[IxDA Discuss] SEO and Usability

[Bryan Minihan]

I mentioned one SEO technique as a usability problem a few weeks back
(building "filler" content pages for the sole purpose of driving traffic to
a web site, regardless of the value of the content itself), and recently
raised another issue from our SEO:  tweaking the page title to elicit more
keyword matches.  Essentially, the advice goes that you add your tagline to
your page title, on the premise that search engines are more likely to
consider that part of your page body (it's a variance of the "pad your
keyword metadata tag principle" that no longer works).  The problem arises
when your tagline, placed at the front of the title, prevents anyone from
determining what page they're on, either in Favorites or their Windows
toolbar.  I raised the issue as a usability concern, but we're rebuilding
our site, so I plan to correct the "bug" in the new release coming soon.

So yes, I agree that SEO strategies, followed blindly, can work at
cross-purposes with usability.  Careful consideration and integration of
both should work out well, though, as long as everyone is willing to listen
to each other (heaven forbid =]). 

Bryan
http://www.bryanminihan.com

-----Original Message-----
From: discuss-bounces at lists.interactiondesigners.com
[mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.interactiondesigners.com] On Behalf Of Mark
Schraad
Sent: Thursday, January 03, 2008 3:25 PM
To: ixda Discuss
Subject: [IxDA Discuss] SEO and Usability

I'm running into an interesting conversation with more regularity  
every week. That conversation surrounds the usability compromise that  
sometimes occurs when optimizing pages, functionality, content  
organization and linking strategies for search engines. There is  
theory being preached within my company that if you optimize for  
search engines, then you are optimizing for the user as well. I  
disagree. I think they are two separate sets of logic, that may in  
fact overlap, but are absolutely not in harmony. Until search engines  
accurately emulate human thought (I have my doubts this will happen  
very soon) then there will be compromises to the user while  
optimizing for search. Any thoughts?

Mark
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