I’ve lately had to deal with a huge database-driven website. What troubled me most was the huge navigation menus – and I am wracking my brain over the ways to optimize it both for users and search engine bots.  It is always the hardest – to organize huge number of links into one easy-to-navigate and clear menus.

I am researching the topic now, drawing the site structure on a sheet of paper and still have to come up with the “perfect” solution.

Now, the best way to educate yourself is to learn from examples. Therefore I decided to look into one of the most successful (in terms of performance, not implementation) examples dealing with the huge database of products and sections: Amazon.com

Below, I am giving the history of Amazon.com navigation menus evolution without going into any extra ramblings. Your thoughts, resources and opinions are much appreciated! I promise to do a follow-up here or at SEJ linking to everyone whose comments I’ll be referring to!

I’ll start my analysis from 1999 when Amazon sidebar navigation looked overwhelming to say at least:

The key features:

• Website sections sorted into first- (bold links) and second-tier (“… And More” section – containing all things that can’t be combined – is a good sign of broken website information architecture) ;
• Inconsistent website navigation: why do “Top Sellers”, “Recommendation Center”, “New Releases” and “Soundtracks” come in one pack?

In 2000 Amazon took some steps to make the navigation menus much shorter (the image below) – second-tier levels were removed. It might be much more focused that way and less disturbing but does provide much less information for the first-time visitor.

During the whole next year it remained still top-tier-only but it continued to grow until it turned into something surprisingly huge and even more unfocused. Most elements seem to be completely in the wrong place: Video and DVD? In Theaters? Magazine???

It had remained to be that huge monster until 2006 when they changed the design twice again: first time it turned into something even larger and clumsier (with second level being back):

And then into something even huger but surprisingly much better organized (click to enlarge):

Positive steps in information organization:

• Main categories are listed in alphabetical order;
• Categories and subcategories are all logically related (e.g. there’s no more “Top Rated” and “Soundtracks” listed under one roof).

As of today (January 2009) Amazon sidebar navigation (hover) menus contains even more links (screenshot from Google cache to get an idea how it looks like with JavaScript disabled):

The first thing that comes to my mind is that they renamed the whole block from unclear “Browse” to “Shop All Departments” (which is already a good move).

Secondly, they have reconsidered the alphabetical order and probably list them by popularity now (I guess popularity was also the criteria behind re-arranging the subcategories).

So, what do you think on the whole topic of arranging links into the navigation menus? Any tips links observations to share?

Post image by flattop341

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I just posted an article on SEJ describing different ways to organize your keyword list to make the most of your thematic search modifiers. Throughout the post I’ve been describing the necessity of exploring your keyword modifiers to:

• to get more organic search traffic;
• to wisely optimize your internal site structure;
• to know how to interlink;
• to get full control of your long tail strategy;
• to better understand your visitor’s behaviour;
• to get more ideas what to write about.

Here is the short post outline for you:

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Optimize your images for search engines:

• Keywords in alt text, text around the image, image name, page title;
• Preferred image formatting – jpg;
• Separate SE accessible image folder;
• Image freshness. (SEW suggests re-uploading your images to keep them fresh);
• Enabled image search option at Google webmaster tool.
• Reasonable image file size (see the discussion at WW)
• Limited number of images per page;
• Popular and reliable photo sharing hosting (e.g. Flickr is reported to help in Yahoo! image optimization).

Optimize your images for social media:

• (obvious) use really great images to give your readers another reason to spread the word;
• (to get Digg thumbnailed submission) stick to jpg format and make sure the images can be resized to (or already are) 160×120 or 160×160 pixels (Unless you have an image that can be resized that way Digg will not offer the submitter a thumbnail to go with the post).

Optimize your images for people:

• People pay more attention to a clear image where they can see details (choose high quality images).
• (Clean, clear) faces in an image get more eye fixation. (don’t use abstract images too often).
• Keep them relevant: images are not the first thing a visitor sees on a web page but they can compel him to stay (according to the eye-tracking research web text is prior to images; when looking at a printed article people see images first; with web page they see text first – nevertheless images make the visitor stay and remember the page via relevant associations).

Gender specific:

• women are better at recognizing facial emotions than men (research):
• men seem to be more likely than women to first look at faces rather than other parts of a nude body (source);
• women are more interested in images with more than one person (source).

Tools and fun for image optimization:

• SEO Friendly Images WP Plugin – automatically optimize image ALT and TITLE with the help of post “%title” variable;
• Play with Google Images labeling (and help improve the quality of Google image search).

How to find images online.

• Finding Stock Photos – lists 3 great resources for stock photos;
• A Guide to Finding and Using Incredible Flickr Images – describing (1) which Flickr images you are allowed to use; (2) tactics to quickly find best images.

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I will be posting on competition research at Search Engine Journal. The first post is already up and you are welcome to let me know what you think: Make the Most of SEO Competitive Research: Evaluating the Competition.

In the series I will be looking into:

• Evaluating your overall competition.
• Determining your direct competitors.
• Defining who to compete with.
• Exploring your competitors’ SEO strategies.
• Best free and paid tools to analyze your competitors.

You may get a sneak peek on what I will be talking about via the slideshow:

SEO Competitive Research is part of Don’s Home based business group project

.

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Website architecture or website inner structure or whatever you prefer to call it is very important both in terms of usability and SEO. There are plenty of theories on it and they can take the whole separate blog to cover. I compiled 5 quick steps which will take you no more than 20 minutes to follow.

1/ A page should not link to itself.
Example: a post title linking to itself on the post page. This link is unnecessary both for users and search engine crawlers.
Tip for bloggers: delete <a href=”<?php the_permalink() ?> in your post.php file.

2/ Avoid several links to one and the same page [from one place].
Example: with blogs we usually see 3 links to a post page:
1. Title: site.com/page_url
2. “Read more” link: site.com/page_url#more
3. “Comments” link: site.com/page_url#comments

They are good for navigation enabling users to go to the post part they prefer. But for search crawlers these links might be distracting, so it is a wise idea to nofollow them.

3/ Mind your internal link anchor text.
Example: when linking to your older post, don’t use this post- or here-type anchor text. Interlink using your keywords or the post theme.

4/ Use only one type of your blog archives.
Example: with Wordpress we have 3 types of archive: by date, by category and by author. I personally prefer the second one. It is useful from users’ perspective as it enables to quickly sort the posts by the topic they are most interested in. It is also good for SEO as it contains your keywords.

5/ Take care that each of your pages has internal outlinks.
Example: people tend to forget to link to other website pages from Contact Us page. And if a crawler gets there, it has nowhere to go then. You can call it an internal dangling link (It is also wise to optimize your 404 page this way). Your visitors also need some alternative beside clicking X.

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Recently I have been browsing around looking for some information on copyright infringement and what astonished me was that all I could find was content based .gov, .edu and wiki pages. Copyright and trademark are hot topics now and I am sure many people searching for them are interested in finding a professional consultant service rather than a question-answer thing.

I did manage to find a few “Copyright Lawyer’s” websites though offering help with copyright infringement remedies and trademark registration. What struck me was that those firms lacked professional design and properly optimized landing pages.

Before I refer to the examples, let me first list important components of the landing page:

• Use graphics to stress main elements on your page and compose a clear bold headline = catch your visitor’s eye;
• Try to be brief and keep to the main point = avoid distracting attention;
• Offer something for free (and make your offer urgent) = get the visitor interested;
• Stay on topic both in your design and slogans (i.e. use congruent design elements and consistent statements) = keep your potential client interested;
• Make a clear list of your services = convince your visitor that it is exactly what he was looking for;
• List key benefits of your service = tell the visitor why you are better than your competitors;
• Mind your design: use your brand logo and official looking color scheme = look trustworthy;
• Be personal (e.g. show the “support angel’s” photo or tell the founder’s story) = make friends with your potential customer;
  
• Use official-looking graphics (e.g. seals) = avoid FUD (i.e. fear, uncertainty and doubt);
• Mind your grammar (e.g. use present instead past tense) = avoid misunderstanding;
• Give your contact info = show you are ready to help;
• Formulate a clear call-to-action (better several of them in key places) = make sure the visitor will take action.

• Be brief: when you want to list your services, tell people these are “services” (not “Copyright Topics”, not “Copyright Items Our Firm Can Help With”, etc);
• Choose color scheme which looks official; hey, you are not selling candies here!
• Show me your testimonials – make me want to believe you!
• Make your free offer more eye-catching; stress that it’s urgent – use “now” for example.
• Make each site element meaningful – the most prominent part here lists some terms with no evident prompts what they stand for. Don’t distract your potential customers’ attention.

• Be personal – people will trust a name, and add your founding lawyer’s personal story.
• List your services in clear, readable format.
• Add some graphics - there’s nothing to catch my eye at your site!

• Give your contact information on the landing page – don’t make your potential client go to another page to reach you.
• Navigation menu catches the visitor’s eye, don’t distract his attention. List only key information there.

Further reading: Check this excellent landing page optimization case study by MarketingExperiment.com

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While it can be rather hard (if not impossible) to handle the off-site SEO campaign, on-site search engine optimization is under your control and it will take you no more than a few hours to check the boxes below. That’s not about adjusting your website to search engines ( as on-site sceptics might say) or about pushing your site to the first page in SERP in a day. That’s an online etiquette which demonstrates your level of competence and also makes the crawlers visit your pages more eagerly.

I have made a keyword analysis and chosen keywords to optimize for;

I have researched my site referrals by digging my search analytics and doing thorough website analysis;

I have made sure my keywords are directly related to my niche;

I use unique short meta tags based on my keywords;

I have written unique content using my primary keywords;

I add quality content at least once a week to ensure search bots have something new to crawl;

I do keep to CCS styles;

I keep my javascript in an external file;

I’ve made sure that my code is clean and is no more than 100 K (the less the better);

I do have a customized 404 error page;

I do take advantage of <h1>, <h2> and <h3> to show search pots and user agents what is important;

I have developed a good clean website structure based on my keyword analysis;

I use readable  URLs (I do mod-rewrite if needed);

I don’t use js, drop-downs or images for my navigation menu – just plain text links;

I don’t overuse images and flash;

I use alt text for my content-rich images and links;

I have a site map to make Big Daddy’s life easier;

I take advantage of rel=”nofollow” attribute to direct the PageRank flow;

I do 301-redirect non-www version to www version (or vice versa) to show Google what I like more;

(Optional) I do let SEO experts handle my on-site optimization!

Anything else? Please share in the comments!

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