- How Alphabetical Indexes Work
- Getting the Right Person for the Job
- Index Maintenance
- Conclusions
- References
Like this article? We recommend
Like this article? We recommend
Like this article? We recommend
Getting the Right Person for the Job
It's very important that an A–Z index be done well. Although any alphabetical list might look good at first, if users cannot quickly find what they're seeking, they'll become frustrated with the index and the site itself. It would probably be better to have no index at all rather than a poorly created one.
Should you create the index yourself? Creating an index is more complicated than creating a hierarchy of categories or a taxonomy. To become competent at indexing really requires appropriate education. An information architect with a background in library science and a good sense of labeling could probably pick up indexing skills from reading a good book on the subject. In addition, a tool for automatically embedding the index URLs is recommended. (My preferred tool is HTML Indexer.)
Where do you find a web site indexer? If you don't want to invest the time and energy in learning indexing yourself, it's probably best to contract a freelance indexer. Most professional associations of indexers maintain searchable databases of freelance indexers. (See the References section of this article for links.) Limit your search to HTML or web indexers. The nice thing about web site indexes is that samples of an indexer's work are usually accessible online, so you can easily evaluate a potential indexer's work.