Is SEO Scaring Your Visitors?
SEO spam wasn’t (and isn’t) pretty but offered (semi) effective methodology back in the day. It went against all my marketing instincts but everyone else was doing it – so why shouldn’t I?
The problem of course is that well, it looks bad terrible for visitors. Truly terrible and I think probably one of the main reasons other digital professionals used to hate SEO types.
Making The Change To Standards
Then, I don’t when exactly, I was introduced to web standards and accessibility (thank you Adrian Johnson!). Search engine penalties / filters were getting more aggressive and less started to become more in the world of SEO. After running sites (built to standards) through my regular SEO toolkit, I realised that this was the way to go on every level of the client project.
Around 4 years ago, I made the conscious decision to base my work around web standards and the results followed. I was a convert and haven’t really looked back since.
I think that my story is similar to many SEO’s. The industry has grown up significantly and the days of ‘adding’ seo on a client site are happily a distant memory for me. That said, I know that brand butchers are still out there.
Are You Scaring Customers?
So what are we really talking about? here is a tongue in cheek look at common ways in which seo can turn of your visitor profile.
1. Keywords, Keywords & Yet More Keywords
After reading the first sentence, everyone knows your keyword target(s)! By the time your visitors have read the first page, their brain begins to hurt. They don’t have a clue what the page is trying to say anymore. They read the same keyword / phrase so many times they think you have gone mad. They ultra focus on the content. The more they do, the more their brain hurts.
Result: Brand Turnoff / Hit The Back Button
2. The Footer Monster
The page is going ok and then crunch, you deposit a tonne of footer spam in their lap. The mess takes a few days to come out in the wash. They didn’t notice it at first because it was in a soft grey font on a white background. Once its noticed, its a creeping shadow on the experience. Its the footer monster. People get scared.
Result: Brand Turnoff / Hit The Back Button
3. Markup Sick
The visitor gets presented with every other word in italic or bold. Every 5th word is a hyperlink to some content (that really doesn’t flow with the page content being read). Its like being spun round face down, two inches from a red paisley carpet – after drinking a bottle of vodka. After three pages, they give up and go for a lie down in a dark room.
Result: Brand Turnoff / Hit The Back Button
4. Navigation ‘Made For Search’ Hell
The visitor notices an ‘extra’ menu stuffed full of keywords that doesn’t feel part of the web site framework. They avoid it, not understanding what it is or why its their. Eventually they can’t resist and click a link. They get presented with garbage pages that make no sense. Analytics suggest that this content never gets much traffic and enjoys a massive bounce rate.
Result: Brand Turnoff / Hit The Back Button
5. The SEO Payload
The new ‘SEO’ work is added to the site. A scroll bar, loads of text in the top of the page and a range of new navigation links to boot. No one checks the site in firefox, chrome or safari. Three months down the line, you realise its broken in these browsers. The penny drops why the bounce rate is so high. You feel slightly sick, having spent all extra money on a recent marketing campaign.
Result: Brand Turnoff / Hit The Back Button
A Bit Of Fun!
Ok, this is a bit of fun everyone but nothing annoys me more these days than seeing a web site thats been optimsed like this. Its a great way to make me leave the site – how about you?
Jon
Tags: accessibility, bounce, brand, killers, optimisation, over, rate, SEO, Spam, standards, visitor, w3c, Web