Don’t let SEO and UX take precedence over a common sense approach
Posted on | July 21, 2010 | 3 Comments
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and User Experience (UX) are two things I know some stuff about. I don’t claim to be an expert on either, so I’m not going to set up a blog on them.
Well, maybe user experience.
And if I’m being honest, a UX blog from me would probably end up being called 101 ways to screw up user experience…
Anyway.
How to prioritise SEO and UX
SEO and UX are definitely important. But they shouldn’t take precedence over a common sense approach.
User Experience should not be used as an excuse to “pretty up” a site with custom functionality that might make more sense as conventional controls. Similarly, Search Engine Optimisation should not deteriorate into the thing you spend the most time on, chasing an endless stream of semi-related arbitrary keywords, or saying that keyword stuffing is actually an “optimisation technique”. Bollocks. It’s just spammy.
And before you harp on about a magical “user journey”, better make sure you actually talked to some real world users first. We may be the experts, but a “new and improved” process doesn’t mean it’ll be better for the end users. How do you know? Did you ask them?
Heads out of the clouds please. Less flashy stuff thanks. Coherent, logical navigation in a well-thought out structure rules all.
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The cynical views of a Brit who's flexing his writing muscles and probably getting a hernia somewhere down the line.
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July 23rd, 2010 @ 12:02 pm
Hi Ben, really appreciate the support and comment on my blog. Not sure if getting the demo in the magazine will get me anywhere, but the plays on my soundcloud page have gone up since the mag came out, so at least it’s a bit more exposure! I really need to re-read all your stuff about websites and user experience and get some tips for my blog and website. Although I can “do” websites, I’m still relying on WP themes and addons too much and not thinking about what actually works. My hosting stats show I’m getting lots of traffic on the site but according to analytics and blog stats, people aren’t even clicking the “enter” link…
July 24th, 2010 @ 9:45 pm
Yeah, one of the easiest way to ruin “user experience” is to make some flashy something that not all users can use (say, if they have an older computer or run linux or have a mac and not a pc or a pc and not a mac) and make it the gateway to the rest of your site.
Oh, here’s another way to ruin user experience…put a right click blocker on your site so people can’t open up links in new tabs, grab your e-mail using right click, etc. Then have something insulting like “stop trying to steal my stuff” pop up when all they were doing was right clicking to bookmark your page.
July 24th, 2010 @ 9:51 pm
Hey Tim – no worries. My first tip for you would be to lose the splash page, why not put your blog there instead? Or just set up a redirect straight to your blog. You could always set up a landing page as part of your blog, but I would strongly suggest adding quite a more info than your splash page does now. It isn’t massively compelling – it’s like having to sign in to view a post – many people won’t bother to click through.
Hi Gale – thanks for stopping by. I agree completely – building a site that’s easy to browse and that doesn’t block you from doing standard things means you won’t confuse and annoy your visitors. “No right click” is something I rarely see these days, but I remember it well from the late 90s.