If you’re doing it right, your goal is never to build an SEO-friendly site. It’s to build a usable site. The latter leads to the former. Not the other way around.
This isn’t to say SEO doesn’t work. It’s only to say SEO is a hack.
Humans first, please
March 4, 2009 —
9 Responses to “Humans first, please”
Aaron, right on! I usually teach the same idea to our clients, but changed slightly to usable AND accessible. It turns out that focusing on accessibility, besides it’s intended purpose, really helps out with SEO–mainly because search engines tend to view sites in ways similar to assisted technology readers.
I would add though, while not developing for SEO, it does help to at least be mindful of it. You don’t want to do the exact opposite and have your site not be searchable.
Maybe the most haiku posts I have read. Tranquil, musical, violent in its rapture. And of course I will be stealing your line, “SEO is a hack.”
@Larry – right. I’ve no general spite for SEO or for hacks. Things change, though, when seo consultants suggest certain hacks like redundant navigation, keyword stuffing, and window pages. I gotta side with the humans.
@GB – high five.
This is one of the reasons I wrote my SEO is dead post. The reality is that good SEO is just good site design. Do it right, and the search engines will come. At the same time, if you build a site that is interesting and people are excited about, people will come. Every time.
@Micah – Yeah, I read that post. Also, I see you’ve loosened your SERP grip on the term “douchebag.” Better to leave it to the deserving, I guess.
>The reality is that good SEO is just good site design
That’s just a crock. I have made an art form out of bad design and good seo.
>It’s to build a usable site. The latter leads to the former.
No, though human usability and spider usability can often run closely paralleled, there are times when you simply have to put humans last.
@rcjordan – you and I will have to agree to disagree. You can make a similar agreement with Micah as well.
I think what we see here is that it’s a ’square’ vs ‘rectangle’ issue. All good site design is good SEO design. But not all good SEO design is good site design.
I prefer to take the former approach. @rcjordan uses the latter.
But I have to wonder, how much more effective one of @rcjordan’s projects would be if he switched sides.
Personally, I’m pretty damned unlikely to spend any money at a site that looks like crap. After all, where are most people likely to spend more money: at a flea market or in a department store?
My sense is that rcjordan is being facetious. At least, that’s how I took it. Unless putting “humans last” is a new design theory I’ve yet to hear about.
At any rate, I’m glad more attention is being focused on the SEO issue. I’ve often wondered if these SEO-only agencies are really just scams.