In his excellent article Without Usability, You’re Not Doing Advanced SEO, Chris Silver Smith suggests that usability will replace advanced Search Engine Optimisation.  I agree in some respects.

My background is in SEO, but I am increasingly involved in site usability, and think that it is extremely important.

In order for a site to be ranked well by the  search engines, it needs plenty of relevant content, as well as links.  The content can include maps, and images, and by making the site easy to navigate for humans, they are more likely to delve deeper into to the site,  and the search engine spiders  will be able to visit more pages, and index more content.

Usability is the whole gamut of design, development, SEO and common sense.  It should be easy for visitors to find what they are looking for, especially if they have found your website via entering keywords in a search engine.  The content should be relevant and, depending on the sort of site, should have the right sort of tone and calls to action, in order for visitors to do what you want them to do.

Onsite SEO, usually involves ensuring that the H1-6 tags are used well, that there is plenty of content, that the page title is unique and includes keywords, and the meta description has a call to action in it.  As well as being useful for the search engines, they are also useful for visitors too.

How can you use SEO in your usability, and use usability in your SEO?  Whatever you manage to improve, it will make your website easier to use, and so will encourage your visitors to stay longer, and come back again.

Why not see what difference it makes to your website, trafficand conversions?

When you’ve designed your website, and everything looks great, and works asa it should, you might be tempted to put it live, sit back, and watch visitors flock to your site, and become customers.

In reality, this won’t happen unless you use calls to action in order to persuade your visitors to buy from you.As well as Search Engine Optimisation and Usability, you need to think about tempting your visitors.

In your Meta Description tags, don’t for get to use persuasive text so that searchers become visitors. Give reasons for people to click on your link.

Here are some examples

• Contact Us To Find Out More
• Call Us Now
• Subscribe Today
• See How We Can Help You
• Download A Brochure Today
• Add To Basket
• Buy Now
• Join Online
• See Our Complete Range
• Click Here
• Send To A Friend
• Buy Now While Stocks Last
• Only 5 Left
• Offer Ends Iin 4 Days
• For Less Than The Price Of A Coffee A Day, You Can …
• Must End On Monday

These are all examples of calls to action that can be used in your Meta descriptions, as well as in your content.

Remember that you will need to tell your visitors what you want them to do next. Don’t assume that they will know what to do.

Once visitors have heeded your call to action, you need to ensure that the process of signing up to your newsletter, or buying from you is quick and easy, so that they are not tempted to abandon part way through.

What Calls To Action can you think of that will encourage visitors to become customers? What ways can you find of making your product descriptions more tempting? What effects will time limiting your special offers, or saying how much stock you have left have on your sales?

It’s important that you remember your target audience when thinking about the design, features and content of your website.  What a social networking site for teenagers would want is vastly difference from a pensions advice site, or a gardening site.

By thinking like your target audience, and seeing the site as they would, you can ensure that your design, functionality and content will appeal to them.

You wouldn’t use slang in content relating to choosing a mortgage, whilst you wouldn’t want to take a formal tone on a ring tone site.

As well as the content, you need to remember that the layout, colours and typeface are important too.

You’ll also want to ensure that your calls to action are appropriate and prominent, so that visitors know what to do next.

Why not see what else can help your site appeal to your target audience:

• Logoand images, and videos
• Features – will your visitors expect to be able to rate your products, share your videos, or add their own content?
• Will having a forum, or chat facility mean that your visitors are likely to spend more time on your website?
• Will your visitors want to be able to easily download your brochure, forms or reports
• If your website is aimed at pre-school children, then having a text-rich site will be pointless, as they can’t read.
• Is your website as simple to use as it could be? if it’s hard to use then it might be off putting to those with little internet experience
• Is your information easy to find
• Are you using the same terms and expressions as your intended visitors?

By ensuring that you are on the same wavelength as your audience, and by thinking about which other sites they are likely to be using, your website is much more likely to be successful.

The style of your website is very important and should be given plenty of consideration.  Again, like colours, your website needs to appeal to your target audience, and so the style and navigation, as well as content is fundamental.

What impression does the style of your website give? Is it welcoming? Formal? Full of slang? Appropriate for your visitors and target audience? Is it similar to your competitors and right for your industry?

Whilst I’m not a designer, or a style guru of any sort, I understand the importantance of using the right sort of colours on websites.

• Depending on the type of website, who it’s aimed at, and what it’s promoting, the colours will need to be different.
• A social networking site for teenagers will need to use different colours than an ecommerce site with a target audience aimed at the over 60s.
• Some colours are calming, whilst some encourage anger, some colours are cold and others are warming.

What do the colours on your website say about your company, your products, or your target audience?

How can you use different colours, or different shades of colours to help your visitors navigate your site and find what they are looking for?

What other usability benefits can using the right colours have on your traffic or conversion rate?

It’s important that your website remains consistent in terms of navigation, style, tone and layout.

By making sure that visitors know how to find what they are looking for, and to see where they have been, and keeping page features in the same place on each page, you can reassure visitors, and encourage them to explore your site more, and find the content they are looking for.

You might have to have a particular corporate style for your website, or your company colours or logo, and your visitors will have certain expectations from your brand even before they land on your website.

If you change the navigation around, or add unexpected features, change the tone or layout of your website, you’ll confuse visitors, and they’ll leave in order to find a website that’s easier to use, and easier on the eye too.

What can you do to improve the consistency of your website? What do other people think about the tone and layout? What does it tell your target audience about your website?

Image: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Websites are becoming increasingly more important, and whether you’re an individual posting family pictures on your blog, or a company selling your products online, you’ll want to make sure that your website is easy to use by your target audience.

Because technology and design are making websites potentially even more complex to navigate and use, it’s essential that the basics are not forgotten. You need your website to be easy to use, no matter how complicated and technical it is in the background.

• As a huge ecommerce site then you’ll need your search facility to work well, so that visitors can find what they are looking for.




• Your content needs to accurate, and compelling, and explain the features and benefits of your products




• You might want to have additional helps, such as buyers guides, or additional used for our products.




• Your visitors might benefit from an FAQ page so that they can buy from you with confidence, and that you can eliminate a lot of support calls and emails.




• A glossary can help your visitors understand the terminology used on your website. This is essential on websites where visitors might not know much about what they are buying




• Your calls to action need to be strong, so that your visitors know what to do next




• Your delivery details and costs need to beasy to find, so that customers know when to expect their purchases.




• Your checkout and payment procedure needs to be as simple as possible so that people actually make their purchases

These are just some of the factors that can help make a successful ecommerce site, but are not always apparent on many websites.

Image: Francesco Marino / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

It’s also important to design, develop and market your website for the right intended audience. There’s no point in making a social networking site aimed at teenagers look like a corporate website. A company website designed using primary colours and cartoons won’t look professional. A site aimed at the over 50s might need to take into account additional usability and disability requirements, such as text size and bigger buttons.

Perhaps now is the time for you to think more about some of the issues that your target audience and visitors might face when visiting your website.