| Measuring
Importance – Usability Strategy Ranks High With Search Engines By Jim Hedger, StepForth News Editor, StepForth Placement Inc. November
25 2005
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Usability is already a critical component of successful online ventures
but with the advent of Google Analytics and the implementation of the
Jagger algo update, user-activities and behaviours are going to play
an influencing role in search engine rankings. How people act when they
visit
a website or document is being measured and accounted for, even for
sites without Google Analytics tracking codes in the <head> section
of the document source-code.
Google is concerned with how people find information and what they do when
they access a document found in the Google index. Which document in a site
they tend to land on, how long users spend on that document and how much,
if any, time does a user spend exploring information in a domain, are all
pertinent to how Google perceives the relevance of documents listed in the
index. As long-term online marketers know, this is where usability comes
into the picture.
Usability, as defined by Kim
Kraus Berg is, “… the ability
to successfully, comfortably and confidently learn or complete a task. For
the web site designer or application developer, it's the mechanics of designing
and building a web site or Internet-based application so that it can be
understood and easy to accomplish any task.”
According to local (Victoria-based) website marketing expert, Michael Linehan,
a focus on site usability is simply common sense marketing. Leading visitors
towards goal-orientated outcomes makes as much sense for a functioning website
as it does for a functional building and, to follow through on the analogy,
it all starts with a smart architect.
Michael knows his stuff, so much so StepForth considers him to be one of
our marketing and site usability gurus. If our assumptions about user-behaviours
and the post-Jagger Google SERPs are correct, Michael’s talents will
play an important role in our overall SEO techniques.
“It’s all about marketing,” Michael explains (exclaims
is probably a better word, ML is pretty passionate about this stuff), “and
marketing is all about envisioning an effective strategy.” While most
people involved in business understand the concept, surprisingly few actually
take the time to implement and follow a marketing strategy in relation to
their websites.
“Website owners have to prioritize their messages and make their
websites easier to use. It’s a matter of measuring the importance
of different parts of their marketing strategy and their websites.”
Michael suggests that over 95% of companies he has worked with use opportunistic
marketing tactics with separate strategies being employed out of sync with
each other. A simple example would be the Yellow Pages ad that does not
mention the website URL or a printed brochure that does not include an email
address in the contact information. A more complex example can be found
by looking at most business websites.
“When a business owner gets a website for their business, they often
expect the designer to know how to market their new website.” said
Michael. “That’s just ludicrous. Website designers already have
a difficult and mentally demanding job. Expecting them to be proficient
marketers is like expecting your architect to act as your real estate agent.”
Michael deconstructs websites, pulling them apart to find or add the little
things specific to a business website designers often can’t customize
for. His work could be described as user-outcome optimization.
He has a good point. Search engine marketing is becoming much more complicated.
The web is rapidly adopting a more professional attitude as it grows into
the global mainstream marketplace. As this maturing takes place, two factors
should drive website owners and webmasters towards a more professional view
of their online marketing strategies.
The first factor is the increased analytic abilities of the major search
engines. As previously mentioned, Google is taking stock of a number of
user-sensitive factors surrounding documents in its index. In March 2005,
Google filed a patent titled, "Information
retrieval based on historical data". The patent
application outlines the historic record Google keeps
on every document and file in its index. One of the items mentioned covers
user behaviours touching on the following points:
- how much time an average user spends examining a document,
- the entry and exit paths of users,
- if users store reference to the document in bookmarks,
- how users access the document (via search engine, typing URL, link
from other document, or bookmarks),
- an evaluation of search traffic driven by Google and related keywords
the document was found under
Each of those points should lead webmasters to think about how visitors
use their site. Website marketing is not necessarily about search engine
placements. It is about using your website as a marketing tool. In the context
of website marketing, usability is about moving visitors from the entry
point to the goal line and off again to another compellingly relevant website
experience.
The second factor is the evolving needs of website users and their increased
analytic abilities. The Web is almost second nature to most of its users.
People are experienced in the environment and, at least in the case of work-related
web use, know what they want. As it stands today, there are a lot of websites
that no longer live up to user expectations because those expectations have
moved beyond the design of those websites.
Usability is a component in smart and informed website marketing simply
because it implies making the website experience simpler and clearer for
visitors. Strategically moving a site visitor from the entry point to the
information or sales point (goal lines) is common sense. It is also providing
the visitors exactly what they want.
Google placing more weight on user behaviours makes sense. User behaviour
is a logical extension of the democratic concept of PageRank in that the
users’ collective judgment is incorporated into that of the webmasters
who coded incoming links. Webmasters of sites supporting AdWords advertising
are already super-charged, stoked about Google providing detailed data that
can help drive traffic.
All good marketing strategies are goal orientated and center around a clear
vision. As time goes on, it can get pretty complicated, especially when
clarity and ease of use are the ultimate design goal. Objective planning
might involve rethinking the design of your website but moving into the
near future, rethinking the design of your website might just become essential.
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