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SEO Without Usability -- An Exercise in Futility
by Scottie Claiborne ©Copyright 2004

Recently, I needed to purchase some specific promotional 
materials. No problem, I thought, I'll find a source online. 

The industry is fairly competitive and the sites that I found in 
the search engines had employed some aggressive SEO techniques 
to get to the first page of the results. 

The page titles had the exact keyword phrases I searched for, 
and the page copy repeated them many times. There were long 
links within the content that included the keywords as well. 
SEO had worked well for them -- here I was -- a qualified buyer 
with credit card in hand who had found their site through a 
search engine. 

And yet I abandoned that site (and the nine others like it) in 
disgust. In fact, I was so irritated that I actually turned my 
computer off and pulled out the Yellow Pages to find a local 
supplier. 

The sites were textbook-perfect examples of pure SEO. They 
weren't deceitful in any way, but they were designed completely 
for search engines, not for people. The goal was to reach the 
top of the search engine results pages (SERPs) and that goal 
was accomplished with flying colors. Unfortunately, the goal 
was wrong. The site should have been pursuing buyers first, and 
*then* traffic. 

SEO Without Usability

I was looking to place an order right away -- so what stopped 
me? Here are a few of the pitfalls I encountered: 

   No prices on the pages. I was supposed to call for pricing or 
   put something in my cart before the price was shown. 
 
   Incomplete or minimal descriptions. The name of the product 
   was repeated over and over again but things like sizes, 
   shipping weights, and available colors were not included.  

   No pictures or poor-quality pictures. 

   Inconsistent navigation. The one site I *almost* managed to 
   purchase from changed the text in their links from page to 
   page (targeting slightly different terms) and I got caught 
   in a circle, unable to find the checkout!  

   Unusable shopping carts or insecure order forms. 

   Poor organization of products. I was unable to find related 
   products or accessories. 

In other words, time and money was spent to "optimize" these 
sites in a way that brought them traffic, and then drove it 
away! 

Now those companies are most likely convinced that:

   1. The Internet is not a good market for their products 
      and/or 

   2. SEO is a waste of time and money.

After all, they get TONS of traffic and may even be paying for 
more bandwidth, but no one seems to buy anything. So once again 
SEO is given a bad reputation. 

Incorporating "the Big Picture"

Should every SEO learn usability? Not any more than they need to 
learn design skills or database programming; however, in the same 
way that the average SEO can spot design or technical issues and 
recommend or work with a specialist, they should also be able to 
spot major usability issues and recommend or work with a 
usability analyst. 

A usability analyst can walk through the site and spot obstacles 
that may prevent users from completing their goal. They typically 
address marketing, layout, technical, and design issues that can 
frustrate users or even drive them away. When site owners are 
presented with a usability study in addition to an SEO analysis, 
they have a better picture of overall "health" of the site and a 
blueprint for greater profitability, not just more traffic. 

Usability reports are a relatively inexpensive investment that 
return far more than their cost in increased sales, 
subscriptions, leads, etc. SEO and usability improvements 
implemented together can result in dramatic changes in traffic 
and conversions. 

Do-it-Yourself Usability 

Anyone who is looking to improve the usability of a site without 
investing in a professional report can easily find the current 
issues with a site by performing a quick-and-dirty usability 
study. 

Find 5-10 users who have never been to your site. These people 
should ideally be your target demographic: age, lifestyle, 
income, etc. Ask them to perform a set of tasks on the website, 
i.e., tasks that you'd expect your average visitor to accomplish. 
As you observe them carefully, ask them to talk out loud as they 
perform the tasks. Don't guide them or lead them in any way, and 
don't answer any of their questions. Make sure that you write 
down everything that you witness during this exercise. 

You'll be amazed at what you can learn. An official report or 
theoretical discussion pales in comparison to watching a user get 
frustrated and click away from a site. Usability analysts are 
skilled at interpreting the results of these studies, but anyone 
can find out what is wrong with a Website through this method. 

The Future of SEO and Usability

Search engine optimization is still in its infancy, and is a 
constantly changing discipline. As the search engines get better 
and better at rewarding the best/most complete sites, usability 
will become even more important. 

Many long-time SEOs are now looking at the big picture and 
working with usability analysts. This ensures that their sites 
are crawler- and user-friendly along with being ready for sales 
conversions. Sites that can be found and that are usable as well 
will also attract links. It just makes sense. The double impact 
of more traffic and higher conversions makes for happy clients 
and powerful testimonials, as well as satisfied searchers. 
 
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Scottie Claiborne is the owner of Right Click Web Services 
(http://www.rightclickwebs.com), a firm specializing in 
usability, search engine optimization, and internet marketing. 
She also runs the Successful Sites Newsletter
(http://www.successful-sites.com), a free newsletter with ideas 
for improving usability and marketing your online business. 

Copyright © 2003 by Right Click Web Services. All rights reserved 
under U.S. and international law.  
================================================================

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