Aligning SEO and User Experience

The Alignment of SEO and Usability

Thanh NguyenDirector, User Experience, BusinessOnline@bolteamu

2/8/2010

Ray ComstockDirector, SEO, BusinessOnline@seocatfish

Agenda

• Current state of SEO and Usability

• Top Usability + SEO Alignments

• Q & A

Thanh Nguyen

Education• Degree in Cognitive Science Specializing in

Human Computer Interaction

• Computer Science Degree

• HFI Certified – Featured C.U.A of the Month for April

Clients• Watkins, Zodiac, RailEurope, American Red

Cross, Sybase, Workday, PlayStation, ISBN, American Council on Exercise, Masco

Director, User

Experience

Ray Comstock

Experience• 13 Years of SEO Experience

• Blog Syndicated by WebProNews.com

• Writer for SearchEngineWatch.com

• Speaker at OMS, SES, Pubcon

Clients• Cisco, Sybase, Workday, Watkins,

Emerson, Masco, Lithium

Director, SEO

Current State of SEO and Usability

Mr. Client

“You say we need less text on the homepage and to use bullets.

Our SEO firm says we need more text on the homepage.

Who do we believe? How do we find the compromise between the two?”

Our Answer:

“If your SEO team is telling you to compromise Usability for the Search Engines…

your SEO team needs to be replaced.”

just kidding

sorta…

Real Answer

• Off page factors are becoming more crucial

– Social media

– Web 2.0

• Spiders follow user behaviors

– Semantic latent indexing

• Good SEO seldom compromises usability

Discovery

Keyword Research

User(screaming in horror at the

usability on your website)

Spider

(pretend it’s a search

engine)

SEO – Focusing on the

most important

keywords from a user

perspective drives the

most revenue from

search rankings

UX – Using keywordsthat resonate with your audience improves conversion, comprehension and is more likely to resonate with those users who are scanning copy

On-page

Page Titles



Spider


engine)

SEO

– Single most important on-page element because keywords that appear in these fields are thought to be good indicators of overall content relevance

UX

– When users have

windows open, need to

know which is which

– Especially important for

accessibility

Headings (H1, H2, etc.)



Spider


engine)

SEO

– Second most important

on-page criteria

– More weight

– Used to summarize

blocks of content

UX– Break up information into

meaningful chunks of information

– Speed scanning

– Searching and scanning behavior is exponential, not linear

Put Most Important Content

Above The Fold



Spider


engine)

SEO

– Some spiders have an

indexing limitation

– Text at top of page

given more weight

UX– Inverted pyramid writing style

– Conclusion first, then 1st supporting topic, 2nd supporting topic

– Users scan from top to bottom

– Increase chances of being scanned by user

Images Have Keyword Focused,

Descriptive Alt Tags



Spider


engine)

SEO

– Allows the search

engine to understand

what keyword phrases

the link is relevant for

UX– Allows users without

image viewing capability to understand what content the link points to

Provide Updated / New Content



Spider


engine)

SEO

– Provides new opportunities to target new keywords

– Extra page of internal links to boost internal link popularity

– Crawlers come back more often

UX

– Users have a reason to

come back to website

– Open up more

communication

channels with users

Sitewide

Make All PDF’s Available in

HTML Format



Spider


engine)

SEO

– More pages on your website

– Spiders currently cannot parse all content within PDF’s

– Losing link popularity

UX

– Users have a reason to

come back to website

– Open up more

communication

channels with users

Site Navigation Not Built With

Java Script or Flash



Spider


engine)

SEO

– Ensures that link metrics can be assigned correctly to each page of the Web site and that all pages on the Web site will be indexed

UX

– Ensures that people who do not have these technologies enabled in their browser will still be able to navigate the site and understand what the navigation is communicating

Off-page

Embed Keywords Into Links



Spider


engine)

SEO

– Increases internal link

relevancy

UX

– No need to read contextual information above or below link to obtain meaning

– Good for accessibility

Keyword Focused Breadcrumb

Navigation



Spider


engine)

SEO

– Automatically creates

keyword focused

internal link to each

page on Web site

UX

– Users see hierarchy

of information

– Serves as orienting

tool

HTML Sitemap



Spider


engine)

SEO

– HTML Sitemaps

normalize the flow of

Page Rank through the

site and establish

additional link relevance

UX

– HTML Sitemaps allow

users an additional

navigation system which

some users prefer

Related Products Links



Spider


engine)

SEO

– Establishing additional

cross links at the

product level augments

SEO performance for

those pages

UX

– Improves conversion rates and up-sell potential by helping customers understand purchasing options

Social Media

Link to Social Media Profiles on

All Pages



Spider


engine)

SEO

- Increases the likelihood

that these sites will rank

for brand related terms

(reputation

management)

UX

- Allows users to find

social media profiles

easily regardless of

first entry page

Keyword Focused Tag

Navigation



Spider


engine)

SEO

- Keyword focused

navigation tags

establish additional

keyword focused

internal linking

UX

- Keyword focused tags provide additional navigation that is centered around the words that are most likely to resonate with users

Questions?

Thank You

Thanh NguyenDirector, User Experience, [email protected]@bolteamuhttp://www.linkedin.com/pub/thanh-nguyen/3/bab/443

Ray ComstockDirector, SEO, [email protected]@seocatfishwww.linkedin.com/in/profile

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