Search Engine Strategy : beBit

Home > Usability Columns > Search Engine Strategy

return to the list of columns

No.19 Search Engine Strategy (February 14, 2003)

Our second column for 2003 is on search engine strategy.

As search engines become more sophisticated, users are increasingly visiting sites via search engines. Accordingly, when building a website it is important to create pages with search engines in mind.

First, get back to basics rather than relying on gimmicks

Strategies for top placement on robot-type search engines have recently become a hot topic. You may have heard of SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Here, the bottom line is very simple: create pages that users want to see. Why? Because to get the support of users, search engines are programmed to list the pages users want to see at the top.

For instance, many sites previously used the gimmicky technique of embedding dozens of keywords in the Meta tag, which is targeted by search engines. However, the companies running the search engines have decided that these sites are dishonest and manipulate users with cheap tricks and are therefore not sites that users want to see. They've since evolved by improving their programming in such a way that this technique is no longer effective.

If your goal is to consistently aim for top placement on search engines, you have to get back to basics after all is said and done. Essentially, all you have to do is create a site that is user-friendly and valuable to your users.

The ever-increasing importance of the search engine

Since search engines started providing users with a browser-embedded search box, called a "toolbar," the way search engines are used has changed dramatically. This feature has eliminated the trouble of having to go to a search engine site every time you want to search for something, and has made it possible instead to simply type words in the search box displayed in your browser and hit the Enter key.

With this dramatic reduction in the amount of work required to search for something, not only is this feature used to find out where the information you don't know is, but it has also become used to display the link of a site you know about, by typing in the name of the site. In other words, search engines are now used in the way that bookmarks were previously used.

Text-centeredness is fundamental

With these changes in search behavior, you need hits from search engines, and you need top placement to get as many users to view your site as possible. Just as we emphasized in our previous column Make Pages Light and Text-Centered, pages should be created mainly using text. Text-centered sites have a much higher readability than graphic-centered sites. For that reason, the search target of search engine robots is mainly text.

For information other than that which can only be communicated via graphics or videos, write good, solid text and consider how you can get hits from search engines with the text that you use. This will result in more users visiting your site via search engines.

No.18

No.20

return to the list of columns

| Usability Columns |

| Home |