What this post is about, however, is the mindset that drives this question: designers and site owners all want a slick interface for their site, built with universal usability for any and all visitors. Technically, this usability is supposed to include search engines, but it’s typically included in a perfunctory way—it’s sort of like sending a wedding invitation to that cousin you never see and barely know. On filigreed cardstock, you really want them to show up, but not as much as say, the family friend who likes to give envelopes full of money to newlyweds. As if that weren’t bad enough, for many site designers, search engine accommodation is a detail they care so little about that they’ll leave it to the search engines and users to bend to them, rather than the other way around.

In Range’s recent Search Marketing Now webinar on SEO and Usability, we had a chance to discuss the ways that your site’s usability and natural search potential actually walk hand-in-hand. For anyone who couldn’t attend or can’t listen in to the on-demand version the main takeaway is this: your natural search potential and conversion potential are, in many ways, the same thing. They’re often controlled and helped – or hindered – by the same elements, so don’t be willing to trade one for another.

As we all know, the online world’s rate of evolution increases every day, and there is a certain panicky pressure to be the first to jump on or keep up with the latest technology and techniques. For example, first there were JavaScript tricks, which were later reinvented for Flash and then most recently for AJAX. Each iteration made entirely new web experiences possible while still providing ways to make the same content accessible and clean to standard browsers, screen readers, mobile devices and, of course, search engines. And most new web tools are like that. But nearly every time, these opportunities get ignored in favor of even more usability-improving technology just not worrying about it, at least un until someone notices that traffic and conversion aren’t what they could be. Then you’re suddenly rushing to build fixes into the system that should have been there in the first place.

Now I’m not saying that you shouldn’t use Flash, or AJAX, or giant navigational images. It doesn’t take much to work with these elements to set yourself up for SEO success, but be aware that the more advanced the technology, the less it takes to doom your site to a comfortable spot on the fifth page of Google results. So what do you do? The solution is a pretty simple paradigm: build your site architecture with all of your users in mind, but ESPECIALLY SEARCH ENGINES. You’ll save yourself a lot of hassles in the long run.
In other words, the next time you’re designing a site, try something crazy: go back to the basics. Plan and design for the least common denominators and construct the simplest but most necessary elements in your site first. Once you’ve taken care of the basics essentials, then you can look for ways to layer in the bells and whistles everyone’s drooling over – as long as those basic elements aren’t affected.

This is how you build for SEO and for usability without having to go through costly and time-sucking changes later. It’s also the way to wire your house for electricity without having to tear out drywall: Do it before the drywall goes up!
To sum:

1. Your SEO and usability are affected by the same things – don’t sacrifice one for another.
2. Designing and building with all your users in mind is the way to thread this particular needle.

And no, Flash still isn’t readable, but you’ll hear it here first if that ever happens.