Before you get all SEO’d out of your eyeballs think about how new visitors will experience your site. Fixing usability problems also helps SEO:
Keep links out of body copy
Readers can only fully process a sentence once they’ve reached the end. Smacking a link in the middle puts a roadblock in the way of clarity and entices them to click away from your site.
Competitive keywords aren’t buying words
You’ve found the most searched term with the least competition and it vaguely describes your product, great! Not so much. Think about words that indicate the searcher is ready to buy your product and trust that the strength of your brand or quality of your product is enough to withstand the competition.
Fast load time leads to better rank
Though it’s still rather cloak and dagger, Yahoo filed a patent for an algorithm that considered how long a page took to render. Google also offers friendly tips (aka do as I tell you, I am the universe) on site performance and what it considers a reasonable load time.
Good usability increases time on site and number of pages visited
Which is nice.
Search engines index microcopy
Copy on buttons, links, forms, 404s and anything that helps users complete their task is also used by Google for indexing. It’s an opportunity to be helpful and increase profit. Like helping a granny then nicking her purse.
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TBH I’m increasingly finding that since google instant that competitive words are becoming buying words. The intent in larger searches is no longer being expressed in the way it was two years ago – also sub-variants in the keyword chains are becoming less valuable as search queries get longer for experienced searchers who ignore the suggest option (they’re a smart group who operate on a different level it would appear) but their search patterns are dispirate and less easy to define. Load time is really only becoming a serious factor to a few websites in highly competitive markets – and is more of a post-panda factor in relation to the bounce factor on sites.
Great insight, thanks for the comment Mike. Particularly good to hear from the user side of things. My initial reason for this post was a client-taming exercise as I’ve found that they’re using a few quick-n-dirty techniques to get the increased traffic rush they’re looking for. Your considered approach to the experience level of the searcher is very valuable – stealing it!