Services

•    Information Architecture
  •    What is an information architect?
  •    How Wide is the Sea? Information Architects and SEO
  •    Information Architecture Articles
  •    Doors and Windows
•    Web Content Writing
•    Web Site Design
  •    Louisiana Web Design
  •    Louisiana Web Site Design
•    Category Management
  •    Keeping the previous structure intact
  •    Virtual Categories
  •    SEO+Categories
  •    One Single Irreducible Attribute
•    Search Engine Optimization
  •    What is SEO? (Search Engine Optimization)
  •    Choose a domain name
  •    Choosing Keywords
  •    Internal Link Structure
  •    SEO Using CSS
  •    URLs: Cleanliness is next to Google-iness.
  •    SEO: Science or Alchemy?
  •    Ascending the Pyramid: Building a successful SEO campaign
  •    Louisiana Web Promotion
•    Local Navigation
  •    Hide and Seek - The dilemma of dynamic content, load time and search engines.
•    Case Studies
  •    Antique China Website
•    Links/Resources

InformationArchiTECH Archives - 8/2006

informationarchiTECH is a Lafayette-based Louisiana web design company offering a wide range of Web services including graphic design, category management and content management, custom applications, navigational analysis and design, and web promotion.

What is ‘web promotion?’

You could have the most flashy, cutting-edge website on the Internet, but if no one can find it, you might as well not have one at all. Many companies make the mistake of focusing their energy entirely on web design, assuming that promotion will take care of itself.

If you are looking for a Louisiana web design company to build a website that can showcase your information, products or services, you are also going to need a Louisiana web promotion company that can ensure that your website is not lost among the thousands, or even millions of other web pages with similar offerings.

Whether you are a Louisiana company with an existing website, or simply are not satisfied with the results of your current one, the following are a few questions you should ask.

What is the purpose of my website?

There are basically two kinds of websites: brochure web sites and dynamic web sites.

A brochure website is essentially a supplement to your business card. They find the address on your card or other promotional materials and go online to read your content, see images/photographs, or view Flash presentations. Successful businesses usually outgrow a brochure website after a short period of time.

A dynamic website is an extension of your business. It should generate revenue on its own, either by procuring new business, or selling your product using an online shopping cart. While not necessary for brochure sites, a dynamic site requires web promotion in order to do its job.

Who am I trying to reach, and how am I going to reach them?

InformationarchiTECH provides web promotion for businesses across the United States. Given our location in Lafayette, however, we focus on Louisiana web promotion in order to enhance the economy and businesses of our region.

Your product or service may be similar. It may be useful to people throughout the world, however you may wish to target your particular region. There are many methods of online web promotion which allow you to target potential clients in your area, while still leaving the door open to expand beyond your regional borders.

How much do I have to spend?

If you are like most businesses in Louisiana, you do not have an unlimited budget for your web promotion campaign. You want to be sure the money you spend is put in the right place, and will continue to benefit you in the long-term.

InformationarchiTECH offers web promotion services for Louisiana businesses that will bring a short- as well as long-term returns on your investment. Utilizing techniques of search engine optimization, we will help your Louisiana web site attain top rankings in Google for the phrases related to your products or services. As we like to say, we will make you #1, by making your website #1.

How can I be sure you will help our customer find us?

You found us didn’t you?

Give us a call at 337.706-7460 or contact us using our online form.

It is not unusual for a web design business to have a global reach.  The nature of the medium, the Internet, is in itself global.  One is just as likely to reach a clientele in India as New York, or your neighbor down the street.

What is becoming truly unique, however, is a web design company that has sunk its roots deeply into the region in which its offices are physically located, soaking up the culture and creative energy of the region and putting it to work for the development of websites with character and local charm.

InformationarhiTECH is a Lafayette-based Louisiana Web Design company with a particular connection and commitment to the small and medium-sized businesses of Acadiana and beyond.  Anyone who has lived here understands that Louisiana is like a country unto itself, with a history, language and culture that is unlike any other in the United States.  A Louisiana web designer must understand these qualities in order to develop websites that speak to the people of this region. 

Louisiana is a region of tremendous diversity, teeming with commercial and artistic endeavors.  InformationarchiTECH is a Louisiana web design company commited to assisting Louisiana businesses in rising to the top in the global marketplace with attractive and easily navigable websites.  Whether you desire an attractive porfolio site for your work, or want to develop a full-fledged e-commerce solution to complement your physical business, informationarchiTECH is ready to serve you.

We offer the following services for Louisiana businesses of all stages:

• Search engine optimization (SEO) - Appearing high in the rankings for searches in Google is becoming increasingly critical to anyone wanting a viable presence on the web.  More and more people are turning to search engines to find local services, from restaurants to clothes, to art and entertainment.  InformationarchiTECH can help your Louisiana based business easy to find by all those who are looking for your product or service.
  
• Turn Key Web solutions - These "out of the box" solutions provide an easy way for small businesses in Louisiana to gain an immediate presence on the web with little immediate investment of capital.  Whether you simply want a blog-based website to portfolio your work, or a turn key online store to sell your product, have a look at our selection to determine if one of these packages is right for you.
• Category Management/Local navigation - Whether your database-driven system is used online, or internally to your company, informationarchiTECH provides category management services that help streamline the process of storing and retrieving your company's valuable information.  We can reorganize existing databases using the most recent technology, whether Windows or Linux-based, and optimize your systems performance to suit your particualar needs.
• Web content writing - No website would be complete without persuasive and informative web copy, which fully describes the nature of your product, service, or any message you are trying to communicate.  We offer competitively priced copyrighting services for any business, on or offline.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a set of techniques and strategies for building a website (or modifying an existing one) such that its pages will appear in the top, natural results of search engines such as Google, Yahoo or MSN, for relevant key phrases.  If your  website sells toy fire trucks, then, an SEO campaign might focus upon getting your website to rank #1 whenever you type "toy fire trucks" in a search engine.

Don't you have to pay for that?

Yes and no.  SEO does not refer to paid listings, sometimes called "Sponsored Links," which usually appear in a designated section of the search results page.  In those cases, the more you pay the more prominently your ad will appear.  It is certainly one way to promote your website, and it is a strategy that has been successful for many people.  However, this is entirely different from SEO.

SEO refers to the natural results, in which the search engine has ranked web pages according to relevancy.  When you type "toy fire trucks," into Google, about six million results are returned.  The first page has ten natural listings.  The first web page that appears is one that Google's complex ranking algorithm has determined to be the most relevant for that phrase.   The second result  is the second most relevant, and so on.

Relevancy is determined by many factors, some known and others still kept secret by the engineers at Google and other companies.  The two most important factors, however, are content and back-links.  Web site content is the actual "text," or written material that composes the pages of your website.  Back-links are all of the instances in which another website links to yours.

So how do I make my website #1 in the natural results?

SEO is not easy.  Gaining a high ranking in the search engines is a long process that requires intense commitment and patience.  No matter what the nature of the product or servce you are offering, the chances are good that there is a lot of competition out there.  My personal rule of thumb is, if you want to rank #1, you must be #1.  If you want to rank #1 for lawn mowers, writing one page or even fifty pages about lawn mowers, using all the right phrases with the correct "word density ratio" may not be sufficient to gain that ranking . You must, quite simply, make your website the most relevant, informative and entertaining on the web for that search phrase.

If you want to rank for "lawn mowers," you had better be prepared to "write the book" on lawn mowers, research everything you possibly can about the subject, the history as well as the future, and build a large following of people who agree that, when it comes to "lawn mowers," your website says it all.

Building a successful SEO campaign.

Having said this, attaining a high ranking for whatever search phrases best describe your website is a worthwhile goal, and one that will require planning and some method by which your progress can be measured.  The one devised by informationarchitech for our clients (as well as our own websites) is called the "Key Term Pyramid."

To develop a "key term pyramid," and mark your progress, you are going to need two important tools that are staples of the SEO trade. 

The first is a key term search tool.   These are usually online programs that allow you to search the databases, or portions of the databases, used by major search engines that contain information about the phrases users are actually entering into the search boxes of Google, Yahoo or MSN.  For example, if you enter "toy truck" into the Overture Inventory Keyword Selecto Tool, you might see the following results:

Let us suppose you have decided to start your own web design business.  Incidently, this is probably one of the most competitve fields you could choose, but if that is your passion, this fact should not stop you.  You decide that you want to eventually rank on the first page of Google for the term "web design."  Given the competition, you should be prepared for years of work as you begin building the best, most informative and entertaining site on the Internet about "web design." 

In the mean time, however, you have bills to pay, and you cannot wait around for a top ranking for the phrase "web design" before landing your first job.  Instead, you should begin by targeting less competitive terms and work your way up.

A key phrase pyramid has your most desirable search phrase at the very top, in this case "web design."  Beneath this top level are "secondary phrases."  Secondary phrases contain your phrase plus one additional term.  Beneath this level are the tertiary phrases, which contain your phrase plus two additional terms.  You should build your pyramid as deep as the key phrase search tool can provide data.  

In the earliest days of web design, there was no such thing as "dynamic content."  What you saw is what you got.  This period, however, did not last long as developers learned to use javascript to insert content into the page whenever a user clicked on a link or performed some other action.  Even though it may have been encoded in javascript, however, the content was still somewhere in the source code, and therefore still had to be loaded at the time the page was accessed. 

The discovery of AJAX took things a step further.  By combining javascript with "server side scripting," AJAX gives you the ability to insert content into your page based upon changing variables and requests.  You can use AJAX, for example, to retrieve information from your database and display it on the screen without reloading the page. 

What does all of this mean?

Let us take a step back for a moment and put this into context for those who may not have programming experience, because the lesson here is relevant for anyone who wants the utmost performance from their website.  A concrete example should serve to illustrate the point.

Let us suppose you wanted to put the entire contents of the Encyclopedia Britannica on your website, but you do not want to the user to have to go to different pages.  Simple enough, right?  You just sit down at your computer one evening and transcribe all the volumes A-Z into a single webpage and give it the address www.yourwebsite.com/encyclopedia.htm. 

What do you think is going to happen when someone tries to access this page?  Well, the best case scenario is that the vistor would see a blank screen for several hours while all of the content was being loaded.  Finally, if the connection was not lost, they would see the encyclopedia contents appear.  The content would go so far down the page that the visitor could scroll down all day and not see the end of it.  Not a very efficient way of doing things. 

Now, throw javascript into the equation.   You would now have the option of dividing the encyclopedia into many pages that the user could page through by clicking buttons or entering numbers into a form field.  However, with this approach the page will still take the same amount of time to load.  The scroll issue would be resolved, but not the load time.

Using AJAX in this example, instead of loading the encyclopedia into a web page you would load it into your database instead.  Then using javascript and backend "scripting," you could load the content as it is needed without ever reloading the page.   The first time the user accessed encyclopedia.htm, the first page on the encyclopedia would appear almost instantly.  Then, as they pressed a button paging forward, the content would change without ever reloading the page.  It would appear to be lightning fast.  However, if the user ever chose to look at the source code, the first page is still all that would appear.

This is of course an extreme, and rather silly example, but hopefully it helps explain the difference between static content, and content generated by javascript and AJAX.

So what's the dilemma?

In the above example, it would seem that the most obvious choice is the use of AJAX.  Fast load time, lighting fast changing content, what could be better?  Here's the problem:

If you chose to display page 1 of volume A when the visitor accesses the page, that is all that would appear in the source code as well.  In other words, that is all the search engines would see.  This is a major drawback.  If someone were to search for "zoology" in Google, they would never find the zoology entry in your encyclopedia page because as far as any search engine can tell, it is not there.

In some cases, that is a problem.  In others, it is exactly what you want.

Another, more real life example may help.  Suppose you have a website that sells electronic equipment online.  As a comprehensive dealer, you have over 200 categories on your website, which product offerings ranging from car stereos, to TVs and computers.  Now it would be nice if the visitor could find any other category on your website from any page.  However, it is not practical to load all 200 categories onto every page, both from a user experience and a search engine standpoint.

From the user point of view, the pages would take forever to load.  From a search engine standpoint, the "relevancy" of every page would be diluted considerably.  With every page pointing to 200 other pages or more, Google would not be able to tell much difference between a page that is about TVs and a page that is about computers.  The use of AJAX would be a good approach to this problem.

Sometimes, however, you want the content in your page.  If you have a page about TVs, for example, and have 15 other categories about TVs, you would want those links to be in the source code in order to help search engines determine what your page is about.  However, due to space requirements, you might have a need to compress the display of that content.

A Working Example

With appropriate use of javascript and AJAX it is possible to strike a perfect balance between content that appears in the source code, and content that is loaded dynamically.  Best of all, the appearance of the two approaches will be indistinguishable to your visitors.

The following are two collapsable/expandable trees.  The first uses javascript, the second uses AJAX.  The source code follows each example to make the distinction clear.


Example 1: Javascript

•  Category 1
  •  Element 1
•  Category 2
  •  Element 2

•  Category 1
•  Category 2

It is a lovely thing to wake up one morning and discover that yesterday your website received ten thousand unique visitors. If your website had real estate, you would need a property as large as a stadium to contain the amount of attention you are receiving. And yet, it is all happening seemingly in the comfort of your home office, as you sit down for coffee one morning and review your website statistics on Google Analytics, or another webstats program.

The internet has in certain ways made the playing field more level. By making information, rather than capital, the primary factor in determining visibility (although we all know this is far from absolute) a cluster of individuals with a fury of ideas can quite easily compete with a large, multi-national corporation, if only in a limited scope or particular region.

The engineers at Google and other search engines are smart fellows indeed, but they have hearts as well. What they have effectively done, and what so many SEO's have observed and shared with their clients, is found a way to write an algorithm that gives preference to the continuous production of original, creative content regarding a particular subject matter. A company of three individuals may find more creative energy to produce such content as a company of ten thousand employees who are there only for a paycheck.

If there is any secret formula to a top ranking in the search engines, it is a quite simple one: content equals traffic. If I had one thing and one thing only that I could pass on to all who wanted to strengthen their presence on the web, it would be this simple rule. A recent client who just began a basic blog website with pay per click ads quickly found that on days he wrote a blog, he made upwards of 3 times the amount he would make on days he did not write.

My impression is that the traffic fluctuations are not so much a result as Google rapidly changing its preferences in the rankings, but the organic spread of information and interest across a million invisible channels ranging from email to chat to telephone conversations. The truth is that creative thought is a rare thing indeed, and when it presents itself, attention upon it follows as naturally as night follows day.

The beauty of being found has more to do with completing this cycle of seeker and sought than it does with beating out the competition that was not, at that time, ready to be found. If the time for you to be found is now, however, then you should seize upon everything you have to rise from the ashes. The ashes could be an unchallenging job, a stagnant company, or a flailing nonprofit organization. No matter what your beginning point, informationarchitech can meet you there and assist you in finding your way up. Being found is what we are all about.

Contact us today to learn more about how informationarchiTECH can help you or your company become more findable in the growing sea of information.

In the age of Augustus Rex of Prussia, the European world was filled with men who many regarded as tricksters, and some as possessors of a secret art.  Calling themselves 'Alchemists,' they claimed to posess the ability to transform one element into another--namely, lead into gold.  The recipes were said to be found among the pages of ancient Roman poetry such as Ovid or Virgil.  The practitioners include many whose names have been lost, and others, like Sir Isaac Newton, whose names are as known to us as common household words.  As secretive in their person as in their art, most alchemists never found themselves in a position where their claims were put to the ultimate test.  Johannes Friedrich Böttger was one who did not get off so easily.  Augustus "the Strong" had him locked away into a chamber in the Royal Palace until the day that he could successfully transform lead into gold.  He never succeeded in his efforts, but made a discovery no less precious--the recipe for porcelain, which until that moment had been a secret of the Orient.

A more complete history of this discovery and its impact can be found on the website for which I wrote all content, which currently ranks #1 in Google for the term "antique china."  (#9 for "porcelain")   Its current position did not occur by accident, but through the deliberate efforts of myself, who wrote all of the content, and others who were at that time my mentors.  The process is called "Search Engine Optimization," a service which is purported to guarantee high rankings in the "organic results" of search engines like Google, Yahoo or MSN.  An exact search for the term "search engine optimization" returned 76 million results in Google on the day of this blog's writing.  Clearly a competitive industry; but with so many companies across the world offering this service, how can their claims all possibly be true?

Questions about the veracity of SEO's claims have given rise to broader questions about whether the "industry" is anything more than another manifestation of the snake oil salesman with upgraded technology.  Considering that Google's "ranking algorithm" is a kept secret, consisting of thousands of complex mathematical formulas, can a #1 ranking for any term ever truly be guaranteed?  Or even a listing on the first page?  With this ranking constantly being updated by the engineers at Google and other search engine companies, can SEO really be considered a science that can be learned?  Or will it simply remain in the shadowy, unverifiable realm of the Alchemist until the day its outrageous claims are finally forgotten?

As someone who has had personal experience with the success of certain techniques, such as the one mentioned above, I am partial to the belief that there is a craft possessed by some, but not all, which makes certain guarantees regarding placement in the search engine rankings possible.  However, all claims must include specific qualifications.  The main qualification is that it will require hard work.  The more competitive the industry, the harder you should be willing to work in order to obtain the ranking you feel you should deserve.  This second qualification is one rarely heard.  You should attempt to attain a ranking, not because you have beaten the system, but because you have made your website the true winner.

This was my approach with Antique, China, Porcelain & Collectibles.  My process of Search Engine Optimization began with reading books about antiques.   Second, I began writing articles about antiques and posting them on the website.  In between research and writing, I sought out other antique or porcelain related websites and requested link exchanges.  Soon I was building relationships with other antique authorities on their webs, and websites began to link to us, not because we requested a link exchange, but because they valued the information our website contained.  Eventually I noticed that eBay sellers were quoting our website in their listings.  One day, we woke up and found ourselves in the #1 position for the term "antique china" in Yahoo, and Google was soon to follow.

It is my opinion that if you want to obtain a top ranking for a term, you must first ask yourself whether your website truly merits that positioning.  Is your website the most valuable and relevant resource for the majority of people who would submit that search phrase?  If it is not, you then have to decide whether you are willing to invest the energy to turn your website into one that is; or choose a more accurate phrase.

Of course, there are plenty of particular techniques in addition to simply writing good content and exchanging links, and having knowledge of these will certainly expedite your rise to the top.  In addition, many people can benefit from coaching and encouragement along the way, and it is in these ways that informationarchitech can help you.  However it is important to remember that without personal will and determination, no enterprise, web based or otherwise, can succeed.

We may not be able to turn lead into gold, but with careful study and perseverance, there is no reason why you should not be able to use the knowledge you have to become a valued and prosperous presence on the Web.  SEO is not an exact science to be sure, but it is not entirely mysterious either.  Combining continuous observation with research, the method by which search engines rank websites can be learned.  It is not necessary to understand the precise forumula in order to glean the most significant factors.  Like alchemists, however, SEOs do their best work when put to the test!

Click here to request SEO services.

As a personal note, I find the term “information architech” to be so pretentious it hurts.

Lafayette, Louisiana Web Design Services
Direct: 337-706-7460
Request a Quote Online

With our office located in the heart of the Cajun country, informationarchiTECH is eager to meet the needs of Louisiana business owners, for projects both large and small. As a Louisiana web design firm, we are aware of the unique culture and history of this region, and are poised to integrate this understanding into the development of websites that will enhance the economy and visibility of this region and its people.

InformationarchiTECH can meet your business at any stage of your development. Whether you want a simple blog website containing articles about your business or trade, or a full fledged e-commerce website with online ordering capabilities, we are prepared to suit your needs. Louisiana is a rich state with plenty to offer in terms of knowledge, products and services, and informationarchiTECH wants to be a part of sharing these rich offerings to the world at large.

We offer both turn key solutions and custom design/consultation services. Whether you are starting from scratch, or have an existing Louisiana web site that is not generating the revenue or interest you hoped for, informationarchiTECH can provide the web solution catered to your needs.

Our rates are priced competitively. However, our focus is placed upon building your revenue. You can start simple, and expand your website as your budget and incentives grow. Our philosophy is simple: when you are successful, we are successful.

InformationarchiTECH is proud to be one of the few Louisiana web design companies focusing upon individuals and businesses of this region. While our clientele spans the entire country, there is a special place in our hearts for Acadiana and Louisiana at large. If you are looking for a Lafayette, Louisiana web design company, look no further than informationarchiTECH.

Click here to request services, or call 337-706-7460 for a free consultation.