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Aarron Walter

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See me speak at An Even Apart Seattle
See me speak at An Even Apart Boston

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My Book: Building Findable Websites

Building Findable Websites: Web Standards, SEO, and Beyond
Building Findable Websites: Web Standards, SEO, and Beyond
Aarron Walter
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Book's Companion Website
Companies waste fortunes seeking a magic bullet for Search Engine Optimization. But the keys to honest, effective web findability are appropriate writing and semantic markup. Aarron Walter’s wonderfully lucid and informative book tells everything you need to know to get your web content (or your client’s) in front of as many appreciative readers as possible.

- Jeffrey Zeldman, founder, Happy Cog Studios author, Designing With Web Standards, 2nd Edition

Now playing on my computer

The Beatles – She Came in Through the Bathroom Wind... Track | Artist
Jason D. O'Grady – PowerPage Podcast Episode 113 - ... Track | Artist
CBS Radio News – Supermax Prison; Drug-cartel Viole... Track | Artist
CBS Radio News – Online Poker; Mind Reading; Africa Track | Artist
cnet.com – Loaded: Tweetmark Track | Artist
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Recent Photos From Flickr

WaSP annual meeting at SxSW, Fri, 20 Mar 2009 15:42:06 -0700 Ninja sticker, Fri, 20 Mar 2009 15:40:05 -0700
Hakon Lie, Fri, 20 Mar 2009 15:38:52 -0700 Our snowy house, Fri, 20 Mar 2009 15:36:58 -0700
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See Me Speak in 2009

19 Jan . 2009

2009 is shaping up to be a busy year for me. I’m going to be speaking at a number of conferences around the United States, and I hope to meet you at one of them to share a beer and conversation about our craft. 

Here’s where I’ll be speaking:

February 3, 2009: Web Directions North at Denver, CO 

Ed Directions, a highly focused, in depth whole day symposium aims to address the challenges of educating web professionals, by helping teachers, trainers, course and curriculum developers, and others in the education field keep abreast with the latest developments in standards and best practice, and to develop and deliver the best possible curricula and courses.

 

March 16th, 2009: No Web Professional Left Behind at SxSW Interactive

Far too often, students aspiring to be web professionals leave school with a degree yet without adequate training to prepare them for the real world. The Web Standards Project (WaSP) announces a living curriculum to help schools, colleges and universities bridge the gap between educators and industry best practices.

 

April 28th, 2009: Social CMS at Voices That Matter: Web Design

Rather than locking down your content by publishing in one place, learn to use the power of social networking tools to broadcast your content widely and improve findability.

 

May 5th, 2009: Findability Bliss Through Web Standards at An Event Apart Seattle

Connecting with your audience is objective number one for any website. Findability—the discipline of helping users discover the content they seek—not only helps businesses get their message out, but it improves the user experience, too. The secret to attaining findability bliss, both with search engines and beyond, lies in the wisdom of web standards.

 

June 23th, 2009: Findability Bliss Through Web Standards at An Event Apart Boston

Connecting with your audience is objective number one for any website. Findability—the discipline of helping users discover the content they seek—not only helps businesses get their message out, but it improves the user experience, too. The secret to attaining findability bliss, both with search engines and beyond, lies in the wisdom of web standards.

Findability/SEO Cheat Sheet: Quick Guide to Web Standards SEO

28 Jul . 2008

When I was researching my book, I asked a group of my students at The Art Institute of Atlanta what sorts of content they’d hope to find in a book exploring findability and SEO through web standards. Thinking like students with limited time to work on their projects, they all agreed that “the book should include coverage of what needs to be prioritized, and what can be done later if you run out of time”. Brilliant idea! I never would have thought of that. Well it’s covered in chapter 9 thanks to them.

As I was running through my table of contents with them, they pointed out that it’s all useful info, but it would be nice if there were a quick reference that you could just print out and keep nearby as you start new projects. That way you don’t miss any of the important stuff you should be doing to make your site findable.

I’ve created what I think is a pretty comprehensive findability strategy cheat sheet that will guide you through all of the stuff you should be doing when creating new websites or even redesign existing ones. All of the advice follows industry best practices and web standards, and have references to the places in my book or in the 5 free online chapters where you’ll find detailed explanation and examples of how to do this stuff.

I hope you find it useful!

download free findability strategy cheatsheet [PDF 200k]

Book Review: Designing the Obvious, Designing the Moment

13 Jul . 2008

User Experience Designer Robert Hoekman Jr has written a pair of wonderfully lucid books that examine best practices in interaction design. In Designing the Obvious, and Designing the Moment, Hoekman extolls the virtues of understanding specific user tasks rather than generalized user personas. It’s easiest to design usable interfaces when the activity it serves is clearly understood.
Read on »

Findability in A List Apart Issue 255

27 Mar . 2008

A List Apart recently published an article I wrote entitled Findability, the Orphan of the Web Design Industry. It’s a story of a sadly neglected little boy named Findability whose siblings―Information Architecture, Usability, Project Management, Design, and Development― all garner ample attention from folks in a web design agency while he remains unnoticed despite his essential role to the success of all projects.

Read on »

Tim Berners-Lee Video: The Semantic Web

20 Mar . 2008

Tim Berners-LeeI recently ran across a wonderful video on YouTube in which Tim Berners-Lee, the father of the Wold Wide Web,speaks about the idea of the Semantic Web. It’s a simple, yet elegant concept that has yet to come to fruition asBerners-Lee had originally dreamed.

Read on »