Welcome to Acronym Land: SEO, SEM, AI, UX, UI

People such as myself and colleagues are always throwing "SEO, SEM, IA, UX, UI" around like everyone else knows what we mean. Terms like "Trending", "Conversion", and "Taxonomy" get thrown into the pile as well.

It's easy to forget that not everyone knows (or wants to know) what we are talking about.  Keep in mind though that if you are spending money on your website, and intend to make money with your website, it is a good idea to be up to speed with the lingo. Below are bare bones definitions to get you through those mystifying meetings.

After reading this article you should be able to get the gist of....

"Once we worked out an IA that reflected expected trending metrics, we were able to more clearly pinpoint conversion funnels which of course didn't effect SEO but it gave our UX staff something to chew on and made us feel better about that new taxonomy."

SEO = "Search Engine Optimization"
It covers a pretty broad range of topics but it is not a term you should envoke as a blanket term meaning "anything that makes my website better". Over "SEO-ing" is a quick way to let everyone know that you are just skimming the surface. In fact the term should only be used in reference to the process of improving how search engines (namely Google and the other biggies) list your website in search results relevant to certain search terms. Having appropriate copy theme and amount, easy to index pages, inbound links to your website from other websites that are relevant and popular and page addresses wth no search query strings in them are all ways to improve SEO. Colors, button sizes, ad verbage, and well thought out shopping carts are not relevant to SEO directly.

SEM = "Search Engine Marketing"
This covers a larger scope than SEO does. SEO is actualy an SEM component. SEM refers to the process of marketing your website for position amongst the search engines. It includes SEO friendly website construction, payperclick campaigns, and any search related process that increases your website's exposure to search engines specifically.

IA = "Information Architecture"
The way you arrange your information and how you organize it is your Information Architecture. So for example, do you have the "contact us" form on the home page, or bury it nine levels deep in the "about us" section? Are you inteterested in teaching people about your organization, or getting them right to the items for sale? When users come to you do they meet the mad scientist right away and then get to see the spaceship, or are they instantly on the moon at first click?

UX = "User Experience"
This is about the way people feel, and how they are impressed or not impressed with the aesthetics and mood of the website. Those opinions are based on how easy or hard your interface is to figure out, what colors and textures you are using, the tone of the content and the general personality of your website. UX is not only interested in pallate and button styles but also navigation and labeling in reference to how they effect the mood and tone of the website.

UI = "User Interface"
How do people interface with your website? Do they know how to get around? Are they clicking on the buttons you want them to click on? Are your forms intuitive? Is the type face legible? Can they move around with ease? How many clicks does it take to get to the tootsie roll center of the tootsie pop? UI is a function of UX.

Trending
This is pretty easy to figure out but it's usually used in reference to traffic in the website or traffic on search engines. When certain ad campaigns happen how is traffic effected? As time goes by what pages are becoming less popular? Is the website in general getting longer visits? Is our Newsletter actually increasing website visits? If so, are the visits coming to the shopping area? What's hot on Google right now? 

Conversion
Typically a conversion is reference to the magical moment when a website visitor takes some action the site is designed to facilitate. Often that is a purchase but it can also be filling out a form, submitting an opinion, or downloading a brochure. If I go to Gibson Guitar's website and just read the home page then leave, no converson happens. However if I click on the "Dump 2 Grand on a Guitar here" button, a conversion has happened as far as Gibson is concerened. Conversions are also often considered to be any action a user takes that moves them forward in a process. Someone may convert into the shopping cart, but if they do not actually commit to a purchase they are not a purchase conversion; they are a pre checkout conversion. Conversions are often the virtual "cha ching" sound in eCommerce.

Taxonomy
This term gets used in our content management platform quite often.  It refers to the style and method by which content is named and therefore organized. A website map is usually the visual manifestation of the taxonomy. Taxonomy may get abused on occasion in situations where buttons and links don't match. Contact Us, Reach Out, Find Us, Let's Connect, Just Ask, might all be referring to the same contact form on the website but are each using a different title and therefore do not represent a cohesive taxonomy. A solid taxonomy is very important in the administration of the website when you may have multiple content authors. Well organized and consistant use of taxonomy fosters good UI snd therefore good UX. :)

Bill Edmonson

Thermal Creative is a website development company in Bozeman Montana that specializes in helping businesses enhance their website performance through beautiful data driven design, superlative programming, user friendly content management systems (CMS), website marketing consulting (SEO and SEM) and email marketing.