A few days ago, I encountered a website that was an obvious holdover from the early ’90s. The content was useful, and the owners had somehow made their way up to Google’s number one spot, but the design and interface were just terrible. So, please, don’t forget the user.
Stoney deGeyter states, “SEO and SEM without good usability is like inviting people out to eat at a rat and roach infested restaurant. You may bring people in, but you won’t make them happy.” Not everyone will be prepared to stick around, either, regardless of the quality of your content, service, or product (deGeyter’s “meal”).
Good site design involves logical, clear, and entirely user-friendly options; style is a great afterthought, but all the cool stuff in the world won’t help if people don’t know where to click. Also, remember that folks like information, and not just large “Buy Here” buttons.
From colors to the sizes and styles of font, it’s possible to spend a lot of time (and money) on this sort of thing; I’m not suggesting that you bankrupt yourself doing so. But as deGeyter writes, having a better site should lead to more traffic and more conversions, even with a smaller advertising budget.
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January 25th, 2008 at 11:11 pm
[...] a slightly more serious note, the guy who calls himself King Nomar ponders the balance between search engine success and usability. As you all know, getting yourself ranked for critical keywords is one thing and making for an [...]
February 1st, 2008 at 8:53 am
Reading your post make me realized that both website content and search engine success are important. Previously, I prefer to the quality of the website rather than the keywords. Yes, you’re right…A well designed website is useless if no body does not know how to go there.