Usability & Website Positioning
Usability and positioning are not only areas that can ‘affect’ website conversion, but can also have a great ‘effect’ on your SEO.
Navigation - usability and positioning:
Giving users a clear, concise form of navigation is not only a good website conversion tactic, but when done with SEO in mind, can achieve greater results.
For instance:
1. Left navigation generally converts better, but if you use keyword rich anchor text in your navigation links, you are helping your on-page optimization.
2. Using real text navigation links instead of graphics, mouseovers or JavaScript is going to aid your SEO on-page optimization.
3. Using keyword rich anchor text links within your page content is not only good for users to find what they are looking for, but again, is excellent for your on-page optimization and internal linking structure.
Content - usability and positioning:
Always creating website content with your user in mind - that is informative and useful - not only helps with credibility and trust, but when optimized and positioned correctly, can attain the search engine results you want as well.
Examples:
1. Conduct the keyword research necessary to determine what words/phrases users are actually using to find the niche your website page is offering. Each website page can be page specific for your keyword research.
2. After doing your keyword research for the website page you are creating content for, write those keywords and keyword phrases into the page content so they appear and flow naturally. Do not overdo or keyword stuff.
3. Users tend to scan content, so using Headlines and Headers that are bold and easy to scan quickly help users find what they are looking for quicker. Placing your keywords into the Headers and Headlines is another best practice SEO tactic.
4. Position the keywords and/or keyword phrases early in your content and although keyword “density” is passe, it’s still a good idea to use the keywords often - sprinkled within the content - but only as appears and flows naturally.
5. While writing website page content, use keyword rich anchor text links within your content to not only give users another form of navigation, but again, as an excellent implementation of on-page optimization and internal linking structure.
Flash - usability and positioning:
Building a site with user behavior in mind is crucial for conversion. In general, most users do NOT like flash - especially long (or even short) loading pages. And unless you’ve been living in a cave, we all know that flash is NOT search engine friendly. However, when used correctly, flash can bring the “spice” to a site that can be attractive to users - while not hindering your SEO or usability.
For instance:
1. Create basic static html web pages and limit the flash areas to small areas (w/short “runs”). Avoid streaming flash on web site pages and position the flash to not interfere with web page content.
2. Avoid using written content within flash - it’s not only difficult to time how quickly a user will be able to read the content within a “flash run”, but content copy is not seen by the search engines when used in flash. Using real text content on the web page outside of the flash will enable the search engines to see your page content.
Graphics - usability and positioning:
Graphics on websites are a great way to show your niche to your users without them having to read a lot of written content. So using graphics is highly recommended for usability and website conversion. At the same time, however, keep in mind that like flash, the search engines do not see graphics so using best practice on-page SEO is essential.
Examples:
1. Utilize optimized alt tags for all your graphics.
2. Avoid placing content within a graphic - and wherever possible use keyword rich “real text” content on the website page outside the graphic.
3. Placing a clickable text link under the image - especially on e-commerce product images - is a best practice conversion and usability tactic. And for best practice SEO, use keyword rich anchor text in that clickable link!
4. Position graphics for usability using A-B testing to see what placements convert best.
In conclusion, usability, website positioning and SEO are areas that require thought, study, planning, testing and expertise.
Building a website for your business can be a tool in taking your business to the next level in revenue and growth. It’s ideal to implement usability, website positioning and SEO as soon as possible in the building stages.
For businesses with existing websites, it is to your best advantage to re-think your usability, web site positioning and SEO with careful study of user behavior on your site. You have the advantage of history and web analytics to gather information, study and test different scenarios - and after testing - implementing the best practice tactics you’ve determined for your business’ greatest return on investment.
