Forum Moderators: not2easy
One way to utilize this point is to use the name of the site/domain instead, when it contains targeted keywords.
I have a client who wanted to make the home page the ‘Lobby” and the chat area the ‘Fireside Room’. Do you see how being clever can cause a problem, or does it?
Chat is chat and people will know what it is. I'd use that maybe in secondary text navigation or else people might not find it. Particularly in community building you have to keep everything as clear as possible, which has a lot to do with how a membership base is built up over time.
If your client wants to create a sense of ambiance for a given audience for marketing and branding purposes, that could be in addition, and in that case I'd use it in body text during the content development phase while establishing the "voice" of the site.
If part of regular site navigation I'd personally do it as a graphic and use alt text. If the client insists on it for link text, I'd use the title= attribute for SEO purposes.
Also link titles account for Google - put your keywords in there.
As a matter of fact, I've been taking some notes and intend to start a discussion on that very topic.
I started the thread on Writers Block [webmasterworld.com] about a week or so ago, which I'll be getting back to. There were some wonderful suggestions, and I've been working on it, but I've come to realize that the issue of "voice" enters the picture.
I'll do some research, give some more thought, take a few more notes, and start a thread on "voice." It's probably one of the most important topics that can be covered.
I wouldn't necessarily look at navigation from the point of view of voice, but as more of an interface design related issue as far as text vs. graphics is concerned. Of course no element stands on its own, unrelated to other facets of site development, and once SEO comes into the picture that raises other issues as well.
...has anyone found a good way of getting targeted link text into page names like Home, Site Map, Contact, etc (if the target terms aren't contained in the company name)? Seems that Marcia's method, of linking in paragraph text, may be the best procedure here.
>>I use "keyword home" a fair bit, keyword is the site name in many cases.<<
This is the best solution I've found for Home as well, but I've had clients veto this. Sometimes we negotiate on the wording of links, and I give them whatever nonsensical name they want at the top in a graphic, as long as I can get some target phrases into the links at the bottom of the page. But "Site Map" is the page for which I've been able to come up with no good suggestions....
For navigational text, at this point I've seen at least a suggestion or two for the Home page and the Contact page... but nothing for the Site Map. Any suggestions what to call the Site Map?
I'm sorry... I should have been clearer. I'm trying to get some sort of keyword content into the link text too.
I suppose I could be saying "Widget World Site Map" or "Widget World Site Contents," if I had a site name that contained a target word or phrase. But for a company name like, say, "Widgetron," that wouldn't work. As a matter of fact, that wouldn't work for "Widgetron Home," or "Contact Widgetron" either... I'm assuming "Widgetron" is of little value as a targeting word.
The "voice" of the site is one more thing to consider. If you said "Widget Contents" or "Widget Home" on a Widgetron site, you'd be changing your modifier enough to be confusing. It's almost as though Home and Contact and Site Map are talking about either the site or the company.
You probably could get away with "Widget Sales" on a Widgetron site without being confusing, as Sales is (or could be) talking about the product.
