Some time back I followed a link to UsabilityEffect.com hoping to find some good information on web usability. What I found is a particularly un-usable website which seems to equate SEO techniques with usability.

It’s true that following good accessibility practises can improve SEO. An accessible website allows search engine crawlers to navigate the site better and therefore index the site more effectively. It’s also true that following good accessibility practices can automatically confer usability benefits. This site however manages to throw all of that away by cramming as much keyword-loaded sales pitch as possible into a loosely connected collection of pages that it’s all too easy to get completely lost in.

The homepage header is nearly 400 pixels high, contains 3 logos (assuming the glass of water picture is a logo), 13 links (5 of which are to other websites) and 4 paragraphs of text. That’s all before you get to the main navigation. Sounds a bit chaotic?, well wait until you view any of the other pages on the site. You’re lucky if the header stays the same size between clicks and even luckier if the navigation links stay the same and in the same place, that’s assuming that you didn’t click a link in the navigation menu and find yourself on another site entirely.

Much of the site copy seems to be written purely to shoe-horn certain buzzwords into the page. This is great practise for SEO but surely confusing and disjointed text doesn’t improve usability?
Example:

“What Is User-Centered Design?
It’s the “information scent” behind a link label that has you so curious you can’t resist clicking to see where the page goes. Or, the way an image shows a vital closeup, helping customers see the quality of the product, so they feel confident buying it online.
It’s that cosmic connection with your web site visitor, or prospective customer, that makes all the time and expense you put into your creation finally pay off. It’s making those pay per click costs convert to sales leads. It’s when you put the needs of your web site visitor first. “

That sounds more like persuasive design to me, but as persuasive design has already been mentioned on the page, it’s time for a different buzzword.

User-centered design is about optimizing the user interface to the way a user wants or needs to work. It’s the process of removing the barriers between the desire to achieve and the achievement. If there’s any sort of cosmic connection then it’s one that’s passed me by.

There are examples of spurious web content guidelines too.
Example:

“TIP! Why the background colored blocks?
This makes it easier for end users with screen magnifiers to locate sections on this page.”

Better Tip!
Intuitively structured content and consistency of layout and navigation makes it easier for anybody to locate sections of the page – with or without screen magnifiers.

SEO is big business, Kimberley Krausberg knows this so why is she so ashamed to admit that SEO is what she does? Hiding behind the pretence that she is a usability expert annoys the hell out of me especially when the site is proof enough that she isn’t.

If I was an expert in carpet cleaning but advertised my services as an ‘environment hygienist’ then I would look pretentious and less credible than if I focused on my strengths as a carpet cleaner.

Be honest and committed to whatever you do and you will be perceived as far more credible.