I just read another “SEO is on its death-bed - long live usability” article. This one claims that the SEO caterpillar is about to evolve into a beautiful user experience design butterfly and live in the magical land of happy search engines forever after.

One popular reason for impending doom for practitioners of the “dark art” of search engine optimization is that they are bullies, cheats, con artists, greedy fools and money hungry link grabbing liars. And drunks.

I’ve never understood the logic of the anti-SEO movement. For starters, every summer, the giant search engine Google itself holds a HUGE party for SEO’s attending the annual San Jose Search Engine Strategies conference. Google invites SEO’s inside to chat with their people. Google feeds them, lets them get drunk, brings in a stage, music and colorful lights and sends bus after bus to transport all the SEO’s for free to this big party.

Without SEO, there would be no search engine. SEO’s will die over Google’s dead body.

Common reason number two is that “black-hat” SEO is evil and those bad people who use these practices will go to hell. Black-hat SEO’s aren’t afraid to take on the topics many marketers won’t touch. If not for the dedication of cloning and comment spam, some people would have to rely on the drug dealer on the street for pain killers and risk being arrested or seen by nosy Mrs. Davis. Or, the man who can’t bear to go to the doctor for ED has access to 3 billion Viagra sites and can find rescue before his hot date this coming Friday. To those folks, creepy SEO’s are the good guys. As long as desperate people rely on search engines to solve problems, there will be a need for competitive marketing practices and con jobs.

It is said that search engines and Internet marketers are working towards the same goals. I teetered on believing this too. However, the way I’ve come to understand the big picture is that search engines want to provide information to users and marketers want to persuade users towards certain information. These are close but different goals. And, they conflict as house mates under the same roof. (Which is why Google tries to set SEO guidelines.)

Some view the end of SEO as the birth of an interest in usability or user experience. So let’s look at this for a minute.

Say, for example, you have a web site in a competitive niche such as call centers or vitamin sales or wedding gifts. When you sit down with developers to discuss site requirements, quite often one of the prevailing concerns will be building a usable web site. It’s certainly possible that the criteria for this “usable” site contains things like:

easy navigation
site search
easy to read font sizes and color contrasts
task driven click paths

but will not contain

authentic
credible
competitive
customer service oriented
emotionally satisfying.

All of the above are usability heuristics. The second section is also part of Search Engine Marketing. For example, sometimes a title tag notes whether or not a site is the “original” version. The meta description and introductory content on the homepage will address credibility, authenticity and the value proposition. This is organic SEO and even today, an under-used skill.

Marketers will want to get user generated content, feedback and testimonials to communicate great customer service. This content comes up in search engines and is necessary for persuasive design.

SEO’s and Usability or User Experience practitioners are interested in creating momentum. They want readers to find the pill that stops the pain, or book that provokes them to consider ideas and try new things or the product that saves time and energy. Search engines could care less what you find. They just want you to find it in their search engine and be happy with the search result experience.

All search engine marketing efforts benefit from solid usability oriented design and constant user testing. This includes so-called shady SEO. One of the tricks for black-hat marketing is to create the exact same web site, but it is called different names because it’s called up by different domains selected to match certain keywords and search phrases. Someone searching for prescription-free medications may think they found the answer to their prayers by AcmeFreeMeds.com until they do more searching and see the exact same web design, links and content on 4 other domains. This reduces credibility in an instant.

Sure, some folks will dive into the first site but other potential customers will catch on to the scam and not place their order because they suspect a rip-off. This is marketing without usability. However, just one version of the pills by email site that’s user friendly may not see the light of day unless someone is hired to make it competitive in search engines. Even beautiful famous people have agents promoting them.

It’s sad to read some writers who say SEO is about exploitation and manipulation. So is dating for heavens sake. Think how different it would be to date people if you could bring along testimonials, a sitemap to where that thing they do sends chills the most and a privacy policy.

There’s always going to be a need for competitive marketing and always a need for pleasant user experiences. SEO doesn’t NEED usability and usability doesn’t NEED SEO.

They do balance each other, protect each other, cover each other’s back and increase the chances for conversions and word of mouth marketing. Simple organic SEO techniques enhance accessibility and mobile design. Those skills aren’t going away and, if anything, are in high demand.

Searchers want to know what web sites will work on their cell phone. What applications will work with their cell phone provider? Will the FLASH site permit them to order online via their hand held device?

Somebody has to market this information and search engines are waiting for credible, skilled marketers to step up to the challenge and for designers to build the usable stuff searchers want to find.

I was approached by a friend with an idea. It went along the lines of “What if we get a group together to promote this cause ….” and from that point on my imagination soared with what-ifs and can-we’s.

And I wondered about the can of worms we might be opening.

Those of you in Facebook know from experience that when someone who is your “friend” joins a cause, everyone gets a notice about it. After awhile, we begin to get a sense of what our friends are interested in, besides work. We can gauge how well matched we are, how different we might be from each other and see sides of friends we never knew about.

Also, in Facebook, we get alerts whenever someone signs up to be a fan of someone or something. We pick who is the “Most Beautiful”, “Who is Funniest”, and rate everything from smiles to who we’d like to marry. Some of it’s fun and games. Some of it is honest insight, such as when a friend backs a certain politician and it’s announced to everyone on their friends list.

When you do business with peers or are friends with CEO’s and company owners who have Facebook pages and profiles, is there a point where you think to yourself, “I didn’t need to know that” when they post something they’ve joined? If someone’s “status” is, “I’m naked in bed with my laptop”, is this TMI (Too Much Information)?

I remember how freeing it was when Threadwatch ran a long thread a few years back about SEO’s who work from home. It was a coming out party of men and a few women who admitted to working naked or in their PJ’s, odd hours and in varying environments, from home to Starbucks to heck, likely a few bars.

Is Social Networking Coming at a Price?

The social media networking phase of the Internet experience has allowed us to meet and talk to each other. It also lets us share bits and pieces of ourselves as if we were eating lunch at the same table at school and sitting with our group, or attending a company picnic and throwing horse shoes with fellow employees.

In other words, we’re starting to hang out together, as well as also doing business with each other. We’re moving beyond a professional networking, spell checked, politically correct version of ourselves and into a “This is the real me” version, where we’re more willing to share our interests and life events outside of work.

Instead of rows and rows of employment “cube farms” where you pop up over the wall to share potato chips with your neighbor and gossip about the manager, there’s now IM and Twitter. It’s easy to type that spontaneous thought begging to be leaked out and in seconds, it’s out there and going all over the place to who knows who?

Does this matter?

If a group of your industry peers banded together to support a cause you don’t believe in, would you not do business with them?

If a group of your industry peers supported a political view or candidate, set up a web site and promoted themselves as supporters, and you strongly disagree with that view or candidate, would you feel differently about them? Enough to not associate with them? Work with them? Refer work to them?

In some ways, this is like joining a forums where you feel you fit. You like how you’re treated there and the people have similar beliefs or attitudes as you do. I’m reminded of blog writing, when we had asked if it’s proper to write about our personal lives in our business or professional blogs.

Whenever we remove our mask and people see the real us, there’s a risk. How much of yourself are you willing to reveal? Is it important to doing business online?

What do you think? Does someone’s choices in their personal life alter your opinion of their business services?

Would you have the courage to stand up and defend a cause you believe in, and bring attention to it in your web site or blog if you could, even though it has nothing to do with your business, products or services?

Added: Discussion Could What You Stand Up For Detract From Your Reputation?

Apparently I stirred one of the Moderators for Cre8asiteforums with my remarks the other day in Are We Designing For The Human Experience? I stated that I felt it was “wishful thinking” to believe that forums would last much longer. Considering I own one, I can see this raising an eyebrow.

My friend Adrian Lee, Cre8asiteforums Site Administrator and one of my longest known friends on the Internet, chewed on this and then came to the forums to pick our brains, in a discussion called The State Of The Social Web And Where Forums Fit In. He launches the thread with:

Forums used to be a bastion of online social communities. Not the first kind of community. You had newsgroups and others before Forums, in the form we see them now, became big. But for several years now, there have been lots of big forums, huge, diverse communites or people discussing various things in various manners. They’ve been one of the main forms of community on the web, especially since chat rooms began to decline in popularity.

Now that we have this new raft of social community, from the Diggs/Reddits/Teechmemes, to the Facebook/Myspaces/Bebos, are forums as we know them, under threat?

Kim’s been mentioning it a bit recently, wondering how they fit into the new scheme of things, and I see Rand saying he’s drifting more to blogs and social bookmarking sites from forums.

And actually, I can see what they mean.

One of our points is that sites like Sphinn, SearchEngineRoundtable and others not only direct their readers to some of our forums threads, but discussions can occur on those sites, outside the original thread. In the case of Sphinn, readers can vote on a topic, which in some cases, is not an article but one of our Cre8asiteforum threads.

Interesting thing. Is there something wrong with forums? Is talking about discussions outside the room with outsiders kind of like gossip? Is the ability to cross link and weave forum threads in and out of other web sites simply part of the social aspect of the Internet?

Forum participants in this thread are offering thoughtful ideas and it’s obvious a nerve was struck. Can blogs, forums and social network sites continue to share the Web or are forums being phased out?

Where do you feel the most comfortable being?

As a volunteer reporter for Barry Schwartz’s Search Engine Roundtable blog, I’m often asked, “Why do you do it?” My consulting work is focused on usability and Internet application testing. Why am I out chasing sessions at search engine marketing conferences?

To begin with, my work began in web design and consulting/online teaching search engine optimization in the 1990’s. Therefore, I know many “long-timers” in the SEO/M industry. It remains an area of strong interest for me, which is why I continue to keep another volunteer, non-paying project, Cre8asiteforums, going. Discussions there cover web design, development, usability, accessibility, search engines, marketing, and much more.

This daily involvement keeps me well informed, which makes me unique to companies and individuals who wish for usability consulting from someone who can see the whole picture. I need (and want) to understand the code behind a page, the behaviors and habits of people intended to use those web pages and the ways in which the final product may be marketed.

Knowledge Fortifies and Enhances Skills

Since in today’s web environment, more and more people are finding web sites from social networking sites, I felt it was important for me to truly understand how advertising, marketing and public relations companies are applying social media to their clients’ marketing campaigns.

This is why I chose this particular conference as my next volunteer reporting “job”. Being there in person allows me to meet industry leaders or speakers who are teaching attendees. The entire time I’m at a conference related to marketing, in my mind, I’m weaving what I learn into what I know about human factors and user centered design.

For example, one of the messages that came from this conference on social media was that success comes from participating in social networking. It’s not something you can pretend to know from the outside, looking in. To truly understand who uses Facebook, Stumbleupon, or the hundreds of niche micro community sites popping up, marketing teams learn and apply campaigns by first getting involved with social media/networking communities.

When a client comes to you, seeking the right profitable course for their brand, a skilled marketer will know which social networking site is the best fit for your company. This may absolutely NOT be Digg, Reddit, MySpace or Facebook.

Choose a marketing company that takes the required time to study your target market and understands their behaviors, language, interests and their favorite ways of communicating with one another. This includes understanding the importance of usability, accessibility and persuasive web design and where these fit into web site promotion and social web behavior. Once again, I’ve reinforced my long-held belief that usability and seo (and all the related tie-in skills to these two areas), are able to join forces and provide a united project plan. A team such as this understands and values your brand reputation management.

They are also well aware that the Internet never sits still. Consider hiring employees and consultants who invest time in keeping their skills and knowledge current. Additionally, make sure to budget for continued education for your present staff. A poor choice in marketing or web design can absolutely crush your business.

This is why I place such value on reporting conference sessions and why I invest my own money to do it.

I want to be sure that those who hire me are getting the best person for the job.

Coverage by Search Engine Roundtable, Rather Than My Own Blog

Another key reason I’m tied to SER is because I’m a contributing writer for that blog. I do that, and conference reporting, because he’s been a great friend and strong supporter to me. So yes, a bit of simple loyalty and friendship certainly comes into play. Barry doesn’t put any pressure on his reporters. He’s always grateful for the help. I’m crazy enough to work for a smile and a hug sometimes…

It’s our tradition, at SER, to get the session information posted quickly. SER was the first blog to try and reach every SES conference and bring it to those who weren’t able to be there in person. Several years later this remains a volunteer project, where reporters offer to help Barry Schwartz (and now Tamar Weinberg), blog sessions. In cases like SES, where there are 3 - 4 days with 4 tracks of sessions, the result exceeds the exceptional when his volunteer reporting team produces nearly complete coverage.

Everyone has their own style. Perfect copy is not a requirement, nor a demand. (I tend to push out the first draft and then go back and edit for clarity and errors.) While the lack of perfection has been sometimes criticized, I feel that many people don’t realize that none of us are paid to do this. We pay for our own rooms, food and travel expenses to “give back” to the community in this way. We try to not make mistakes (like when I got dates wrong on Tuesday), but when we have a chance to breathe, someone from SER manages to go back and catch the errors readers haven’t already pointed out.

Lastly, I do this work wearing my jeans and sneakers if I wish to. (Thanks so much for that!)

Barry’s Recap of Sessions is here

SMX was a two-day, one track conference. The following were covered (all sessions except the last one on Wednesday, which was a clinic. We also don’t report Q & A, which follow each session.)

Social Media Marketing Essentials
Linkbait - Chumming for Traffic on Social Media Sites
Extra! Extra! The Social News Sites
A Marketer’s Guide to Social Bookmarking & Tagging
Keynote Q&A: Joshua Schachter of del.icio.us & Garrett Camp of StumbleUpon
Effectively Leveraging Social Networking
Evangelist - The Marketer’s Role in SMM
Micro Communities
Wikipedia, Yahoo Answers & Answer Sharing

I also linked to additional coverage and photos in Photos Are Up for SMX Social Media NYC

As I’ve mentioned, this is the last conference I can afford to volunteer for. It’s been an honor to serve the Search Engine Marketing industry in this way.

……………………………………

Related:

SMX: Was it worth it? Did I learn anything? Will I go again? by Brendan Picha.

Photos from Liana Evans’ SMX Social NYC 2007 pictures set.

Li Evans tagged me the other day about reasons to go to the IM NY Leukemia and Lymphoma Society fund raiser in New York city this coming Monday.

Because I’m one of those barefoot, happier in the country folks whose idea of real transportation is a horse, the only reason I’m truly able to get to this gig is because of Li, whose duty tomorrow will be dragging me on a train to NY.

This is my last conference for the SEO industry this year, in which I volunteer my time to cover sessions for the SearchEngineRoundtable. It’s hard work, but worth the pressure because I’m grateful for the education I’m receiving as I’m typing along.

The SMX SM conference is focused on social media and how it relates to marketing. Since Internet users control marketing these days, rather than marketing directing our choices and their brand reputation, how social sites fit in, are utilized, and even exploited, are all important aspects of Internet marketing to know these days.

There’s little in the way of how usability, user centered design, and captology fit into social media design, but persuasive design is already on this elephant’s back. I’m also paying attention to Luke Wroblewski’s articles on form and application design because the better designed applications will help in creating the whole “social” aspect of the Internet. Facebook users can testify that some of the applications offered there are simply a pain in the neck to use, with some of them not offering any information before requiring you to install them.

Posting here next week, between the conference, work and being a mom (and “frying up the bacon”, you know the drill) will be up for grabs. I’ll be at Barry’s blog, and trying to not freak out on the subway. I have some recall of being on one once a long time ago, and I haven’t been on train in over 30 years!

However, after what I went through to get to the San Jose SES conference by way of getting stranded twice in Chicago, this should be a piece of cake.

I only live 2 hours away from NYC. How hard can this be?