When Search Meets Web Usability [Paperback]

Shari Thurow (Author), Nick Musica (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 4, 2009 | ISBN-10: 0321605896 | ISBN-13: 978-0321605894 | Edition: 1

This book delivers a proactive approach to building an effective Web site that is search engine friendly and will result in better search rankings. It outlines the steps needed to bridge the gap between a Google search and a Web site, and also improve the users' experience once they get to the site. By understanding the wide variety of information-seeking strategies and the individual behaviors associated with them, this book helps information architects, Web designers/developers, SEOs/SEMs, and usability professionals build better interfaces and functionality into Web sites. Creating a satisfying user experience is the key to maximizing search effectiveness and getting conversions.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Shari Thurow has been designing and optimizing sites for search engine visibility since 1995 and has been a Web site usability professional since 2002. Shari is a renowned speaker on this topic since 1999 and continues to lecture on this topic worldwide. Shari's first book, Search Engine Visibility, was one of the first books ever published about search engine optimization. Nick Musica has over 10 years experience architecting, designing, writing, and managing Web sites. He is the Founder and of Think Green Media and is a guest lecturer in New York University's Graphic Communications Management and Technology Master of Arts program on Web design, search marketing and Web site usability.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: New Riders; 1 edition (April 4, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321605896
• ISBN-13: 978-0321605894
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 0.4 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,252,436 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Shari Thurow, Founder and SEO Director of Omni Marketing Interactive, has architected, designed, and promoted Web sites since 1995. As the leading expert on search-engine friendly Web design and search usability, Shari lectures on these topics worldwide and is currently working on her next book.

As a self-proclaimed "search geek," Shari is fascinated with how people discover and locate desired content. Her areas of interest include search/browsing behaviors, information retrieval systems, and interaction design. Other passions include Metallica, Iceland (beautiful country and wonderful people), Japanese literature and culture, Norse and other world mythology, and French wine.

Shari holds an MA in Asian Studies (Japanese) and a BA in Genetics and Developmental Biology from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her Ph.D. work is in Library and Information Sciences with a specialty in Human/Computer Interfaces (HCI).

Did I mention that I'm a brainiac? I am, but I don't know everything.

Omni Marketing Interactive is a full-service search engine optimization, information architecture, Web design/development, and Web site usability firm.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Remarkably helpful -- concise, targeted and immediately useful December 15, 2009

By Jeffrey Korn

Format:Paperback

I'm a UI and usability professional. Not a search engine optimization expert. So this book offered me the perfect bridge between the two disciplines. In fact, the book discloses some surprising (and surprisingly valuable) nuggets that I'm able to incorporate into my work immediately.

This book is a pixel-perfect fit for designers on all ends of the spectrum, and for anyone running an online business. I recommend it to anyone who cares about creating a better user experience for all the visitors whose trip to a site begins with search.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommend December 15, 2009

By Tracy A. Wehringer

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

If you are embarking in search or have been aligned with SEO for a number of years, this book, When Search Meets Web Usability, by Nick Musica and Shari Thurow, highlight the importance of understanding the user experience throughout the entire process. Shari and Nick both clearly define the importance of creating the flow from the initial key word search or a more informational; long tail search to how companies should define Web usability to create a satisfying experience.

This book shows very clear examples on how to create search process to easily moving the user to the specific information they are requesting to creating the conversion. The one problem I uncovered when I started reading it is that I could not put it down.

When Search Meets Web Usability gives an in-depth background on search engines, indexes, robot tags, and meta tags and how these tools impact SEO and help your Website to be available to those users that are searching for your solution.
Nick and Shari also provide real world case studies from what they have learned and acquired through their many years of working within search. They provide strong metrics that back-up their real world examples. Having the right keywords that your users use to obtain information, website usability that is streamline and provides a user a clean way to move through the site to obtain their information, and provide a conversion method (tag) are the key drivers to help create the perfect intersection between search and usability.

Professionally as a consultant I've utilized key learning's from this book and implemented these attributes for many clients, including Prudential Financial, Inc. I highly recommend this book to those in college as well as those professionals that are seasoned with SEO.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Introduction; Some Gems for Pros December 13, 2009

By R. Laporte

Format:Paperback

This is a good and useful book. It teaches crucial, overarching concepts conveyed by metaphors and detailed by action plans. After brief background, I'll discuss its value for non-specialists and then for seasoned professionals. Then I'll reveal some weaknesses and conclude with my final recommendation.

The non-specialist - whether a multi-titled, small business manager or a CMO managing a team of usability and/or search marketing employees or vendors - will find models by which to think creatively about search engine optimization, usability, and salient intersections between the two. Especially useful is the emphasis on the three main kinds of searches - navigational, transactional, and informational - which motivate searchers and should structure a website's landing pages and navigation.

Search engine optimization (SEO) specialists will benefit from (re)acquaintance with the business of usability, and vice versa. While much of the information will be familiar to specialists, the book provides enough new concepts and tools to make it worth buying. For example, the modeling of return on investment (ROI) assessments will help managers prioritize marketing resources among all marketing channels. No doubt readers will alter the spread sheet models to fit their business, but the focus on ROI spreadsheets and the specific examples manifest a results-based managerial vision that is central to successful web marketing. Another example of approaches and tools worth using and perhaps new to specialists, are the usability tests you can run in-house. Even consummate professionals need reminding of the several errant myths of usability explained in the book.

Does the book have flaws? Yes, plenty, but the pros outweigh the cons. Like most business books, too often this one states the obvious. Also, I disagree strongly with the book's suggestion that web marketers can't derive huge returns by learning the well-established, generic usability guidelines published by the likes of Jakob Nielsen, whose books tower above most if not all others. The former academic in me feels that Shari and Nick should have referenced other great books and web sites in both fields, especially where the concepts and, at least in one case, the terminology is borrowed and may not yet be an industry standard that needs no citation. The authors stride into a field burgeoning with great minds and with a higher percentage of very good books than in most business fields, and the lack of reference to them seems insecurity about the value of this book as an extension of predecessors' work. There are better books than this one that web marketers of all stripes must read, and it would have been helpful to readers and to the integrity of the SEO and usability professions had the authors situated themselves within their community of SEO and usability masters.

I would have given this book 3.5 stars if that choice were available. But keep in mind that I've been a CEO in these two fields for 13 years, before which I taught Shakespeare and other literature at a major university - and I continue to resist grade inflation. So, 3.5 stars means, buy the book, use its many helpful parts -- and read the great books too!