The secret to SEO: It’s about users
I’ve just returned from speaking at Search Engine Strategies conference where I was speaking on Designing for SEO as part of a panel session including US Search Engine Optimisation specialists and Google.
One point we all agreed on – if you want to get high rankings on search engines like Google you must begin by designing for your users.
It’s about great content
I’ll go further. You can have the best, cleanest HTML, with perfect semantic markup and clever meta tagging.
But if your content sucks, your search engine traffic rank will drop through the floor.
On the other hand, if you have dreadful code but outstanding content, you’ll rise up the rankings.
This is because search engines know that the web is a social medium. They care what other people think of your site. And if other people are talking about your content and linking to your content then they will rank your content.
In effect, search results are a social medium.
Design for people, build for spiders
So if you want to boost your natural search traffic, begin by creating compelling content that people want.
Compelling content doesn’t mean huge chunks of text packed with keywords. Instead, return to the basics of communication: simple, surprising, concrete stories.
Then make sure its easy to share (a good way to start would be by using short, static, readable URLs) and go out and promote it to friendly and relevant web sites.
And finally, wrap it in clean code that’s easy for search engines to read.
But above all: put your users first, and the search engines will follow.
About the author
Giles has been making products more usable for over fifteen years. He was President of the UK Usability Professionals’ Association from 2003-2007 and speaks frequently on usability in the UK and overseas. He writes on usability for Revolution magazine and was one of the editors of the PAS 78 accessibility guide from the British Standards Institute. Email Giles, or call +44 (0)117 946 3930
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