creating a future proof taxonomy

Creating a Future-Proof Taxonomy

MavenMini: Content-Driven User ExperiencesSeptember 2016


INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION• Taxonomy

–Is the vocabulary your organization uses to communicate with your audiences

–It includes the words your business uses to categorize and identify:

•Products, services, audiences, industries, etc.–While there is no single right way to build a taxonomy, it’s important to create one that works internally, externally, and is able to grow over time.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DON’T HAVE A GOOD

TAXONOMY?• Inconsistent language creates confusion from customers

–e.g. Your website navigation says one thing, and your blog content says another

•Confuses internal teams, and may cause them to “invent” their own vocabularies or terms

A GOOD TAXONOMY...

•Provides a common vocabulary that you share with your customers

–Doesn’t require a steep learning curve•Organizes information effectively• Improves content discovery•Enhances all your marketing efforts (can extend well beyond a website or online experience)

IMPORTANT

•Don’t think of a taxonomy as simply a “website” thing• It’s not just categories for your blog, or the way content is categorized in your CMS

•While it may have very technical, specific applications, it should come from the heart of your organization and extend to your customers

HOW TO MAKE A FUTURE-PROOF TAXONOMY

1.Focus on Your Customers2.Use Simple, Relevant Language3.Build Beyond a Single Channel4.Go Broad and Shallow5.Plan for the Long Term6.Define and Document


1 | FOCUS ON YOUR CUSTOMERS

1 | FOCUS ON YOUR CUSTOMERS• The taxonomy you create is to help your audience find the information they

need and ultimately purchase something from you.

• If you don’t understand who you are selling your products/services to, then you won’t be able to create a taxonomy that meets anyone’s specific needs.

• Your audience needs to be able to find information in a way that makes sense to them.

• Talk to your customers, run user experience testing, examine search logs for terms used, and examine keyword tools such as Google Keywords/Trends and similar tools.

• Look at how your competitors are organizing their content.

HOW TO DO IT• Research your own website’s search history

– What terms do people use to search within your site?

• Test, test, test -

– A/B test on your current site with terms

– A/B test on Google AdWords

• Don’t be distracted by your competitors’ new website

– They may be trying to “sound smart” by using the latest terms, but they may be alienating customers who don’t know the terminology


2 | USE SIMPLE, RELEVANT LANGUAGE


• How customers and prospects talk about your products and services may be very different from how your employees talk about them.

– Be wary of internal-speak.

– Your customers don’t care how your company is structured. They only want to solve a problem or get an answer to a question

• Let your customers drive the language and complexity of the taxonomy structure:

– What terms are they searching for within your site?

– How are they finding your content - what terms, articles, etc. are driving them there?


• Balance Industry Jargon with Usability

– When in doubt, keep your language simple and straightforward. Avoid trendy jargon where possible.

• Your customers may not be “up” on the latest buzzwords in the industry so tread lightly in regards to adopting the latest terms.

– Remember that your content needs to be found. Using terms that are not part of the general vernacular may prohibit people from finding and/or understanding your content

HOW TO DO IT• Keep your terminology at a lowest common denominator-level

– This may vary depending on your audience, but instead of using the fanciest words

• Test, test, test

– Easy:

• Get a few people with varying levels of knowledge (that fit in your audience demographics) to review

– Intermediate:

• Do a card-sorting exercise where people are asked to put subject matter in each of the taxonomy categories you’ve chosen


3 | BUILD BEYOND A SINGLE CHANNEL


• Build and share your taxonomy across all your marketing channels, departments, and divisions to ensure a common language and understanding of your taxonomy.

• You may be focused on your website, but your marketing channels need to stay consistent. Think about the other communication channels your taxonomy/categorization will need to extend to.

• Think from the customer perspective:

– They don’t look at each business unit as separate and having its terms

– Because they don’t pay attention to departments and other segments within your organization, they expect everything created by you to utilize the same language


• Make it Functional

– The taxonomy you design should focus on content that is needed to drive functionality.

– Make sure your taxonomy supports:

• Search

• Website navigation

• Personalization and other customer experiences

• Integration with other business applications

HOW DO DO IT• Map it out

– Make a map (similar to an information architecture) of all of the channels and properties that will use your taxonomy

– Determine each channel’s unique needs to make sure you are not forgetting anything

• For instance:

– An external blog might have categories and tags that are different from those you use on your main website

– Your Paid Search may have ads with specific words/CTAs that work well for acquisition


4 | GO BROAD AND SHALLOW

4 | GO BROAD AND SHALLOW• The most useful taxonomies are those that are broad and shallow, not

narrow and deep.

– Broader taxonomies also allow for more future flexibility

• Find a balance between being authoritative and complete and being accessible.

• Remember both your end users as well as your content creators:

– If you make your taxonomy too difficult to use and manage, it will cease to be useful

HOW TO DO IT• Consider the following:

– Make it about your users

• Don’t make a department map that your customers will need to try to navigate

• Try to group things based on the questions/challenges/problems your customers have

• How broad is too broad?

– Remember that giving people too many choices makes it harder for them to make a decision

• (2) may be too few, but (10) may be too many; e.g. primary navigation shouldn’t have more than 6-8 items


5 | PLAN FOR THE LONG TERM

5 | PLAN FOR THE LONG TERM• “Future-proof” may not always be possible, but know your taxonomy will

change over time. • New products and services will be added requiring new categories and

topics, new metadata will support personalization and new approaches to search.

• Plan to regularly examine your existing structure and modify it as needed.

HOW TO DO IT• Talk about what will be happening in the next 12-18 months

– Are there any shifts in the business, major product launches, etc. to be aware of?

• Phase In Complex Taxonomies– If you have a fairly extensive taxonomy, or you want to build for future

changes, consider implementing the taxonomy in stages.

– Taxonomy isn’t helpful if there isn’t content to support it

• Consider deploying those elements when you have the right content in place


6 | DEFINE AND DOCUMENT


• Every taxonomy design effort should begin with a clearly documented and shared understanding of the following: – Who is the audience? – What are we “taxonomizing” or tagging? – Why are we doing it?

• It should be easy for everyone in your organization to learn and understand how to use it, where it applies, and how it can be extended


• This documentation will extend to several documents related to a website, including:– Information Architecture– Technical Specifications– Content Writing Guidelines– In addition to other internal documents for other

departments within your organization

HOW TO DO IT• Make taxonomy everyone’s responsibility

– Create centrally-located document that outline terms/categories

• Make sure someone is in charge– Changes to your taxonomy should go through a process with

approvals– Be careful about adding new categories/branches; though

sometimes it is necessary• Don’t make the documents too technical

– Non-technical people will ignore or think it’s not for them… IT IS!

• Do regular reviews

How to Make a Winning Taxonomy

CONCLUSION

CONCLUSION• A Good Taxonomy:

–Is easy to use and understand by ALL audiences–Is adopted by ALL internal audiences–Doesn’t “break” when it needs to be extended–Applies to all of your marketing and business channels

QUESTIONS?• Greg Kihlström

–@gregkihlstrom

• Carousel30–@carousel30–www.carousel30.com

creating a future proof taxonomy

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