What a UXer Needs to Know About SEO

A Michael Beasley Presentationmbeasley@purevisibility.com@uxMikeBeasley#iue2011#goodSEOisboring

Don't trust anyone that calls him- or herself an expert.

There's no magic cure. Good SEO is BORING.

In the end, good SEO is good UX.   (not every slide has a picture on it)

(There's also technical stuff related to making sure search engines understand the site and some advanced stuff we can't get to, but focusing on a good user experience will get you most of the way.)

Write content that people would actually want to read

Good SEO means using good writing practices.

Such as…

Use words that make sense to people.

Picture from http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2008/11/05-04.html

Get to the point.

Mather & Company, “Say It With A Snap! Get To The Point.,” 1925.

Be concise.

Mather & Company, “Say It With A Snap! Get To The Point.,” 1925.

Keep it well organized.

<h1>What this page is about</h1>

<p>The most important thing on this page.</p>

<h2>What this section is about</h2>

<p>A concept that supports what this page is about.</p>

<ul><li>A supporting point</li><li>Another supporting point</li></ul>

Stick to one concept per one page.

... And the navigation should support all the preceding stuff by having good (and consistent) labels and grouping pages intelligibly.

Stuff near the top is more important (whether it's the top of the page or the top of the directory structure).

Keyword research: how does it work?

?

Just Google "Google keyword tool"

This could be some useful information for user research, and user research could provide some interesting input to SEO.

Content strategy: It's so hot right now.

SEO provides input for content strategy, and needs content strategy to make stuff happen.

Thank you!