Why SEOs Need to Take Web Usability Seriously

As people get familiar with SEO tactics and search engine ranking guidelines, we see more and more individuals who are good at getting high rankings on search engines but are terrible when it comes to usability. I was in a meeting with an individual who claimed to have been featured on Search Engine Watch (whether he was or not I have no clue), and I was surprised when he claimed he is no designer nor a web usability specialist when I asked him to correct his ugly sketch for my new website. In essence, the individual was trying to put some highly optimized content on my page without taking into account the user experience or the reputation of the company. Thank God for Google for discouraging such practices, but as an SEO you should try to get familiar with web usability best practices in order to create websites that are not only optimized for search engines but also for users. Otherwise, no matter how many people you get to your site, the majority of them are going to hate you for your ugly practices.