robots have limitations.
Robots don’t read.
Robots don’t see.
But they have tons of friends and
they love to make high quality
introductions.

14. Balance

15. How
Think like a bot ….
Some of the same “human” rules apply* on a
high level.
Be the robot …
Humans first… then robots.
* not all

16. Client
Well established internet based insurance provider
(that does not want me to use their name).
I am in insurance …
I need credibility but have fallen
off of page 1 to page 6.
Last SEO’s IA and content
recommendations lost 75% of my
organic traffic.

17. Problem
At first meeting client stated….
“I have a team in India buying links for
me is that bad?”
UH OH…..
Real Problem
Client created over 20,000 pages of 3rd
party veterinarian listings that watered
down the main site content.
Lost Authotity

18. Solution
Re-Focus
With Robot.txt file we excluded the directory
that contained the veterinarian listings.
This increased the strength of the
main content.

19. Results
Client bounced back with better than
original visibility.
• Credibility restored …. back on page 1.
• Organic traffic back up to pre engagement
levels.
75%
Total increase in Organic referrals.

20. Win
Robots help you…
Make new friends and influence
people.
People find you.
People link to you.
People talk about #you.
Help them help you.

21. Thanks
@johngoad
John Goad
Director of Free Traffic
john@addthree.com

22. Speakers
 John Goad [AddThree]
@JohnGoad
 Mike Pantoliano [Distilled]
@MikeCP
 Michael King [Publicis Modem]
@iPullRank
 Ben Lloyd [Amplify Interactive]
@Blizzle

23. Not Just More Traffic,
Better Traffic
Smart IA and Site Navigation
Mike Pantoliano This presentation is available here:
@MikeCP http://dis.tl/sic-seo
Distilled

24. In An Ideal
World
• Clean Slate
• Map out sitemap
for UX/SEO

25. IA / SEO
Competitiveness
Sure, this is nice, but large sites can really struggle

26. Faceted
Navigation
TrendToGo.com Amazon.com BestBuy.com

27. Our
Example
• Large eComm site
• 100,000+ High End Stationary
Products
• Faceted Navigation
• Great User Experience
• Awful for SEO

31. The Big
Problem
AJAX does not create new pages!

32. The Big
Problem

33. Result
Missing out on tons of longer-tail traffic!

34. Other
Problems
JavaScript isn’t the only potential culprit
• Poor IA leading to weak indexation
• iFrames
• Dropdown Sorting

35. Solution
How to preserve UX but allow
crawlability?
Fall back to static HTML pages when no JS
detected

38. Results
Organic traffic increased 72%
SEO
Conversions up 76%
UX
Sales up 136%

39. Take Away
Export your navigation into Excel
Get search volume from GKT
Brainstorm/mine for new keywords

40. Take Away
Are you missing out on organic
landing page opportunities?

41. Thanks!
Mike Pantoliano
@MikeCP
Distilled
http://dis.tl/excelninja
http://dis.tl/xenu-excel
http://dis.tl/faceted-nav

42. Speakers
 John Goad [AddThree]
@JohnGoad
 Mike Pantoliano [Distilled]
@MikeCP
 Michael King [Publicis Modem]
@iPullRank
 Ben Lloyd [Amplify Interactive]
@Blizzle

43. UX + SEO
Let’s Be Friends
Michael King
SEO Manager
@ipullrank
Publicis Modem
Download these slides http://slidesha.re/uxplusseo

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

45. 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

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

47. 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

48. 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

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

50. 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

51. 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

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

53. 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

54. 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

55. 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.

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

57. 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

58. 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.

59. 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

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

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

62. 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 available, 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 what is feasible given 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 time & budget plan possible? it’s as easy as possible? trip?
and/or with the people I me and others
create special memories 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 (sea, mountain, Info updates, efficient and easy
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

63. 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

64. 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

65. 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

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

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

68. 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/

69. 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

70. 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

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

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

73. Speakers
 John Goad [AddThree]
@JohnGoad
 Mike Pantoliano [Distilled]
@MikeCP
 Michael King [Publicis Modem]
@iPullRank
 Ben Lloyd [Amplify Interactive]
@Blizzle

74. Navigation, Links & SEO
How Much is Too Much?
SEO & User Experience

75. Quotes
“I like having a selection, I just don't like
making a choice”
-Carrie Renee Mathews
Jam Study:
“The presence of choice might be
appealing in theory… in reality, people
might find more & more choice
debilitating”
-Professor Sheena Iyengar, Columbia University

76. Choices
Ever try to pick a paint color?
Did you know there were
THAT MANY shades of
white?
How about order from a
restaurant menu that’s 5
pages long?

77. Links
•SEO Says: “Too many on-page links”
•Designer should hear: “The Navigation is Overwhelming”
•Site Owner/Client freaks out about cutting down user options
- SEO Benefit: Improved spidering = more pages available
for search
- Design & U/X Benefit: Contextual navigation = improved
usability
- Site Benefit: more visitors, better usability = ROI

78. Case Study

79. Internal
Links
1. Major duplicate content issue resolved
2. Nav change to news
3. Nav change to events
4. Nav change to posts
5. Minor duplicate content issue resolved

80. Template
Changes
Example:
Simple Template Changes
 Sidebar links
 Number of posts

81. Directory
Changes
Example:
Simple Template Changes
 Cut down on columns
 Sidebar links are
contextual

82. Post
Changes
Example:
Post-Level Changes
 Keep the links contextual

83. Organic
Search
URLs Receiving Entrances from Search
Q3 2010 Q4 2010 Q1 2011 Q2 2011 Q3 2011

84. Organic
Search
1. Major duplicate content issue resolved
2. Nav change to news
3. Nav change to events
4. Nav change to posts
5. Minor duplicate content issue resolved

85. SEO & UX?