Web development, design, and site optimization

David Snyder posted a very good article today on his blog that asks the question, what should come first (SEO or Site Usability)? David then goes on to try and answer this question or at least provide his opinion on the subject. It is a lengthy post, Dave please go give your wife and kids a visit before they forget who you are, but definitely worth a read as well as a plug on any social site you may belong to.

My opinion on the matter is that in general I would give the slight edge to SEO. If you can get people to your site, unless usability is really atrocious, you will succeed. Now you may have both good SEO and good usability and still fail, your offering may just not be good enough to put it nicely. SEO will help get first timers to your site, usability will keep them coming back.

Here is an excerpt from Dave’s post:

It is the chicken before the egg of the online industry.

Which comes first usability or SEO?

Designers and developers often take one stance on the issue, and SEOs another. I am not sure there is a right or wrong answer. Despite how many in our industry present information the only way we can quantify any degree of success in what we do is by measuring how profitable a web property is (I know not all websites operate for revenue, but who cares about them?).

Profitable sites have been built without sound search engine optimization.

Profitable sites have been built with poor usability.

Neither of these points can be argued.