Findability, Orphan of the Web Design Industry

Findability is to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as 'web standards' is to 'table layouts.' In a web whose vastness exceeds comprehension, sites with findable content win. The good news is that everyone on your team can help make your site findable.

Walter, Aarron. List Apart, A (2008). Articles>Web Design>Usability

Findability/SEO Cheat Sheet: Quick Guide to Web Standards SEO

A findability strategy cheat sheet that will guide you through all of the stuff you should be doing when creating new websites or even redesign existing ones.

Walter, Aarron. AarronWalter.com (2008). Articles>Web Design>Usability>Search Engine Optimization

Free Search Engine Tools and Services  

You can communicate information about your site to search engines and see your site from their perspective using some free services and utilities from Yahoo! and Google.

Walter, Aarron. Building Findable Websites (2008). Articles>Web Design>Search>Search Engine Optimization

Building Viral Marketing Tools  

One of the best ways to spread the word about your website is to let your audience do it for you.

Walter, Aarron. Building Findable Websites (2008). Articles>Web Design>Marketing>Social Networking

Places to Promote Your Site  

You’ve built a great site-now get the word out! There are plenty of places where you can promote your site for free.

Walter, Aarron. Building Findable Websites (2008). Articles>Web Design>Search Engine Optimization

Analyzing Your Traffic  

Discover your site’s findability triumphs and tragedies with traffic analysis systems.

Walter, Aarron. Building Findable Websites (2008). Articles>Web Design>Audience Analysis>Log Analysis

Black Hat SEO Techniques to Avoid  

Desperation, ignorance, and a moral compass that doesn’t point due north often get perfectly logical, good people and companies in trouble with search engines. Because being listed high in search results is such a desirable goal to attain, many people search for shortcuts to the front of the line—which can land them in serious trouble.

Walter, Aarron. Building Findable Websites (2008). Articles>Web Design>Search Engine Optimization

Moving Towards Accessible Development

Below is a bit of an accessibility round up of a few useful tools, articles, sites, and informative podcasts about the topic that may help inform/convince you about the importance of accessibility.

Walter, Aarron. AarronWalter.com (2006). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility

Deconstructing the Design Process

The way to overcome the pressure of a new design is by breaking the process into smaller parts, and defining a step by step strategy that allows you to address each issue of the design separately rather than as a daunting whole. Instead of one monolithic problem, you have lots of small, more manageable problems. Breaking each problem out will also help you arrive at better design results as you will have given close consideration to all aspects of the problem.

Walter, Aarron. AarronWalter.com (2007). Design>Project Management>Advice

Brighter Horizons for Web Education

Our young medium is still ironing out a few kinks—perhaps the biggest of which is the way budding web professionals are being educated. Schools that teach web design struggle to keep pace with our industry, and those just starting their curricula often set off in the wrong direction because the breadth and depth of our medium can be daunting.

Walter, Aarron. List Apart, A (2009). Articles>Web Design>Industry and Academy>Education