| In this video interview, SEO and website usability pioneer Shari Thurow explains the keys to Information Architecture (IA) and the related field of designing your site navigation and navbar. Information Architecture relates to how you organize and group your site content. For example, you organized like materials in the same folder on your website. Information Architecture also relates to the order of presentation of items on your navigation bar as well as the navigation links you put in your footer. As you can see, Information Architecture eventually becomes site navigation. Well-designed Information Architecture makes everything easy to find. The first step in the process is not to use a keyword research tool (as many recommend), but rather to talk to your customers on the phone. Ask your target audience directly questons like: What would you like to see? What do you think we're doing well? What aren't we doing so well? If you listen, your customers will tell you what words to use. Next, talk to your customer service people. You can get the most important Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) from the person in your organization who answers the phone. Only after this step should you use the keyword research tools, primarily to confirm and validate what you learned from your customers. The biggest mistake Thurow sees in setting up a navigation system is to focus only on business goals. You sell more, she says, by making your target audience happy, that is, meeting their ... |
