Who are we designing for? People or Robots

Added : ( Mon Mar 07 2005 )

I read an interesting article in one of the USA online forums about a designer who was sick and tired of being asked to design his client’s sites around Google’s search engine. “True”, he said, “it is important to be visible on the web, but how far do we take it, and if we take it the whole hog does site usability suffer?”

This brings up an interesting discussion. We are increasingly being asked to produce sites that rank in the top 10 for their specific industry. Now, it is possible to produce user friendly sites focussing on usability as much as SEO – but does this mean that the design suffers because of it? Are we beginning to write, design and build sites for Google’s Googlebot, or is it simply that we are becoming more aware of the need to optimise for the good of our client’s business?

Let’s discuss both sides:
Robots

Obviously, any web designer worth their salt knows that sites have to be visible to search engines. If they are not, then the client will surely want to know why – the end result being a disappointed client.

So, I can see why some design companies or individuals are temped to drop huge blocks of keyword rich text and keyword crammed paragraphs into their sites to make sure that they get recognised (and to a certain extent it works).

Experienced search engine optimisers actually write site content in a style rich in keywords. Their writing style is different as they cram keywords in simply out of instinct. Writing for search engine robots therefore is often not user friendly. The whole style of writing is different and is more difficult and harder to skim.

Layout is also an issue. Search engine optimisers will say have as many keywords visible on the site as possible – increasing the likelihood of the search engine picking you up and indexing you. Does this mean every site should be crammed with hyperlinked keywords?
People

Keyword cramming is surely not any good for human’s who don’t tend to read websites like a robot. They read paragraphs like they read a book – logically delivered text which is comfortable to read. Softer words help to relax the reader and help them pick out information relevant to them.

Often too much information makes a site complicated and difficult to relax in. Lots of hyperlinks means that the reader has to scan each and every one of these before making the decision where to visit next. So, usually confusion means they hit the back button and that is that.

People now know what keyword cramming is. They know that a block of text in a light colour at the bottom of the screen in small size is there for the search engine, and I firmly believe this takes away from the respect visitors give a site and brand. They ask themselves “why if they are a trusted and established do they need to do this to get ranked?”
The Solution

I firmly believe that sites should be designed around the human first, the robot second. The reason? Well robots may index your site and place it top 10 in Google, but humans are the ones who make the buying decisions. They are the people who tap in the credit card details and buy.

Now search engine optimisers may disagree and say, well without your site being visible people aren’t going to get there in the first place. Well, true. Without plugging what I do for a living, we have actually succeed in this site (http://www.massive.co.uk) to provide a usable platform which is very successful in getting ranked across the board in Google. Why? Well we use a clear architecture, and we place important pages from selected hyperlinks throughout articles and news. Google sees these and knows which page is more important than another, ranking them higher than others.

So then perhaps it’s laziness that breeds keyword stuffed paragraphs. It takes more time to design a site carefully than it does to drop loads of keywords in and hope for the best. So listen up – it doesn’t have to be this way – and Google is learning about it fast. Soon keyword spammed sites won’t get ranked as well and then clients will want to know why.

Would you like some more help?
Please feel free to call or email us:
Freephone: 0800 011 28 30
Email: info@massive.co.uk

Written by Johnny Ratcliffe, Massive Media Web Designers, Bradford, UK
www.massive.co.uk
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