Marketers may think they have to sacrifice site usability to maximize their rankings with the search engines. But the truth is, the most efficient strategy is finding a balance between the two strategies. As Netconcepts' Stephan Spencer said in a recent MarketingProfs article, "SEO, when done right, enhances the usability of the site for the user. Conversely, usability, when done right, enhances the search engine findability of the site."

According to Spencer, the five most important things to do to make your site more usable to human visitors and search engines alike are:

1. Create unique title tags for each page that incorporate good keywords and are succinct and not repetitive.
2. Provide succinct heading tags that further reinforce the keyword theme of the page.
3. Make sure you have a well-thought-out internal hierarchical linking structure that passes link gain to your most important pages.
4. Write anchor text containing good keywords, not throwaway phrases like "click here" or "read more."
5. Develop "Alt" tags that succinctly describe what a graphic is and what a button does.

The Point: You can have your cake and eat it, too. "Do these five things, and you are well on your way to both high rankings and better usability," says Spencer.

Source: MarketingProfs. Click here for more.

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