When SEO Alone is Not Enough

What other methods are required in combination with SEO for optimal results? USABILITY. SEO alone is not enough – we have seen SEOd sites spring up all over the web, and many of these are useless with no value to the consumer.

Search Engines are in the business of delivering the most relevant results that answer the user’s question quickly. This means that usability matters to them.

Search engines collect basic usability data in different ways. They look to see if users bookmark your site at major sites, if you have a high bounce rate (people who view only one page, or soon leave the site, and various other factors.

Usability is also a factor in the acquisition of good, high PR links. If you are targeting .edu links by trying to get a major university or a government site to link to yours, you want them to see value when they look at the page you are trying to get them to link to. It should be clear so they understand it right away; not full of gobbledygook that will only confuse them.

You should always strive for a clean site hierarchy and an easily followed navigation structure. Plan ahead and design a logically thought through hierarchy that lays out the content you are providing in an easy to understand way. Visitors should be led by the hand to get where they need to go, and backtracking should be easy.

Your site should answer these questions right off the bat:

1. What is the site’s purpose? Understanding the answer to this question is where you hook your customer, and meeting their needs is what leads to conversions.

2. What types of visitors do you want? You want to target people you can bring to your site and convert, and there can be many distinct groups of visitors. Repeat visitors, first time visitors, visitors from different locations, shoppers, researchers, etc.

3. What types of information and products and services do each of these groups need to see on your site? What are their goals? Can you help them meet them?

These are the questions you need to answer, and what makes your site not just findable, but usable.