The close interlinking of usability and SEO
Danny Sullivan (a notable search engine strategist, specialist etc or simply put it as a known SEO guy), once told that usability, with all its goodness as a ‘topic of discussion’, hasn’t got much to do with SEO! Wait, before you come to a conclusion on the interlinking between usability and SEO (just because some person told something about it); let yourself know that the same person i.e. Danny Sullivan tergiversated with time and now includes usability in his discussions of SEO!! Today, many of the SEO specialists recommend and propagate the importance of usability, especially in concern with SEO.
What is the aim of a search engine? (Other than making bucks for themselves)Well, it is to provide the searchers (read users) with the best pages that would help them. Now, any kid on the street too can tell you that there is a quite direct connection between usability of a website and SEO. If a website is found to be better for the users it should indeed be established as better for the search engine (remember the aim of the website is to provide the best of the web to the users). Yes, a lot of manipulation can be done to con the mechanical algorithms of page ranks and keyword based search mechanism, but that doesn’t deter the fact that search engines have designed these methodologies to actually access and meet the user’s demands of useful, relevant and informative websites.
For those of you, who need documented information on usability; please do land up on usability.gov. The government of U.S has facilitated users with a step to step usability guide to design (or redesign) their website. Valuable SEO advice to build up on the usability factor of your website too can be found on this website.
The website usability.gov kicks off with five main divisions or rather plan of action.
- Plan
- Analyze
- Design
- Test
- Refine
Organization is the key here. Organized websites are always a treat to use and since users love it, search engines too do the same! Check out the sub-section in the website with a heading ‘defining the site architecture’ for more information (actually a great value of resource) on organizing a website.
Finally it all comes to enticing the target audience. You need to understand the impulse of the audience and understand what they need the most? What will they like? Etc. Further, you need to develop content based on the answers to these questions. More information on this topic can be found on the ‘learning about your users’ section of the website usability.gov.
Another must visit page should be the writing for the web page. You may be good at writing, but the web needs no Shakespeare! Writing for the web is an art (I would call it a ‘manipulative art’) in itself. Attractive headings, excellent vocabulary perceivable to the average user (mind you he/she isn’t a literary freak), right balance between keywords and high quality content, spruced up summary with bullet points, presentation techniques etc add on a lot to the writing of a website.
