FabFriday: Sharing Info Once Again, eh
Yup, seems like we’re starting to figure that at least a couple of Fridays a month, that I’ll share with readers interested in doing your own DIY SEO Campaign….with tips or tactics or info that we know works. Tried. Tested. And able to help your own SMB sites rise in their own channel rankings.
So…today’s topic is a bit interesting in that it wasnt’ my own thoughts that led me to hypothesize about it, but a conversation that I had yesterday with a new entrepreneur and our discussions on site usability. How such a Canadian based or even locally based firm does not exist and what we both could brainstorm on the probable success of such a firm, it’s offerings, it’s packages…you know the whole entrepreneur conversation.
And then I remembered later, that I already know (well follow online) a guy who does a fair bit of Usability thinking/espousing over at usereffect.com – Dr Pete is his name!
And does this guy “know” usability!
So, what’s this usability and why should I care about same when it comes to your SEO campaign and in Dr. Pete’s words –
“Usability is, simply put, the science of making technology work for people. Strategic web usability puts people power to work for you, by finding out what makes your website visitors tick and converting ordinary shoppers into satisfied buyers…”
Usability then (did you catch this in the quote above) is all about “converting” that is, the process of converting a website visitor to a new lead or a new sale. Usability then is pretty important when your own competitors are only a click away and as Dr. Pete puts it “poor usability drives away customers and translates directly into lost revenue.” And lost revenue is something that we all want to avoid.
If a site has strong usability, then it allows in fact it promotes it’s visitors into accomplishing their on-site goals….from making a buy of a product to finding out how to contact the site owners for more information. Usability allows a visitor to make that choice easily. It allows them to navigate the site with ease. It allows them to pick and choose thru multiple pages or tabs or windows or iFrames – whatever the technology and design that is used – it is transparent. It simply put is not a hindrance to any visitor.
In fact, a successful site with transparent usability offers up enough points of assurance to equal a decision that just can not be avoided….visitors turn themselves – they convert themselves into buyers of whatever it is you’re selling….a product or a service.
Usability helps to generate leads. Usability generates new revenues and as it’s your website, it does so passively…day after day at 2 am or 3 pm…it matters not when – only that the visitor finds the usability so transparent that the process of conversion from visitor to buyer is a forgone conclusion.
Dr. Pete knows his stuf…that’s the good news…the bad news is that it still appears that his firm is NOT taking on any new clients (a lot of that going around, eh!) but don’t despair. He has provided some great resources for those who want to DIY their own usability testing….including these two –
And his books list is great, including my own favorite….the Morville/Rosenfeld (two librarians I understand) entitled “Information Architecture for the World Wide Web” and I have read same and it’s chock full of great nuggets and I can’t say enough about how good it is!
So….Dr. Pete, thanks. You’re my own “usability-go-to-guy” and I love watching your videos over at seomoz.com….well done, sir!
Now, back to our regular scheduled SEO client campaigns….but tell me, is your site usability optimized?