PubCon Austin 2011 second day IA session

IA and content session

Do your keyword research first, then structure your site, then write content. Not particularly new but still valid, and one of the processes to follow, because fixing afterwards is expensive.

Go for a short path and flat hierarchy. People will 'opt out' after a few clicks, so make user flows easy and short. Give different ways to get to (the same) content.

IA is painful - but only when done too late.

Target.com has a really bad IA, Borders.com some better (well, it obviously did not help though ;-( ) according to the IA session at the Pubcon Austin 2011 (#pubcon).

Some thoughts on semantic web

Found this interesting article about the semantic web:

Are you ready for the Semantic Web?
(From achieve market leadership)

Yes, I am!

And here is my estimate how things will change for marketers with the semantic web:

1. I believe content will still be king, perhaps even more than ever. Content to give answers to people’s searches and help them.
2. More than ever, focus on core competences will be important and relevant. Additional content will be the core competence of someone else and will be attached at the right spot automatically. May be for a semantic search engine one element to determine the right content and connections will be, if the content is in the core of the publishers authority.
3. We are on the way to prepare for the semantic web already with linking, tagging, connecting, blogging, and so on. These methods will - at least to some extent - most likely develop into the connectors we need to cluster the content.

(Same as over there, just fixed some typos)