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 we 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 we abandoned that site (and the nine others like it)
in disgust. In fact, we were so irritated that we 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 colours. Unfortunately,
the goal was wrong. The site should have been pursuing buyers first, and
then traffic.
SEO without
usability
we were looking to place an order right away - so what stopped us? Here are a few of the pitfalls
we encountered:
-
No prices on the pages. we 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 we almost managed to
purchase from changed the text in their links from page to page (targeting
slightly different terms) and we got caught in a circle, unable to find the
checkout!
-
Unusable shopping carts or insecure order forms.
-
Poor organization of products. We were 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:
-
The Internet is not a good market for their products and/or
-
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 five to ten 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 - 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 optimisation 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 SEO 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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