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What SEO/SEM Professionals Should Know About Website Usability

Posted By: DavidWallace 186 days ago
Topic Type: News Story (Jump to http://searchengineland.com)
Category: SEM Industry

Shari Thurow writes, "For the past two to three years, I have been watching SEO/SEM firms increasingly focus on the user, specifically offering website usability services. Although I laud the evolution of SEO/SEM firms to increasingly focus on the user, I admit that I find some of their conclusions and methodologies rather troubling."

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from TinPig 186 days ago #

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this is a well written and executed article. usability is a practice unto itself, requiring specific skill sets, and shouldn't be confused with SEO. usability addresses the human interaction with a web site while SEO addresses the search engine interaction with the web site. clearly the two intersect with on page text elements and basic navigation, but considerations will diverge when looking at strategies for both.

if i were hiring an SEO who also said she would do a usability study for me, i'd question how focused she could be on either.

from Jpajari 185 days ago #

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I whole-heartedly agree with the mind set that usability AND SEO need to complement each other. I feel fortunate that I spent the first part of my career on the on the web develolpment/content development side. I get usability and think about it as I'm optimizing pages. Thank you for saying out loud what I've been thinking.

from stoltzc 185 days ago #

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By coincidence, I wrote a post today about how SEO tactics can degrade user experience. It's from a journalist's point of view rather than a marketer's, so it would interesting to hear feedback from the SEO professional side.

I blog at Web 2.0h. . .really?, just named to Time's Top 25 blogs.

Craig Stoltz

from scottywott 184 days ago #

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David
I enjoyed Shari's article and agree. Website usability is a frequently-ignored quality attribute in the SEO process. I believe including usability evaluation/testing is indeed a unique selling proposition. Because we are usability consultants, we have offered search engine optimisation, social media marketing and usability testing as one "Internet marketing" package. The combination of the three seems powerful. A typical squeeze page, for example, has usability issues. I know a squeeze page exists for one reason, but how about measuring a usability-optimised squeeze page against one that is not? How would the conversions differ? Perhaps we could do that. Does someone have a page we could usability test? I am happy to do an evaluation for free, for the scientific value :)
Here are some web usability articles to add value to this thread: www.usable.co.nz/articles-about-usability.htm

from kevinheisler 184 days ago #

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@David ... someone should trademark the term "Search Usability" ;-)

from ShariThurow 184 days ago #

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Hi guys-

Thank you for your feedback. Part 2 is going to be interesting because one of my interviewees is Jakob Nielsen, and what he said is (as usual) brilliant.

Hmm, TinPig, I agree with you that a person who has both SEO and real usability talents is rare. And I am one of those rare ones. I am both a usability professional (I'm getting my doctorate degree in human/computer interfaces and have received training from some of the top Web site usability professionals) and an SEO professional. I have seen the SEO/usability connection for years and have implemented it in my web designs for years.

I already have the trademark for the term search usability. :-)

Hmm, maybe I do not quite agree with the statement that SEOs look at search engine interaction with sites and usability professionals look at user interaction with sites. There are a few rare ones who look at how users interact with search interfaces, including the commercial Web search engines. Maybe because I am one of the rare ones, my judgment is clouded because I live and breathe this stuff. I enjoy usability testing. I always learn something new, and search behaviors are a part of my personas/profiles.

from bwelford 183 days ago #

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Clearly you must have both and need the skilled human resources to ensure you can handle any conflicts that may exist between the two. Whether that takes two people or one, you should be aware of the need for both.

I think it's less of a challenge to find someone who can handle both SEO and usability than it is to find a web designer who is on top of creating satisfactory user experience on all browsers and who can do SEO.