search engine success (bbc, 2003)

search engine success - martin belam - may 2003

search engine success

may 2003martin belam


types of search engines - spidering engines


types of search engines - directories


user experience of search

some user comments - BBCi Search Usability Testing, August 2002

There's an overflow of information on it [the

Internet]. It can be difficult to decide which one is for you

It's got to be there - so i'll find it...

I'm pretty persistent, its a bit of a challenge


user experience of search

Eric A. Brewer, professor of Computer Science, University of California, Berkeley.

“Users expect a contemporary search engine to find the correct

document out of a few billion documents given (on average) only

1.7-words per query to go on.”


why are search engines important?

more than 1.5m of BBCi page impressions come from search engine referrals every week

many of these will be people who were not specifically looking for BBC content

some areas of the site generate 8% of their page impressions from search


the title tag


the title tag

<title>BBC - Communicate - Your thoughts, your views, your space</title>


the title tag


the description tag


the description tag

the description tag


the keyword tag


forget it


how search engines display your metadata

Your site is about this....


site structure and search


search engines do not index:

dynamic pages

drop-down menus

pages with no incoming links

headlines written with graphics

flash


if it is good for search, it is good for users:

simple text navigation & site maps

link to all content

use obvious titles not branding

pages that make sense in text browsers

valid HTML


search engine success

may 2003martin belam

search engine success (bbc, 2003)

Technology

search engine

search engines

user experience

search

good

types