SEO and the user interface
There is much agony and a lot of pain when web designers fight over what looks good and what is good for SEO. Probably, the bitterest fights are over Flash content. I would like to share some of my own experiences here.
A couple of years ago I was consulting for a website which sold greeting cards or gave away greeting cards for free. The dilemma was this: The web pages had already been optimized with hundreds of incoming links. The site used just one flash animation and the rest was search optimized text. The management wanted to migrate to a more user friendly Web2.0 interface with lots of user rankings, comments, most popular card, most viewed cards etc. This meant that the site would have to use a lot of JavaScript.
Two or more issues emerged from this exercise. First was whether flash was appropriate for SEO? And the second was whether JavaScript was a hindrance for SEO? Mind you, most of the Web 2.0 interactivity could be achieved only with JavaScript.
Just then Google announced that it had teamed up with Adobe (owners of Flash) to index text content in Flash. There were obviously some members of our team who were skeptical about the algorithm and the end result. What we heard was that Googlebot indexes “textual content in SWF files of all kinds” and extracts URLs embedded in Flash. Later Google rolled out another update designed to assist Googlebot in its ability to traverse simple JavaScript.
After many trials and errors we still could not ascertain how SEO was affected or whether it was affected at all. I must confess that the web is awash with observations from various SEO experts. What we finally did was to stick to our (X) html pages. We opted for superior fail proof SEO to a great looking Web 2.0 interface. (Eventually after a year of deliberation the website has modified its posture).
The point I want to make here is that core SEO is intrinsically linked with software .User interface cannot overlook Web 2.0 features for better interactivity. But to effectively carry both the objectives together you need a software guy out there who knows SEO. Plugging in keywords and providing great content is not everything. In fact, I would advise a high level of technical savvy when optimizing web pages for SEO purposes.
But I would not settle for this alone. Any web site redesign, for whatever purpose should be evaluated from an SEO perspective. I know .I know. User interface guys always cry foul when SEO steps in. For them site navigation and the pressure points are the only consideration. (That’s why I say don’t leave web design to the designers). By giving in to designers you can undo years of painstaking work to build the site brick by brick, link by link.
The main question which crops up is “What happens when someone clicks on a link from another website?” The ‘404 Not Found’ is as ugly a response as any. And you lose an important visitor. After all I am looking for traffic. That too coming from external links. But that’s not all. Search engines get a bit wonky if they don’t find the right link. And there goes your ranking – kaput.
Web site redevelopment both from the perspective of web page design and navigation can prove to be a costly exercise if SEO is not taken into account. The website I have been referring to has millions of hits in a day. The danger of losing many thousands of visitors because of redesign can be expensive. At the same time a website has to evolve, in terms of its frontend, user interface and visual appeal. We just cannot expect websites to remain static forever (There are some who claim that keeping website unchanged ensures that loyal customers experience the same level of satisfaction as always, but that’s another story). The only via media is to keep SEO in mind while revamping a website. In practice, this can lead to a kind of paralysis and a preference to maintain the status quo.
Another issue which I would like to highlight here is that of merging websites. I recently read about a media firm which merged two of its popular websites. The end result was that it lost quarter of a million hits per month because of this exercise. One should redirect the users in an effective manner rather than lead them to a blank wall. If I am searching for a specific web page, I don’t want to be directed to a generic home page. This can be disastrous. It is these small things which make a big difference when it comes to SEO. But sometimes I wonder who advises the owners of web properties when it comes to making changes in user interface or for merging web sites.
