[Sigia-l] SEO versus Experience design versus usability

[Marianne]

Good Morning All,

I'm going to follow protocol and trim the posts.

For Ziya [with knees knocking]:

Actually, good search optimization [SEO] is far from "immediate return" in
any respect that I know. Yes, you can pay a lot of money and skirt the gray
side of SEO to produce artificial elevation in ranking. And the updates that
Skot references, those that see high ranking sites tumbling into the search
results basement, eventually see this artifice as shallow and re-rank
according to additional factors created to maintain the "wisdom of crowds"
that brought Google to the top of Web searches. I am forthright with my
clients about long-term benefits from good organic SEO and possible
short-term benefits from paid search for desired position in the interim. 

The NYT article is interesting to me in that it seems to lack an
understanding of the fundamentals of search technology. Page titles need not
be boring. They just need to do their job and describe the content found in
the article. Hyperbole is not banned by search engines. It just needs to be
a reflection of something found on the page. I do not see this as a bad
thing. 

For Skot:

I apologize of I conveyed the idea that information architecture was all
about site structure. I've signed the non-proliferation accord on restarting
the "what is IA" discussion. I intended to convey that the latest
developments in search technology play to this part of IA. I do respectfully
disagree with you that solely focusing on quality content and solid site
structure are satisfactory for discoverability by search technology. Neilsen
makes two of many fundamental points. I'm hoping to present the others in
Las Vegas in March. Optimizing a site is not intuitive. It is a discipline
that is mastered by few and labored over my many such as myself on a daily
basis of education and discourse. While not a silver bullet, SEO is a sound
investment and an ongoing one as search technology is far from standing
still.  

Marianne Sweeny
Daedalus Information Systems
"Find it faster."