Information Architecture - The Most Underrated SEM Component

* navigation is inconsistent and confusing, thus it is hard for spiders to know what pages are important and it is hard for humans to work their way through the conversion process

* if the spiders do not rank the correct pages odds are pretty good that the visitors will come into the site on the wrong page (and have a hard time working their way through the conversion process if they start out at the wrong spot)

* hard to buy broad keywords using PPC because competing sites are better at funneling visitors through the conversion process

* hard to buy category level keywords using PPC because it is hard to place people on meaningful content if it does not exist. category pages should be more than a link list or groups of irrelevant chunks of content

* what should be category pages do not add context, build trust, and build credibility - they are essentially placeholders gluing together various unrelated content

* if you do not have well defined and reinforced category pages the site is not structured to rank for the mid level category related keywords

* much of the site's PageRank is wasted on unimportant pages such as photo galleries or other low content pages

* since PageRank is distributed improperly, the market feedback is largely irrelevant

* has many similar pages that duplicate each other, cleaning up the errors leads to broken links and other problems

* the site is hard to grow or market because as your category gets more competitive and efficient you first have to restructure the site and undue the errors before you can compete

* properly flows PageRank throughout the site

* search engines are likely to rank the most relevant page

* easier to convert

* is easy for users to move around

* builds user trust

* more likely to be referenced in a positive light than a site with broken navigation (gets free editorial links)

* converts better, so it can afford to pay a higher lead price for traffic (and thus maintain market leadership even as the market gets more competitive)

* category pages add context and target different relevant word sets than lower level pages

* folder and filenames are logical so they aid relevancy and clickthrough rate and the site is easy to build out / extend

* if you ever make errors they are typically far easier to correct

* easy to promote seasonal specials or currently hot items