seo and ux working together are like chocolate and peanut butter

Photo © Flickr user LVCHEN, flickr.com/photos/yungyeh

I’m a UX Designer – and I’m an SEO: Working Together to Heal the Rift

Between Customers and theMarketers Who Love Them

Erin Hawk (Team UX at REI): @erinhawkJonathon Colman (Team SEO at REI): @jcolman

Slideshow available for download:http://slidesha.re/ux-seo

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Let’s learn about you with a quick survey…

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Our question: Can UX and SEO be like chocolate and

peanut butter?

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Top 5 UX design myths about SEO

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Myth: SEO is SPAM.

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Reality: SEO is relevancy marketing.

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It’s just one tool in your belt.

Yep, it’s this one.

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Source: The Atlas Rank Report: How Search Engine Rank Impacts Traffic

High search rank correlates with high traffic and conversion.

Myth: Design is forpeople, 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.

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Tip: We prefer City O’ City coffee at 206 E. 13th Ave.

Myth: SEO seems filled with secrets

and mysteries.

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Reality: So is any discipline… when seen from the outside.

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SEOs are not gurus; they’re just practitioners. Like you!

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…and SEO works best whenit’s built-in to the experience.

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Myth: SEO is about text, not design or IA.

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 theyfind that product?

Design and architecture affect humans and search engines.

Reality: SEO is all about IA, taxonomy, ops, analytics, infrastructure, relationships… UX!

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SEO

Myth: I can rely onadvertising for traffic.

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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 mythsabout UX design

Photo © Flickr user LVCHEN, flickr.com/photos/yungyeh

Myth: You can’t trulymeasure “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

Photo © Flickr user mickwatson, flickr.com/photos/mickwatson

Myth: You can’ttie UX to profits.

Image by Dr. Susan Weinschenk © Human Factors International, Inc., http://www.humanfactors.com/ROIposter.aspVideo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O94kYyzqvTc

Reality: Oh yes you can!

(Roughly $76,000/month!)

40

Myth: Search solves allyour navigation issues.

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Reality: Users often don’t know what they don’t know.

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And that’s OK!

Marcia J. Bates: The Design of Browsing and Berrypicking Techniques for the Online Search Interface http://gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/bates/berrypicking.html

…because learning and refining is part of their experience.

…which is why we need to support both browsing and searching.

Myth: I alreadyknow our customers!

Photo © Flickr user coblat, flickr.com/photos/coblat

OK, so which one am I?

Photo © Flickr user MeFind, flickr.com/photos/mefind

Reality: You don’t know Jack. Or Jill! Until you talk to Jill. And

other Jills who are like her.

Myth: The user’s feelings don’t matter.

Photo © Flickr user wishardofoz, flickr.com/photos/wishardofoz

Which one of these people will come back?

Or recommend you?

Photo © Flickr user lunaciel, flickr.com/photos/lunaciel

Reality: Satisfied customers are loyal, long-term

shoppers and referrers.

Actually, the user doesn’t matter.

Photo © Flickr user yubyungman, flickr.com/photos/yubyungman

Photo © Flickr user largeprime, flickr.com/photos/largeprimenumber

Reality: Search engines can’t buy anything from you.

Group exercise:Can UX and SEO work together?

Photo © Flickr user usnavynvns, flickr.com/photos/usnavynvns

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.

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?

Team UX:What would you do to reduce bounce rate on the old jacket and improve conversion for

the new version?

Team SEO:What would you do to

improve findability and drive traffic to the new version of

the jacket?

Split into two teams…

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Nice work!This stormtrooperdemands that you

hug it out.

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So... Can we make UX and SEO be like chocolate and peanut butter?

Photo © Flickr user jamieanne, flickr.com/photos/jamieanne

Photo © Flickr user let5ch, flickr.com/photos/letscher

Photo © Flickr user Rajiv Patel, flickr.com/photos/23679420@N00

Photo © Flickr user Noel C. Hankamer, flickr.com/photos/nhankamer

Want more SEO/UX tools?Get 90+ hand-curated articles and resources at:

www.delicious.com/seo_ux_

Graphic © Flickr user Jesse Fletcher, flickr.com/photos/jaxsilver

Erin Hawk:UX @ REITwitter @erinhawk

Jonathon Colman:SEO @ REITwitter @jcolman