The Role of Information Architecture and Search Engine Optimization in Online Publishing

Author: Marek Prokop,  PROKOP software s.r.o., Czech Republic

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Abstract

World Wide Web is a great publishing tool. Sharing information has never been so easy before. Unfortunately, the same could not be said about information finding. Publishing alone is the easier part of the task. Making information visible and findable is the more difficult one.

Publishers have to handle two sides of information findability -- inside their own web sites and from outside as well. An internet user, either she is an scientific researcher or a business prospect, has to find publisher's web site at first. Next she looks for desired information within the web site. If she faild in either task, it isn't her failure. It's the publisher's failure.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the set of methods aiming to good information visibility outside the particular web site. Chances are that information published on the Web will never be found without proper search engine optimization. The techniques of SEO includes structural markup coding, building relevant meta data and writing a web copy focused on keywords.

The goal of information architecture is to ensure good information findability inside a particular web site. Its methods are based on meta data again, information structuring, proper labeling, etc. In fact, information architecture and search engine optimization have much in common.

About the author

Marek Prokop met computers for the first time in 1985, when began to work as a computer programmer. In 1990 he founded his company PROKOP software and has been developing enterprise information systems the following seven or eight years. After 1996 he focused on internet aplications and later on internet marketing as well.

Nowdays he work as a consultant specialized on web site design, information architecture, internet business strategies and search engine optimization. He is an author of 100+ articles and a publisher of popular ezin about web authoring Sova v siti.