UX & SEO: Working Together to Heal the Rift Between Customers and the Marketers Who Love Them

I’m a UX Designer – and I’m an SEO: Working Together to Heal the Rift Between Customers and the Marketers Who Love Them User Experience Search Engines Erin Hawk (UX) and Jonathon Colman (SEO) 2011 IA Summit: Saturday, April 2

IA SU M M IT W IN NE R: LO NG ES T SE SS IO N TI TL E I’m a UX Designer – and I’m an SEO: Working Together to Heal the Rift Between Customers and the Marketers Who Love Them User Experience Search Engines Erin Hawk (UX) and Jonathon Colman (SEO) 2011 IA Summit: Saturday, April 2

Let’s learn about you with a quick survey… Photo © Flickr user omarhabayeb, flickr.com/photos/omarhabayeb

Our question: Can UX and SEO be like chocolate and peanut butter? Photo © Flickr user jamieanne, flickr.com/photos/jamieanne

So am I. Prove it! Hmmmm… I’m skeptical. And would it kill ya to gimme a cheezburger?! (and hunky) Photo © Flickr user slowhat, flickr.com/photos/slowhat

Top 5 UX design myths about SEO Photo © Flickr user LVCHEN, flickr.com/photos/yungyeh

Myth: SEO is SPAM. Photo © Flickr user OCReactive, flickr.com/photos/ocreactive

Reality: SEO is relevancy marketing. Photo © Flickr user jmsvuk, flickr.com/photos/jmsvuk

Yep, it’s this one. It’s just one tool in your belt. Photo © Flickr user herzogbr, flickr.com/photos/herzogbr

High search rank correlates with high traffic and conversion. Source: The Atlas Rank Report: How Search Engine Rank Impacts Traffic

Myth: Design is for people, not robots. Photo © Flickr user mringseis, flickr.com/photos/mringseis

Reality: Search engines are consumers of your content, too. Photo © Flickr user H Brown, flickr.com/photos/heathercbrown

…and people rely on robots as wayfinding agents. Tip: We prefer City O’ City coffee at 206 E. 13th Ave. Photo © Flickr user ebatty, flickr.com/photos/ebatty

Myth: SEO seems filled with secrets and mysteries. Photo © Flickr user JK Mallory, flickr.com/photos/41499497@N06

Reality: So is any discipline… when seen from the outside. Photo © Flickr user Xavier de Jauréguiberry, flickr.com/photos/25831000@N08

SEOs are not gurus; they’re just practitioners. Like you! Photo © Flickr user mrbenjamin, flickr.com/photos/25199042@N06

…and SEO works best when it’s built-in to the experience. Photo © Flickr user Jonesemyr, flickr.com/photos/47557199@N03

Myth: SEO is about text, not design. Photo © Flickr user jcolman, flickr.com/photos/jcolman

Let’s look at a product page…

Text is clearly an important part of the experience for humans and search engines.

…but how did they find that product? Design and architecture affect humans and search engines.

SEO Reality: SEO is all about IA, taxonomy, ops, analytics, infrastructure, relationships… UX! Photo © Flickr user temposmodernos, flickr.com/photos/50806803@N08

Myth: I can rely on advertising for traffic. Photo © Flickr user s.urich, flickr.com/photos/urichsj

Reality: Paid Search CPC increases ≈30% each year. Does your ad budget?

Reality: If SEO isn’t at least 50% of your traffic, it’s still growing.

Top 5 SEO myths about UX design Photo © Flickr user LVCHEN, flickr.com/photos/yungyeh

Myth: You can’t truly measure “experience”. Photo © Flickr user undoneclothing, flickr.com/photos/undoneclothing

Reality: UX has many tools for measurement. Photo © Flickr user Winter Bicycles, flickr.com/photos/22538785@N05

Myth: You can’t tie UX to profits. Photo © Flickr user mickwatson, flickr.com/photos/mickwatson

Reality: ERIN, PUT SOMETHING HERE, pretty please. Image by Dr. Susan Weinschenk © Human Factors International, Inc., http://www.humanfactors.com/ROIposter.asp

Myth: Search solves all your navigation issues. Photo © Flickr user refmo, flickr.com/photos/refmo

Reality: Users often don’t know what they don’t know. And that’s OK. Photo © Flickr user zert.sonstige_2008, flickr.com/photos/32552054@N04

…because learning and refining is part of their experience. Marcia J. Bates: The Design of Browsing and Berrypicking Techniques for the Online Search Interface http://gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/bates/berrypicking.html

Myth: I already know our customers! Photo © Flickr user coblat, flickr.com/photos/coblat

OK, so which one am I? Reality: You don’t know Jack. Or Jill! Until you test. Photo © Flickr user MeFind, flickr.com/photos/mefind

Which one of these people will come back? Or recommend you? Reality: Satisfied customers are your best referrers. Photo © Flickr user lunaciel, flickr.com/photos/lunaciel

Witty, huh? Scenario: This is a product users like. REI ranks well for its name. And it drives traffic.

When customers click on the search result, they get a “Product Unavailable” page.

But guess what? We have a newer version of this product in stock! But it’s located at a different URL that does not rank well in search.

What would YOU do? Split into two teams… Team SEO: What would you do to improve findability and drive traffic to the new version of the jacket? Team UX: What would you do to reduce bounce rate on the old jacket and improve conversion for the new version? Photo © Flickr user Colin_K, flickr.com/photos/colinkinner

So… Can we make UX and SEO be like chocolate and peanut butter? Photo © Flickr user jamieanne, flickr.com/photos/jamieanne

Want more SEO/UX resources? Get 90+ hand-curated articles and tools here: www.delicious.com/seo_ux PhotoPhoto © Flickr © Flickr user Winter user Rajiv Bicycles, Patel, flickr.com/photos/22538785@N05 flickr.com/photos/23679420@N00

Erin Hawk: UX @ REI Twitter @erinhawk Jonathon Colman: SEO @ REI Twitter @jcolman Graphic © Flickr user Jesse Fletcher, flickr.com/photos/jaxsilver