SEO - Should search engines matter in your campaign?
Posted by Andrew Faulkner on May 9th, 2007.
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Today, I had a small epiphany related to SEO/SEM/Internet Marketing. Whatever you call it (I’ll call it SEO from here-on in), I mean in terms of getting as high as possible in the SERPs. The theory is a little offbeat but please bear with me. I’m sure many SEO purists will flame this, but hey, it’s only a theory.
The Theory
OK, here goes. When going about your next SEO campaign do something radical. Imagine, if you will, that Search Engines don’t exist. Just think of your Users’ experiences. Bizarre and suicidal are words which may be in your mind at this moment. Take the following statements into account, though.
- The Search Engine’s primary function is to serve useful and relevant results to the user. The results that deliver satisfaction.
- The website in question has a similar primary function: To give the User the information they are seeking. To satisfy the user.
These two statements are very similar, showing that the Search Engine and the User have similar goals. In essence, the Search engine is trying to deliver usable websites to the User. Anything else is simply wasted space. So wouldn’t it be interesting if Search Engines jiggled their algorithm and highly weighted usability/satisfaction.
Doesn’t SEO Cloud This?
So, back to SEO. With a highly demanding SEO campaign it is very easy to slip into the mentality of tailoring the website for Search Engines. Biasing the website a lot towards Search Engines will essentially mean that you are driving a wedge between the two statements above. All the hard work you think you are doing could be putting a strain on the User’s satisfaction. A loss of site satisfaction and who knows, a loss in SERPs placements.
But Search Engines don’t really detect usability at the moment
OK, this is up for debate. But I believe that Search Engines place most of their efforts into ranking websites based upon statistics - essentially their algorithm. I cannot see a way (besides mass user testing and feedback - costly) that the Search Engine giants can measure Usability and Satisfaction at this time. (Any ideas on this are more than welcome.)
So you could say that at this time, the theory doesn’t lend any solutions to the SEO company.
So how could we use this theory today then?
Using similar principles to the above and a fresh mentality, one could use the following questions to improve SEO and usability at the same time.
- Is the new feature/code/idea beneficial for the user?
- Will it help my SEO campaign?
If the answer to (1) is No, then go onto something else. If it’s Yes for (1) and (2), get it going!
Think of the effects
OK, not all SEO companies think solely about a website in terms of SEO. It would be farcical to claim this. The good companies focus on SEO but take into account the fact that websites cannot be over-optimised and the experience cannot be made poorer to accommodate SEO.
But imagine if all websites were made using the theory of usable sites encourage SEO instead of Let’s SEO it with regards to nothing else. Websites, and the Internet as a whole, would fast become a more enjoyable, satisfying experience regardless of whether it helped in the SERPs. Only good can come out of it.
And over to you
I’d really love to hear your thoughts on the above. Do you agree with the ideas put forward? Is this merely a hypothetical world?
Make A Comment
( 37 so far )
37 Responses to SEO - Should search engines matter in your campaign?
Great article.
It’s not a purely hypothetical world, just a harder one to implement. The reason SEO compromises usability and best practice development is because you can still achieve quick SEO wins without having to improve the latter.
Plus, SEO is derived from a marketing background, not a design/development one. This means it can step on a lot of toes to get what it wants, and does often.
But, I do believe the days of tweaking just for Google will not last forever. Usability *is* also SEO, and this must be constantly pushed until people realise that we need to optimise for *many* traffic streams, so comprimising usability and best practice development is actually hurting your SEO campaign long term.
If a website is usable on all platforms, people like it, visit it, spread the word, the site gains popularity and a good reputation. The site can develop great SEO scores naturally.
Also, using semantic markup in sites creates better search results. Creating a site (without google analytics, etc.) that works, with good content, good content vs. code ratio, that scores with a lot of search engines.
But you hit the nail on the head: serve useful and relevant results that the user is looking for.
Great topic!
It comes down to one key word (sorry couldn’t refuse the pun!) - the keyword is “balance”. I feel both sides go hand in hand and both need to be considered. You may sway one way or the other due to the client or the clients audience…
I’ve seen so many websites that have been over SEO’d which means they are next to useless to the end user (or at the very least horrible to look at and navigate).
If I come across a site like that when searching, I will more often than not go back to the results and chose a lower result.
When developing sites, I concentrate on standards and usability, whilst keeping in mind SEO when writing copy and headings.
A well structured site with correct use of h1 tags etc should get good search engine results without too much trouble.
[…] » SEO - Should search engines matter in your campaign? » fadtastic - a mul…Why you should pursue usability before search engine optimization. I have to agree with what the author has to say here, I don’t think you build websites simply for search engines, you build them for end-users. So, only add SEOs if they either don’t affecseo webdesign usability […]
Thank you for describing how I work for my SEO clients! That’s exactly what white hat SEO is about.
On the other hand I have to disagree with you on one point: You or especially Google can already measure the usability and user satisfaction of a site. It’s simple, take a look in Google Analytics at the so called “bounce rate”. If your site is crap or only a blog saying “gosomewhere else for info, click the link” the bounce rate will be high. Also you can check how many page views have been counted per user. One page per user can either mean s/hesucceeded very quickly or did not find what s/he wants. There are also other statistic that indirectly can tell you if the site is usable or not. For instance if the time spend on a page is very short, it means the user does not read it for whatever reasons…
OK, I’m about as far removed from any SEO theory, attempts at tailoring a site to the requirements of search engines etc. as could possibly be. I’ve never, ever wasted a thought on search engine ranking.
The other day I inspected my Mint stats and by clicking on the referrers I found out that, from my point of view, I have quite a bunch of Google.com top positions for some pretty average search terms (try “LP storage”). I then proceeded to do a one-day snapshot, collecting screenshots of every top-5 position I have on Google.com.
Lots.
So, what I’m trying to say is simply this: Don’t try too hard. In my case, it just happened. I type away, people sometimes link to it or just read it and disappear into thin air and my Google SE rankings crawl up.
Accessibility sucks on my site, satisfaction might be a different matter.
Not that I care though.
Maybe that last statement is really what it boils down to.
Well Andrew, I can’t find tha article I read about that recently but it’s already patented:
http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=/netahtml/PTO/search-adv.html&r=1&p=1&f=G&l=50&d=PG01&S1=20070088693&OS=20070088693&RS=20070088693
Link found here:
http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic.php?t=74245
“Not that I care though.”
Why don’t you care?
Matt,
I’m an amateur who just keeps a website as a hobby. I have invested some time into trying to make it somewhat accessible by getting rid of my former bloated table layout and perhaps my next version will be better in that department, but I’m doing this for the fun of it and am not investing more time than necessary. Life is more important than trying to iron out the latest browser incompatibilities, getting top search engine positions or keeping up with the latest developments altogether. If you (are trying to) make money off your site though or are more serious about things than I am, by all means, one should get/do things right.
Andrew:
I get your point, however a site created with the user in mind, coupled with a solid link popularity, will do fine (in my experience) with Search Engine rankings. Over-SEO’d sites are simply not natural and therefore do not result in a user-friendly (usable) experience. So I do think that usability and SEO are not mutually exclusive.
As a matter of fact, I recall a Google Senior Engineering Manager (her name escapes me), at a Search Engines Strategies conference a couple of years ago, say that, for a given keyword, Google’s algorithm will rank higher sites designed with people in mind (meaning, sites that are text-rich, relevant to keyword being searched, with just about enough content -not too much, not too little-, etc.)
My two cents.
SEO should absolutely be included in EVERY Internet Marketing campains. Internet marketing without SEO is not marketing. I’m working with SEO/PPC every day and see this huge gains it makes to the website traffic.The Convertion rate is also higher than with many other Internet Marketing campaigns.
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I kind of agree with this theory. Search engine algoriths are getting smarter. There are no SEO tricks anymore. I’ve even heard search engines may penalise your for "over optimising" your site. Build your site for the user and the back links will grow. And your page rank will grow with it.
Супер! Все очень толково и грамотно, и в то же время без умствований и самолюбования, и на доступном языке. Редкий случай когда человек делится ценной и востребованной инфой. Спасибо автору!
Какие положительные результаты :)
А комментарии тут по-настоящему интересные. Буду следить за комментами и далее ;)
Да все ясно, Премного благодарен за пост.
Я подписался на RSS ленту, но сообщения почему-то в виде каких-то значков непонятных :( Как это исправить?
А вот интересно, сам автор читает комментарии. Или мы тут сами для себя пишем? :)
Привет мир, было таке мрачное настроение пока не наткнулся на пост, проглядел на одном дыхании. Тема супер.
Thanks for the article. The blog was very helpful.
Самогонный аппарат купить и автора напоить!
Хостинг дешево и сердито.
Нормально так, спасибо автору.
Дешевый и надежный хостинг сайтов с неограниченными возможностями поддержка (php, MySQL, Cron)
Accidentally came across your website. Great resources. Thanks.
Thanks for sharing.It’s helpful.
Great resources. Thanks.
Об документе, подписанном министром здравоохранения США, кой oсвoбoждaeт пpoизвoдитeлeй вакцин
Особые представители на главном шаге будут ориентированы в некоторое количество 10-ов банков, при этом в этом перечне наиболее столичных банков.
Текущая страница: новости франчайзинг магазинов обуви компания «эколас» предлагает открыть магазины обуви по франчайзинговой системе.
Интересно, что туроператоры, связанные партнерскими отношениями с попавшими под санкции перевозчиками, в целом не склонны поддаваться панике.
да всё так и есть
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