Website Usability vs Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Website Usability vs. Search Engine Optimization Guideline for the development of a search engine optimized and user-friendly Internet presentation, with consideration of human behavior and technical aspects. Oliver Schnell (MBA) SAGO-Tec GmbH Rosenweg 9a 40489 Düsseldorf www.sago-tec.de © SAGO-Tec GmbH 2010. All rights reserved. II I. Preface This report is going to provide information about the interaction of three general topics: Online marketing strategy as a whole, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Website Usability (WU). It is impossible to explain in one report all three subject-areas satisfactorily. Therefore, the focus of this report is the intersections, especially between search engine optimization and website usability. This is the reason why aspects of these topics, which have no impact to other topics, are not mentioned in this report. Furthermore, this report is not going to take account for any technical aspects of the described issues, e.g. how to implement SEO measurements into a website. Depending on the purpose of a website, different measurements are advisable. An online shop has different demands to SEO and WU than a community site or a short, general company presentation. Additionally, their weighting in the marketing strategy is different. Aim of this report is to develop a general guideline for a combined SEO and WU strategy, independent of the purpose of the website. Therefore, these differences are not analyzed separately in this report. This document was created with a German Version of “Microsoft Word 2007”, which contains a source administration and quotation feature. Unfortunately, the cross references to the responding pages is automatically labeled with the German abbreviation “p.” (Seite) instead of “p.” (page), although the text language has been defined as “English”. The only way to fix this is to install an English version or to delete all quotations and to enter the references manually. The author of this document rates correct references higher than a generally incorrect abbreviation and apologies for any inconvenience this might have caused. III II. Table of Contents I. PREFACE ....................................................................................................................................... II II. TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................................... III III. TABLE OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................................ V IV. TABLE OF TABLES......................................................................................................................... VI V. TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS ......................................................................................................... VII 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ................................................................................................................. 1 2. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................ 3 3. ANALYSIS ...................................................................................................................................... 4 3.1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................. 4 3.2. ONLINE MARKETING STRATEGY ........................................................................................................ 5 3.2.1. Introduction.......................................................................................................................... 5 3.2.2. To Inform .............................................................................................................................. 8 3.2.3. To Interest ............................................................................................................................ 9 3.2.4. To Sell ................................................................................................................................... 9 3.2.5. To Design ............................................................................................................................ 10 3.2.6. Service ................................................................................................................................ 10 3.3. PRODUCT ................................................................................................................................... 11 3.4. PRICE ........................................................................................................................................ 13 3.5. PLACE........................................................................................................................................ 14 3.6. PROMOTION ............................................................................................................................... 15 3.6.1. Introduction........................................................................................................................ 15 3.6.2. Banner-Advertisement ....................................................................................................... 16 3.6.3. Keyword-Advertising .......................................................................................................... 18 3.6.4. Blog Marketing .................................................................................................................. 19 3.6.5. Viral Marketing .................................................................................................................. 20 3.7. COMBINED ONLINE- AND OFFLINE MARKETING STRATEGY ................................................................... 22 3.8. SIGNIFICATION OF THE WEBSITE FOR THE ONLINE MARKETING STRATEGY ................................................. 24 3.9. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION ...................................................................................................... 25 3.9.1. Introduction........................................................................................................................ 25 3.9.2. Content............................................................................................................................... 28 3.9.3. Header................................................................................................................................ 29 IV 3.9.4. Title .................................................................................................................................... 29 3.9.5. Meta Keywords .................................................................................................................. 30 3.9.6. Meta-Description ............................................................................................................... 30 3.9.7. Meta-Robots-Tag ............................................................................................................... 30 3.9.8. Images ................................................................................................................................ 31 3.9.9. Domain Name(s) ................................................................................................................ 32 3.9.10. Structure ........................................................................................................................ 33 3.9.11. Colors ............................................................................................................................. 34 3.9.12. SEO Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 35 3.10. WEBSITE USABILITY...................................................................................................................... 36 3.10.1. Introduction ................................................................................................................... 36 3.10.2. Content .......................................................................................................................... 36 3.10.3. Scrolling ......................................................................................................................... 38 3.10.4. Search Function ............................................................................................................. 40 3.10.5. Descriptions ................................................................................................................... 40 3.10.6.