April 22, 2011 – There has been a long time competition, war, or some battle of sorts between website usability and search engine optimization. Each side argues that they know best how to make web pages findable in search engines. The irony? They are both right.

Search Engine Land brought this news to our attention in their article, “Usability & Internet Search Marketing: A More Unified Approach.”

User experience and user interface design offers challenges because our needs constantly change as we adapt to living and using the Internet to get information. Search engines want user interaction information and data so they can continue to deliver what people want. Why does this seem so simple but yet so difficult? Usability studies need to be considered in the search engine marketing strategies. It is time to play together.

Melody K. Smith