Website Usability and Search Engine Optimization
Using Search Engine Optimization And Website Usability Together
All week I have been working on how to test usability, what is important for the home page and how it is different from interior pages. Before I start drilling down to very specific usability issues on a website, I wanted to talk about Search Engine Usability. It is important for everyone to understand how visitors arrive at your site and what behaviors they are likely to exhibit, prior to implementing a site-wide usability makeover.
Search engines more than likely account for at least 80% of your traffic. Whether it is paid or organic search, unless you have non search engine affiliate campaigns, its through an engine that people find your site. If you are at all familiar with my site you know that I am always preaching to get your eggs out of the SEO basket click to read SEO World’s interview with me: SEO is Dead Long Live SEO! which gets right to the heart of the matter.
SEO is a great tool and along with Paid Advertisement, can account for a lot of traffic. But what happens with your income if you get caught in a Google Dance or Yahoo bans your site? What if your PPC budget gets cut because your site isn’t producing enough leads. What if both things happen at once! That is why I have invested a lot of time in alternative traffic options. Right now the best option for most of us is blogging. The thing about blogging is once you decide to use blogs as a traffic gathering option, you need to keep up on it.
Now that we have gone over the different traffic gathering options, lets get focused on search engine traffic. I am going to break search engine traffic down into the 2 primary categories: Organic Search & Paid Search.
Organic Search Usability Overview
When talking about search engines and users it needs to be understood that there are huge differences between Google and Yahoo (or Microsoft Live). Google is a pure search engine with a clean interface that is centered around just searching. That being said they are definitely moving into the portal space that has been “owned” by Yahoo, MSN and even AOL. The image below shows how the Google home page is before customization.
Looking at the above graphic I have highlighted 2 areas that are important, I also moved the “Personalize this page” and “Sign in” links from the top right hand side of Google into my graphic so you can see it. Looking at the above graphic and knowing what Google looks like, the core reason for it’s success has always been due to its simplicity and lack of fluff. I think that they have created the customized home page not only to compete with Yahoo, but also based on the vast amount of searches they get from the Google toolbar.
The graphic below shows a snapshot of my browser with the Google toolbar installed. Nothing is easier than just typing in what you are looking for and hitting go! As a bonus there is also spellcheck, pop-up blocker and even a translation tool (even though it actually is pretty lame.) The page rank bar is handy for site owners who want to know how important Google thinks your site is by fetching the page rank.
OK so Google is moving from a clean pure search to having portal type functions. The next graphic shows my customized home page in Google. You can get just about anything you need as far as news, weather and items of interest on your home page. I still use Yahoo because I can track my fantasy sports as well, and I haven’t seen a good local movie theater widget for Google. So it would fit in this post I changed the window to 500PX wide that is why it looks crushed together, but you get the point.
As you can see I have my blogs’ syndicated feeds on my home page, I also add other peoples feeds that interest me. On my blog if you click on the 
button on the lower right sidebar it will add this sites feed into your Google home page, it also works for Yahoo.
The next article is going to start looking at how people USE the search engines and how it directly relates to your site and more importantly your site’s conversion rate. Knowing these facts and behaviors will allow you to make solid usability changes to your website.
Website Usability: Interior Page Behaviors
Home Page & Interior Pages Usability Comparison
In this article we will be focused on the usability of a website’s interior pages. We have ascertained that in deep link navigation sites that use good SEO practices, as much as 40% of entry traffic happens outside of the home page. Another important factor is users normally read interior pages as opposed to scanning which is what happens on the home page. In fact one of the primary reasons I always create deep links is because website visitors read substantially more content on interior pages than they do on the home page. Again I am relying on the ever so important stat: “Average Time Spent”.
Looking at our 2 groups (check out Website Usability Testing if you don’t know what I mean by test groups) of usability testers, low experience users spend 35 seconds on the home page, but a full minute on interior pages! With the more experienced users it was 25 seconds on the home page and 45 seconds on interior pages. Keep in mind that the more experienced a website visitor is on the Internet, the quicker they leave if they don’t find what they are looking for ASAP.
The experienced group was also consistent in how little they were willing to scroll to find what they are looking for. These types of statistics are gathered strictly by recording the usability sessions, or from the testing document users created when recording wasn’t available. It is possible to gather some basic scroll stats using Google Analytics’ Site Overlay feature. There is a screenshot of it on my post: Website Usability And The Home Page. When looking at the overlay it shows which links were clicked on by users. By looking at links further down the page it is possible to get an idea of how many users click on links down there. Except for footer links (most experienced users expect there to be links in a sites footer and will scroll down to hit them) very rarely are lower content links clicked on.
One reason for the “average time spent on” to be higher on an interior page is due to the relevance of the page in the SERPS. Google and Yahoo will place interior pages higher than home pages especially when they are keyword heavy for a specific topic. That means that a visitor will actually read the page because it was more related to their task. This is yet another reason why it is critical that EVERY page on your site lets visitors know where they are, who you are, what the site does, what the page (or site on the homepage) is about and how it will benefit them.
Another interesting thing I saw in Google Analytics that was backed up by usability groups, was how so much more action happened in the content section of the interior pages. Most sites employ either a 2 or 3 column page structure with the center of the page being reserved for content. THAT is where users are looking for their answers. Most site visitors spend their time on the interior pages looking for something very specific and how to find it if it isn’t right in front of them. As a matter of fact putting together 2 reports on usability I did last year, I was amazed to find that almost 4700 out of 5000 interior clicks happened in the content area and NOT through the navigation!
Taking these ideas and implementing them is going to be the focus on the next articles. Now that we know how and why users look at the home page and interior pages, as well as utilize deep link navigation, we can start applying these lessons to real life scenarios.
Website Usability: The Home Page
Home Page Usability: So Much To Say So Little Time To Say It!
OK. We’ve covered deep link usability and in that post I told you that if done right, your interior pages will be bringing in 40% of your traffic. That leaves the majority of your visitors coming in through the front door. Another quick stat to throw out there is: the users that come in from somewhere else on your site, 75% of them will end up hitting your home page. This stat is lower on sites that have a root blog since more people are likely to hang out in the blog, but I measure the success of a blog directly to the number of visitors that DO go into the static site after hitting the blog.
I hope we have now agreed that the home page is important, in fact it is the most important page on your site. Today I am going to lay out some strategies to make the most out of your home page. One of the most fascinating stats I follow in analytics is “average time spent on”. Whether it is the time spent on the site or a page, this is a significant measuring stick of how usable your site is. I use Google Analytics now more than ever. In fact I used to resell Web Side Story and have been using that for years, but Google Analytics (it used to be Urchin before they bought it out) has really hit their stride. If for some crazy reason you aren’t tracking your website stats you really need to!
Looking back to my post about usability testing I told you how I break users down into 2 groups: experienced and not experienced. In plowing through 5 years of different usability tests in preparation for a major project (and for this blog series) I found some interesting facts. The average home page visit for an experienced user was 1o seconds less it was for the lesser experienced user! That means that the more a user uses the Internet the less patience they have with bad usability.
Looking at some general statistics available on the web as well as my own, I feel comfortable with the stat: 30 seconds is all you get! This isn’t TV after all, people are using the Internet as a tool more and more as their experience grows. Visitors don’t log on to space out after a hard day. Most content experts agree that all your pages, but more importantly your home page needs to be set up so visitors can scan a page, because they don’t READ it. My game plan is to keep the upper 700 pixels clear and concise, then put the paragraphs below for the search engines. Keep in mind that there is a limit to how much a page will be spidered.
30 seconds: A Home Page Usability Lifetime
Alright so you have half a minute, what are you going to do with it? Here are some of the primary things I try to communicate to a new visitor:
- What website they are on. (I know that sounds ridiculous, but you would be surprised at what I’ve seen!)
- What does this site have that will benefit the visitor.
- A quick feeling about the company or site, who are you, what do you do, and most important what is new!
- What choices do the user have and how do they get to the section that is relevant to them.
Keeping long winded paragraphs down to the bottom of the page is a good plan, but what do you put at the top of the site? Sure a nice graphic or Flash element is eye-catching, but you do have limited screen real estate so don’t waste a ton of it on something flashy. The fact is most people spend the majority of their 30 seconds figuring out where to go next, not reading the content, and certainly not reading it word for word. In number 3 in the above list I bolded “what do you do”, because it is important to get that message across, and get it across fast and furious!
One of the best parts of Google Analytics is the site overlay. It shows a picture of your site with little boxes over the links. These boxes show you what links the user clicks on to leave the home page. Here’s a screenshot of my site:
In conclusion it is best to take the most important parts of your online message and convey them clearly on your home page!
Website Usability: Deep Link Navigation
Website Usability Through Deep Link Navigation
The Internet is changing. How people use the Internet has changed greatly in the last few years. How people search on the Internet is changing, and more importantly to anyone that has a website, Search Engines Are Changing!
That last statement is the most important 4 words I have written in a long time. Google, Yahoo, MSN (Windows Live, or whatever they are calling themselves today) and Ask have all made major modifications in the last 12 months. As an Internet marketer, it is my job to keep up on the search engines and how they affect my clients. Everyone in the industry knows that all the engines are putting a lot more focus on fresh content. News oriented sites are ranking higher than static sites.
Just about everyone I know in the industry is getting on the social network marketing bandwagon. While that is great for business, it leads to long term problems. I have been blogging for 4 years now and have some very successful sites. It wasn’t some great insight or a psychic vision that led me to blogging, it was security. I had been running some very important forums and portals. They were getting tons of traffic and placing very well. The problem was the amount of hacking going on with PHP NUKE and phpBB. I couldn’t keep up with all the security issues and also moderate all the forums.
It was at this point that I started using Blogger as a means to keep fresh content and give my clients’ users the info they needed. Now everyone and their mother is blogging. Get Found Now uses multiple blogs including Blogger and WordPress. While you will get conflicting information about using sub-domains or even a new domain just for the blog, I always try to get a blog going within the root of a site. I don’t like sandbox sites for a blog and I really hate subs (like most search engines).
The picture I am painting here is with social network marketing platforms included within an existing website, the size of the site is going to triple at least, within a month of releasing a blog. That being said there are several tactics that MUST be included in your overall website game-plan:
- XML Sitemaps – you must have an xml sitemap so the search engines can get a clear picture of your site. Sitemap.org is the recognized standard by Google, Yahoo, and MSN. While you also need a static sitemap for your visitors, don’t think for a second that will work for Google or Yahoo. I generally have multiple XML maps for each section of the sites content structure.
- Navigation Elements – I like drop down navigation with search-engine friendly code. Since I use Dreamweaver for dev stuff, my navigation system is PluginLab. I also firmly believe in static internal links within the footer. If you follow the standard site page mapping that has little or no outbound links on the home page except to a sitemap, then you need not worry about internal link structure since your site will not be found easily by the search engines period!
- Easy access to contact info – I always put address and phone numbers on every page.
When creating a guideline for future site growth make sure you have a solid content guide. Know where your content is going for at least a month in advance. Try to do serial articles and be consistent with your topics. Having a solid outline will make it easier to implement the usability plans I am laying out for the next month.
Website Support For Deep Link Users
A large site has many pages, most of which are also entry pages. I generally try to get entry statistics somewhere around 40%. That means that 60% of visitors enter at the home page, and the others enter somewhere deeper in the site. That is why it is key to have site controls on every page. By site controls I am talking about easy means to find the home page, quote forms, etc. General search functions or home page links and phone numbers won’t count as duplicate content penalties, but if you are really worried about it, put them in a graphic file.
Guidelines for Deep Link Usability:
- Keep it simple! Always have these elements on every page – Company name or logo in the upper left hand corner – Direct, one click link to the homepage – Site Search, the best spot for that is top on the top right hand side. Tell users where they are… at all times and have related content or pages easily visible. You don’t need to list all the pages on your site, just the pages that correlate to the subject matter the visitor is actually reading.
- Orient the user to the entire site! If your site has a flat directory structure or a hierarchy to the content architecture, leave a trail or links the user can follow. This is known in the industry as a “linking breadcrumb trail”, and is the best way to show the user where they are, and how they got there. Again do not flood the user with unrelated content.
- Don’t assume the user followed the same path you would! Sure you can drill down your site and find whatever you are looking for, but you built it! Users can and will take different paths to find the data they are looking for. Always have links to the higher level pages in a content group.
The moral of this story is to create a solid linking structure that lets the user know where they are at all times, how they got to where they are and clear paths to where they are likely to be going.
Website Usability: Testing Your Visitor’s User Experience
Web Usability Testing
This article will be the first in a multi-part series dealing with website usability and how to maintain a solid user experience and still give the search engines what they need. There can be a happy medium between optimization and usability, if you take the time to properly plan and more importantly TEST your site. Depending upon the size of your company or your client’s company, you will need to put together a testing group. The usability testing group should be broken down into sub groups based upon user experience on the web.
One of the most important initial determinations is how to ascertain what level a particular user is at. The criteria for user experience is:
- How many years has the user been online.
- Excluding e-mail, how many hours online do they spend per week.
- Do they use advanced skills such as Instant Messaging, organizing and renaming bookmarks, do they have upgraded browsers, if they or on Windows do they also use FireFox, do they have a blog or myspace site.
- Can they download, install and configure software without support.
- Are they current on the latest Internet technologies, do they subscribe to online newsletters, etc.
- Do they have a customized home page through Yahoo or Google for example.
In my experience with setting up testing groups, most advanced users need to have at least 3 years experience on the Web and use it for over 10 hours per week.
Once the user groups are handled, the next step is to break down a number of tasks for the testing subjects to perform. These tasks should be specific to your business. The actual testing tasks also need to be broken down into both site-wide and web-wide tasks. The fact is if you give users a group of tasks and start them on your home page they will have a higher success rate then starting them at Google or Yahoo search. Another reason for breaking up tasks from site and Web is to also get some competitor comparison as well.
A quick example of some testing parameters:
Client: Online Florist, Nationwide Service.
I took this client’s website over a couple years ago. They had no search engine placement and were spending 60,000 a year on pay per click. I took the job in October preparing for a full on campaign for Valentines Day. That gave me 3 months for redevelopment. I had to stress the importance of testing to the client, who was highly concerned that testing would slow down the process. The fact is that the usability testing made the project go much smoother and by getting other people involved that normally would have no say in website design, the final product was far superior.
After separating 10 users into 2 groups based upon their skill levels, I had them:
- Use the site to send 1 dozen roses to various family members or friends.
- Create custom messages to the recipient.
- Place an order, then change the recipient address.
- Cancel an order.
- Change the order from roses to lillys.
Taking these tasks and performing them from the customer’s home page, and then doing them again from the Web gave us very valuable data about the website and how it functioned. The first version of the site which I had only optimized for search engines and hadn’t optimized for user experience, had a failure rate of 70% for experienced users and 85% for the less experienced users!
After taking the data and optimizing for visitor experience, our testing results was more reasonable with a failure rate of 12% for the experienced group and 25% for the lesser group.
I am happy to report that they surpassed their expected targets on Valentines day by 150%. By the time Mothers Day arrived the load balancing, and server replication changes allowed for even more sales!
Web Usability and Social Network Marketing Platforms
My company specializes in social network marketing and e-commerce sites. Most of our clients are trying to sell something whether it is a product or a service. SEO at one time was the only basket I ever promoted. Our goal was to get our clients out of pay per click and in using organic traffic. The focus was not just on obtaining traffic, but on what that traffic did once it hit the site! Through much trial and error I became a usability expert.
Now that I have added social network platforms to my arsenal, usability has become even more important. Since WordPress is my platform of choice we have had to deal with tweaking the deep linking structure of blog permalinking. When combining e-commerce and social network platforms, the fact is 40% of a sites visitors are more likely to enter the site on pages other than the home page.
I normally use a bread-crumb technique for visitors to always know where they are in relationship to their path through the site. This technique can also be used to give a visitor a clear understanding of where they are on a site at all times, but especially when they first arrive to a site.
Stay tuned for more on website usability.