As we’ve seen already, there’s a lot you can do as a developer to make your site’s findable, but it doesn’t rest entirely on your shoulders. It’s important to make sure all of your team understands the value of findability and how they can contribute. If you are an independent freelancer doing the work of all or most of the members of a web team, you probably don’t have to lobby anyone to do their part. If you work in a firm, however, chances are you’ll need to rally the troops. Here’s how you might outline each team member’s role in the findability initiative
A project manager should speak to the client about the benefits of findability. It will make the client’s site more successful and could potentially be a value added service offered, which could make projects more profitable. Make sure findability is a priority for all team members.
An Information architect should research user search behaviors and keywords relevant to the site’s content. Be sure to name sections of the site with these keywords in order to drive search traffic. Create and share a keyword master list with the marketing specialist and copywriter so online advertisements and the site’s content can feature the targeted terms. Consider including a site-wide search to assist users in finding what they want. What additional content could be added to the site (such as link libraries, case studies, or articles) that will drive more traffic? A folksonomy, or user-based tagging system of content, could be a powerful way of organizing site content that better matches user’s search behaviors. The tags that users create might have been overlooked by initial research.
A designer should design pages that highlight search fields and mailing-list signup fields. High quality design establishes credibility and increases the chances that users will stay once they’ve found the site. Great design can be showcased in popular online design galleries and competitions , which can drive thousands of visits daily. Make sure you designs show people where to look so they don’t miss important content that is provided.
A copywriter should ensure content includes target keywords that flow naturally. In other words, if keywords show up too often, search engines will think that the copy has been stuffed with the terms in a dishonest effort to improve page rankings. Keyword density is the frequency of a keyword in a page. It’s considered natural if the keyword density is seven percent or lower. Keywords should be included in the copy, but only where they would naturally fit. Search engine penalties are simply too great to risk stuffing content with keywords.
Usability experts test and improve the usability of the site, which helps ensure users will find what they are looking for-which is a huge boon to findibility. They should also evaluate how easy it is to find the site via search engines and check page rankings on target keywords. Traffic analysis tools can also provide very detailed information about user behaviour on the website. Usability experts should use these tools to identify where people are getting lost, how long they are staying on particular pages, and how well the site design supports findability. Traffic analysis tools can provide valuable information that helps improve findability long after the launch of a site.
It’s important that you share with your peers what you can do as a developer to build the site to be as findable as possible.
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