Good Writing vs Good SEO

The battle between creating genuine, thoughtful content and optimising your site for search engines can leave publishers with a conflict that’s tough to resolve. Too often the quality of content is compromised by the voice in your head telling you to add more keywords, more “free”s and more “how to”s.

DO WE HAVE TO CHOOSE?
An article entitled “Writing User Friendly Content” published on UX Booth recently contains a solid list of considerations to take into account when writing for your human audience. But it doesn’t take into account our search bot friends. Or does it? Google “SEO” and you’ll get over 200 million results. Everyone’s got an opinion and the number of miracle cures out there is reminiscent of the travelling medicine show era. While SEO is undeniably a crucial factor in getting your voice heard, it’s a tool, not the holy grail. Although a lot of advice is valid, it’s important to maintain a sense of perspective regarding which practices to practise.

Of all the tips and tricks out there, there’s no substitute for writing helpful, informative, measured, researched, compelling, readable content supported by succinct infographics, photos, videos, and more to make your point. It requires skill, thought, and time. You won’t (necessarily) get rich quick and it won’t cure what ails you. But as a long term SEO strategy you could do a lot worse. These approaches are all linked. If your content is useful and compelling people will refer to your articles with links, relevant links directing quality traffic. David Jackson’s article “The 10 Biggest SEO Myths Exposed” aims to dispell a lot of the myths around the shortcuts. Of the 200 million pages of advice out there, this is a good place to start.

The good news: by focusing your attention on just one SEO technique you’ll lay a solid foundation on which the other techy tricks can be built. The bad news: it takes time, skill, and patience. Nothing worth having happens overnight.

Associated Link: UX-Press, the UX blog

Passwords that are Simple - and Safe
Source: MIT Technology Review, 29 July 2010
 
Researchers at Microsoft have come up with a way to create easy-to-remember passwords without making a system more vulnerable to hackers.

Coercing people into a Brave New digital World
Source: Spiked, 27 July 2010
 
Does a government-backed campaign to get the entire UK adult population online threaten to make cyber slaves of us all?

iPhone 4 one month on – A user experience and functionality success, despite antenna issues
Source: Webcredible, 26 July 2010
 
Webcredible Senior Consultant, Abid Warsi suggests that the impressive functionality and user experience of the iPhone 4 is enough to overcome the widely reported technical issues, thus proclaiming the device a big success.

Darwin City Council Website - Australia’s Most Usable!
Source: Loop11, 24 July 2010
 
Darwin City Council came out on top in a recent website usability study of Australia's capital city councils. The aim was to discover which of the six council websites was the most user friendly and usable.

Digital Design Jobs first to experience Growth
Source: UN, 23 July 2010
 
The marketing and design industry in the UK is seeing strong signs of renewed confidence, according to the new European Market Eye report from the industry’s specialist recruitment consultancy, Aquent.

Usability at a Glance
Source: usability-ed, 22 July 2010
 
Something interesting and useful to print out and stick on your wall.

Google may know your Desires before You do
Source: New Scientist, 21 July 2010
 
In future, your Google account may know your birthday and anniversaries, consumer gadget preferences, preferred hobbies and pastimes, even favourite foods. It will also know where you are.

Closing the Usability Gap between Enterprise Applications and Consumer Web Applications
Source: Integrated Solutions for Retailers, 20 July 2010
 
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Collect Words, not just Numbers with Feedback Analytics
Source: CMS Wire, 19 July 2010
 
Tracking visitors’ behaviors online can help us understand how customers use a site - but what if you could actually ask each individual a question? That’s what Kampyle aims to do with its feedback analytics tools.

Back to the Future...
Source: ZDNet, 17 July 2010
 
Always a popular sport, comparing the PC with the motor industry is as relevant as ever.