Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results. Typically, the earlier a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines.
#26518
Compelling Headlines to Improve Your Search Engine Ranking
Write compelling headings that attract both search engines and your desired kind of site visitor.
Jackson, Steve. Webcredible (2005). Articles>Web Design>Search>Search Engine Optimization
#24581
Competitive Analysis: Are you Gathering Information or Intelligence?
Finding online information about your competitors is easy--The difficult part is finding meaning. When researching the competition, you can avoid pitfalls by seeking 'intelligence' instead of 'information.'
Janisch, Troy. Icon Interactive (2004). Articles>Research>Business Communication
#30770
Comprehending the Google Dance to Stay Updated
The updating of massive indexes by Google is not a smooth affair by any means. Notably, as a result of updating process, old indexes do not simply yield to new indexes, but there is quite an haphazard movement in transition. It takes a couple of days for Google to complete its update. Especially during this period, both old and new indexes get their place on www.google.com, albeit alternatively or even in unpredictable ways before new indexes stabilize there for all to see. The fluctuations witnessed on Google between transition from old indexes to new indexes seem as if Google were dancing. Hence, in SEO parlance comes the word Google Dance. Varying indexes have a say in the final rankings just when PageRank calculation sets in action. So, the fluctuating indexes of your site should not be a cause of concern when Google is dancing. Wait for Google to come to a halt and you will see all the things stabilize.
Azam, Rahbre and Tabassum Naz. Amateur Writerz (2008). Articles>Web Design>Business Communication>Search Engine Optimization
#14231
A Computing Research Repository: Why Not Solve the Problems First?
The Computing Research Repository (CoRR) described by Halpern is potentially a powerful tool for researchers in computing science. In its current form, however, shortcomings exist that restrict its value and that, in the long term, might strongly undermine its usefulness. Important aspects that have insufficiently been taken care of are (1) the quality and consequently the reliability of the material stored, (2) the still restricted submission of material,which implies that other sources have to be consulted by researchers as well, (3) the still unsound financial basis of the project, and (4) the confusion that may easily arise when a preliminary version is stored in the CoRR, while a different final version is published in a journal.
van Loon, A.J. Journal of Computer Documentation (2000). Articles>Knowledge Management>Research>Online
#10772
Conducting a Productive Web Search
There are two main types of indexes: those that are hierarchical (i.e. that lead one from a general topic to a more specific one) and those that list sources in some sort of order (most commonly alphabetical). The first type of index often contains a broad range of topics while the second are usually sources designed to address a particular topic or concern.
Purdue University (1998). Academic>Course Materials>Online>Search
#10381
#25722
Crafting a User Research Plan, Part II
The most difficult part of setting up a schedule for your user research plan is integrating it into the existing development system.
Kuniavsky, Mike. Adaptive Path (2003). Articles>Usability>Research
#24150
In order to prevent your site from being penalized for spamming, you need to prevent the search engine spiders from indexing pages which are not meant for it.
Roy, Sumantra. 1stSearchRanking (2003). Design>Web Design>Search>Search Engine Optimization
#24149
Once you have established the keywords for which you should optimize your site for the search engines, it is time to figure out how you can get a high ranking in the search engines for those keywords. The solution is to create Keyword Rich Pages (KRPs) - pages which provide good content and in which a particular keyword is repeated a number of times so that the page gets a top ranking for that keyword.
Roy, Sumantra. 1stSearchRanking (2003). Design>Web Design>Search>Search Engine Optimization
#32064
Creating Usable, Search Engine Friendly URLs
There are many reasons to use mod_rewrite to create informative, useful URLs for your website. Most dynamic websites use some form of PHP or ASP to pull the data from the database and often times use that data in the URL as a string. This is not only a potential security flaw, it also gives the user and search engine alike a very uninformative destination for your website.
Robbins, Kyle. ReEncoded (2008). Articles>Web Design>Search Engine Optimization>Usability
#23905
Cross-Language Information Retrieval: Layout Strategies for Gloss Translation
In this experiment, we study some issues on the user interface design of Cross-Language Information Retrieval (CLIR). In particular, we study some enhancements to the current user interface design for the University of Maryland Translingual Information Retrieval System web page.
Elnahrawy, Eiman M., Nagia M. Ghanem and Moustafa A. Youssef. University of Maryland (2001). Design>Document Design>Localization>Search
#22930
This essay summarizes the editor's views of publication in the field of human-computer interaction. Digital technologies have begun changing the way journal articles and conference papers are produced, reviewed, published, accessed, and used. This period of profound change presents challenges and opportunities for both new and existing channels of scientific and technical communication.
Grudin, Jonathan. ACM TOCHI (2004). Articles>Research>Publishing>Online
#31786
Cruel Theory? The Struggle for Prestige and Its Consequences in Academic Technical Communication 
Some struggles for prestige in academic technical communication are self-defeating and wasteful because of the clash between the material (or positive-sum) economy of the workplace and the positional (or zero-sum) economy of the academy. Some professors of technical communication create disrespect for themselves and their specialities because they create degrading representations of working people and their artifacts, they promote impossible standards, and they advance discredited or misleading theories. More profitable approaches to gaining prestige for academic technical communication include recognizing that not everyone can be the top person in the positional economy, studying works on the economics of prestige, and promoting the genuinely good works that already exist in academic technical communication.
Moore, Patrick. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2008). Articles>TC>Research
#31619
Cultural Differences And Research 
Before conducting research beyond your own country’s borders, it’s important to consider a number of cultural differences that have significant implications for the success of the research. Angela Sinickas outlines some potential issues to consider.
Sinickas, Angela D. Sinickas Communications (2005). Articles>Research>International>Cultural Theory
#30423
Current Research: An International Perspective
Research provides the basis for technical communication practices. Such research, conducted in the United States, is readily available to STC members through the Proceedings, Technical Communication, and other technical communication journals. However, research being performed in other countries is not so readily available to those in this country who may need it.
Warren, Thomas L. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>TC>Research>International
#30424
Current Research: STC's Research Program
This interim report shows that the research program sponsored by STC in its publications is becoming more annecdotal each year, relying less and less on research for support of its generalizations.
Warren, Thomas L. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>TC>Research>STC
#30883
Data Mining and Predictive Analytics, Part 1
The cluster analysis process looks for groups of visitors in the data, where the people within the groups have something in common but the commonality is different from group to group.
Mason, Neil. ClickZ (2007). Articles>Web Design>Research>Log Analysis
#30884
Data Mining and Predictive Analytics, Part 2
In part one of this series, I examined visitor segmentation, a data-mining technique. Now, let's look at how data mining can be used to understand important visitor behavior over time.
Mason, Neil. ClickZ (2007). Articles>Web Design>Research>Log Analysis
#29567
The deep niche--the rolling 'interest tribe' comprised of that day's enthusiastic, new audience--is something that publishers must acknowledge, and accommodate in our business plans, if we are to sustain ourselves. The Web is not merely a threat to publishers--it can also be the means to connect to the people we most want to reach: the interested reader.
Jensen, Michael. Journal of Electronic Publishing (2007). Articles>Publishing>Research>Online
#25514
The Definitive Link-Building Strategy
Learn how to go about starting that all-important link building campaign, to help ensure a higher search engine ranking for your website.
McGaffin, Ken. Webcredible (2005). Design>Web Design>Search>Search Engine Optimization
#24564
This article turns to the concept of interdisciplinarity as a framework for the design and development of observational studies investigating the discourse of medicine in language-based fields such as linguistics, rhetoric, composition, and professional communication. It argues that observational studies be designed as disciplined interdisciplinary studies, defined as research that makes an acknowledged contribution to both medicine and language studies. It proposes two guiding principles for the design of observational studies in medicine, both of which focus on issues of prospective design.
Barton, Ellen. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (2001). Articles>Research>Biomedical
#23211
The Design of Browsing and Berrypicking Techniques for the Online Search Interface
The author argues for a new model of information retrieval called 'berrypicking.' This model attempts to be much more representative of the real behavior of information searchers than the traditional model of information retrieval.
Bates, Marcia. UCLA (1989). Design>User Interface>Search
#21034
Designing a Search People Can Really Use
The challenge of finding the right information at the right time has grown with the Web. The information superhighway is larger and more crowded than ever, and individual sites are also larger and more complex. With this explosion in the sheer volume of pages, finding the information you need is harder than ever. Search engines have always held out the promise of solving this problem, but they are often a usability disaster area. Inaccurate results, cluttered search entries, and a narrow focus on technological capabilities are only a few of the issues that make search features so difficult to use.
Quesenbery, Whitney. Intercom (2003). Design>Web Design>Search>Usability
#19309
Designing an Effective Search Facility
Whilst some designers would insist that to even contemplate adding a search engine to a site is to admit some sort of failure of interaction design, most would agree that in certain circumstances some form of search facility can be appropriate. Either way, it is an issue that sooner or later is likely to be addressed by many site developers. It is important to recognise that when we speak of a 'search facility' we are often applying one catch-all name to what is in fact many distinct functions. There is a significant difference, for example, between searching for specific items with specific names (such as books in a bookshop) and looking for any documents that contain certain words or phrases. The former is a targeted, 'hard' search, the latter a much more complex 'soft' process that is likely to place greater demands on the user if they are to be successful. Although in terms of interface design and technology these searches may be similar, for the user they are very different processes.
Frontend Infocentre (2001). Design>Web Design>Search
#23795
Designing and Implementing Technical Communication Research
Designing and implementing successful research in technical communication involves an ongoing, circular process consisting of four parts: (1) planning the project and identifying funding needs, (2) matching research needs with funding sources, (3) writing and submitting a focused proposal, and (4) responding to the reviews of the proposal. This same approach can be adapted to fit the unique needs of any research situation.
Zimmerman, Beverly B. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Research>TC
