Discuss: Findability, Orphan of the Web Design Industry

by Aarron Walter

1 Untitled

I feel at a core level SEO and findablity is same. It is just that few people have abused the system and it got bed name.

posted at 09:01 am on March 25, 2008 by abhi G

Everything concerning optimization, be it SEO or tinkering with YSlow, needs to be done carefully, but after everything else is done. Well written code and content already make your site usable as well as findable in most cases, so don’t overdo it.

A List Apart got where it is now by regularly publishing quality content. I’d imagine that most of the page views come from direct links or bookmarks, but I originally found the site through Google while searching for CSS tutorials, and I believe none of the keywords used were in the title or meta tag or in the URL.

posted at 10:09 am on March 25, 2008 by Kari Pätilä

3 Findability is a better term than SEO...

… but I don’t think it’s really a different entity (as long as your site is reasonably usable too)

posted at 01:06 pm on March 25, 2008 by Rhys Evans

4 person, place or thing

And from each criterion I will attempt to implement functionality to my future website. I still have to give the idea more thought, though what could be more simpler?

posted at 02:59 pm on March 25, 2008 by Kurt Hanson

5 Findability vs SEO

I think the difference I see is that ‘SEO’ is aimed at driving traffic to your site, to boost rankings and revenue, whereas ‘findability’ is enabling people who want the content on your site to get to it.

Yes, a significant part of this involves getting high SERP rankings, but it also includes factors such as:

descriptive search results, so that people can see exactly what they’re getting from a link
getting links (natural and search-engine) to point to deep pages rather than the home page, so visitors can jump straight to the meaty content

site navigability, so that visitors can find the content they’re after, no matter what part of your site they arrive at.

I suppose the flip-side is that with findability, the customer-focused approach, we only want visitors whose needs are specifically matched by our content – whereas SEO, the website-focused approach – wants to just grab armfuls of visitors, no matter what they are actually looking for.

posted at 04:11 pm on March 25, 2008 by Stephen Down

6

I suppose the flip-side is that with findability, the customer-focused approach, we only want visitors whose needs are specifically matched by our content – whereas SEO, the website-focused approach – wants to just grab armfuls of visitors, no matter what they are actually looking for.

Nicely said, Stephen. (I wonder if some SEO practitioners would disagree?)

posted at 04:54 pm on March 25, 2008 by Jeffrey Zeldman

7 Findability

This was a really good read. I think, if nothing else, it put a lot of the more important components of a successful web project in one place. In the past, a lot of web teams I’ve worked with had very isolated roles. The PM just mediated updates from the team to the client, developers took deliverable and developed with their heads down, designers just handed off designs and moved on. But this article really seems to point out that everyone one a team is interdependent and the most important thing is to work together to create the best project possible. I dig it.

As for the content of the article, I know it’s something that I’ve come across a lot in the industry and have had a hard time selling to a team, maybe that’s my fault. So you get stuck in with the attitude of “findability (or whatever the topic) is really important, but I can’t get any buy-in, so I’ll just have to try and do it myself.” And this creates the “heads-down developer” – doing something important like adding in Microformats (for example) and trying to cram it into the deadline because there was no time allocated for it.

I’m definitely going to save this article and try to get my team to read it over. Good read, thanks Aarron.

my2cents

posted at 05:59 pm on March 25, 2008 by Tim Wright

8 Beyond Usability

I’m not sure I understand the distinction between findability and usability. If you can’t find things you need, your site’s not usable.

The domains of findability and usability overlap in that both seek to help users find content within a site, but findability extends further to encompass methods that help users find the site and re-discover it later. Of course, SEO helps users find a site as does publishing your content on social networking sites. You can also let your audience spread the word for you by providing viral marketing tools (tell a friend, user generated reviews, etc). Using microformats to markup your content makes it easy for users to move important info somewhere they’ll find it later.

A List Apart got where it is now by regularly publishing quality content. I’d imagine that most of the page views come from direct links or bookmarks, but I originally found the site through Google while searching for CSS tutorials, and I believe none of the keywords used were in the title or meta tag or in the URL.

You’re absolutely right, Kari. Quality content is the bedrock of findability. Generally when you’re writing content that solves a problem, entertains, or otherwise serves the needs of your audience you’ll attract the traffic you seek. There’s no need to stuff your pages with keywords, but it does help to research audience behaviors to see how they search so key areas like the title tag and headings connect with your audience. We already research our users and often create elaborate personas. Why not consider the psychology and behavior of search?

— Stephen: 10 4 good buddy.

— Tim: Thanks for the kind words.

posted at 07:29 pm on March 25, 2008 by Aarron Walter

9 Site Maps and Findability

I had a discussion with a co-worker earlier today about site maps and was wondering if anyone could provide one genuinely good reason why a site should have a sitemap.

I mentioned findability-related benefits like making the site structure transparent for users; providing users a quick overview of site content; and that it acts as a safety net in case the site search fails.

All these excuses failed to convince my co-worker the use of a site map and was left with her saying something along the lines of “I don’t think I’ve ever used a site map before” and “If I can’t find what I’m looking for with the search, then I’d leave the site”.

posted at 08:49 pm on March 25, 2008 by gene lu

10 Findability Personified

I hoped Findability might be personified as someone more aggressive, waving his hands in the air, and not so passive. However, it really does take a lot of effort from everyone involved on the team to make this guy possible. Findability is very sensitive, and one little change in the UI or keyword density might break his heart and drive him away whimpering.

I also agree that A List Apart knows Findability very well. I’m glad the site isn’t muddled with bad content, like a bad made-for-adsense Website. So many enemies of Findability exist today! He sure is exploited for cash, poor guy.

posted at 09:24 pm on March 25, 2008 by Kevin Davison