SEO

Here's a good test for web site usability. Get someone to look at your opening page for 3 - 4 seconds. Turn off the monitor, then ask them if they can tell you what your site is for, what they will find in it, and how they will get to it.

I have an SEO guest lecture spot at a local polytech. Got a great email from the lecturer Steve Yeoman that included the above and following:

So how can this apply to your forum - I like using the navbar to include an introductory paragraph about the index page, forum, or thread. This enables someone to very quickly look at a page and see what it is all about.

From an seo perspective, the last item on the navbar breadcrumb should be an h1, and then immediately following that, have the opening paragraph including the search phrase/title of the page repeated twice, and also the forum name and possibly forum description. The navbar should be a sales pitch for the page, inviting the reader to further look at the page.

If you don't have the phrase on your page that you are trying to rank for, then you will find it that much harder to rank for it. Google tries to match usability to how it creates its SERP's. Useability and SEO should go hand in hand.

Personally, I don't like including the first words of the post in that navbar opening paragraph. They can read the post for that.

I use some italics and bold to further break up the text and make it more readable.

Here is an example from my restaurant website:

Is it less than 3 seconds

With the super fast internet that we now have, I would debate even the 3 seconds that is mentioned. The time that people are looking at your pages is rather small, and if they dont see what they are looking for - relevance to their question, they are likely to look elsewhere.

Google adsense

An interesting development has been Google adsense word links. I am getting around 50% of my adsense revenue from these links in the navbar. Its where peoples eyes go when they are looking at your page. Make the most of it. Yes, thats where they leave your site, but it proves to me how much peoples eyes are drawn to a properly constructed navbar opening paragraph.


Non vBulletin websites

The same rule obviously applies to non vBulletin websites.

So make sure that you have the synergy between your title, meta description, h1 and navbar opening paragraph. Say what you mean, mean what you say, be clear to users about what they are going to be reading about on your page using the search phrases that they have come to your page to find. Then people will stay around and take part in your site, and be around for adsense.

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T2DMan
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Some interesting background reading
- Usability Sample chapter from Don't Make Me Think

Actually, I've read that the biggest impression is within the first couple milliseconds of the site's opening. That's why the top-left should always be the most saturated part of the page.

Checkout the works of Seth Godin and Jakob Neilson such as:

Designing Web Usability (J.N.)
The Big Red Fez: How to Make Any Website Better (S.G)

Any other suggested books?

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Joe Ward / Crawlability Inc.
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