3 Facts of Life in Website Usability and What They Mean for SEO

SEO is often talked about as the be-all and end-all of website success. While it is a huge and important part of the equation in determining which sites ‘make it’ in the long term, a number one Google ranking certainly isn’t a ticket to paradise! A common scenario is that a company invests all of their cash in getting to the top of Google, and ignores the quality of their website in the process. So when people click through to the site, they find something that looks pretty shonky, not like what they were expecting, or looks difficult to use … and they leave! Assuming you have a good website designer, one of the more common areas that sites fall down is in the usability. Today we are looking at 3 ultimate truths in the context of website usability, and what each of them means to your SEO efforts.

Truth #1: People scan, they don’t read

Unfortunately, most visitors to your site will read about 10% of the copy that is displayed to them carefully. They know that not everything will be important to them, so they don’t bother. Therefore, make it easy to scan for, and find, the same phrases on the page that people likely searched for to get to your site. Make your keywords prominent, in other words.

Truth #2: People don’t check all the options, they take the first good one

All this means is that if you have one important action that you want people to take on a page (‘Submit’, ‘Buy’, etc), make it the most obvious! Make anything that might help them achieve YOUR website goal in another way obvious also … things like navigation, related products, etc. This way your website can start paying you back, and investing in future internet marketing activities.

Truth #3: We LOVE trial and error

People never figure things out, and they rarely consult the help manual. They most often simply try things until something works. In order to ensure they can do what you want them to with a minimum of errors, get some expert help with website design and usability. And then forge ahead with your SEO campaigns with confidence that your visitors will be worthwhile!