Creating effective web content involves artfully balancing usability and search engine optimization. Viewing content through the lens of your audience is a great first step. On the Web, your audience consists of both website users and search engine bots or “spiders”. Let’s take a look at some of their unique attributes, as well as corresponding content development methods.

Website users

Website users are goal-driven

Most people have explicit goals in mind when they use the Web. Common goals include finding immediately needed information such as hours of operation or phone numbers, or purchasing specific items.

One effective method to get to know your users is to create personas based upon your existing or target audience. Personas are short bios or narratives that describe a user’s characteristics and how you expect them to interact with your site.

Personas typically include:

• Name
• Age
• Gender
• Education level
• Computing/Web experience
• Personal Web behavior patterns
• How they will use the site/site goals

Personas can be used to identify and prioritize user goals, as well as ensure that content is written in a suitable style, format and language for their needs. Developing intuitive navigation with clear labels, and outlining distinct action steps when appropriate can help facilitate your users’ ability to achieve their goals on your website.

Website users scan

Time is the primary currency on the Web, and your users have a very limited supply. When you consider that reading on a computer screen is also tiring on the eyes and about 25% slower than reading from paper, it’s no wonder that most Web users do not read web pages word-for-word.

Strive to create concise, scannable text, written in the inverted pyramid style (conclusion first). Try to incorporate highlighted keywords, meaningful sub-headings, and bulleted lists, and aim to use half the word count or less of conventional writing.

Website users don’t trust you

The anonymity of the Web does not lend itself to inherent trust. Users often question the trustworthiness and expertise of content sources. To promote credibility, strive to create design and content that is professional, usable, and utilizes a more objective writing style.

Objective writing is characterized by an unbiased presentation of facts. Below are examples of promotional and objective writing styles on the topic of apple pie.

Promotional

You can feel good about eating apple pie because apples are one of its primary ingredients. America’s favorite dessert is delicious served warm with ice cream (a la mode) or plain with a dollop of yummy whipped cream.

Objective

Apple pie is a pie with spice and sugar that contains apples as the primary filling ingredient. It is often served plain, or topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream (a la mode) or a dollop of whipped cream.

Incorporating relevant supporting evidence such as testimonials, seals of approval, and 3rd party endorsements when appropriate, can also help promote credibility.

Search Engine Bots or “Spiders”

Search engine bots have limited content access

Search engine bots or “spiders” can only read and understand text. When a bot visits your site, it reads the visible text, content of source code tags, and text within hyperlinks.

Incorporating relevant meta information into the web page’s HTML, including a sensible <title> element, keywords and description meta tags, and alt text for graphics, can help the search bots understand what your content is about. Although meta tags have received a considerable backlash following their misuse by unscrupulous webmasters in the late 1990s, they are still an important SEO strategy when used properly.

Including important keywords on a web page (where relevant) is beneficial. Stuffing your web page with too many keyword instances, however, will likely repel users from your website before they can even think of completing a goal conversion. This tactic may also land you in hot water with Google and other search engines.

Also, don’t underestimate the importance of implementing a plain-language information architecture and keeping URLs steady over time (or adding redirects if they must change) to avoid losing page rank.

What is your content’s value?

Balancing usability and search engine optimization is critical to achieving web content success. However, keep in mind that your top priority should be to provide value. Your users must be able to engage with your content and achieve their goals before they will return your site, recommend it, and link to it.

Notes and Sources

I had the privilege to participate in web writing courses taught by John Morkes of Expero, Inc., that were held as part of Nielsen Norman Group User Experience 2008. I have included notes from course print materials in this post.

Nielsen, Jakob. Useit.com Alertbox: “Reading on the Web”. 1 October 1997 www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html