Search and Usability
In 2002, according to a Pew Internet & American Life report, 52% of all Americans used search engines. By 2012, that figure had leaped to 73%. Shari Thurow refers to search engines as “the third browser.”
If your image of a search-engine friendly site is a frightening hodgepodge of shoe-horned keywords, Shari wants to change your mind. She says, “A search-engine friendly website is a user-friendly website that can easily be found via commercial search engines, human based search engines such as web directories, and industry or niche websites. And the emphasis is always on the user.”
SEO has a bad reputation. It can feel an awful lot like gaming the system. But when it’s done properly, it makes products, services, and info easier to find before people arrive on your site and after they get there.
adapted from “When Search Meets Web Usability,” a Virtual Seminar by Shari Thurow.