1 post tagged “checklists”
If I had to make a checklist of things co-workers should never give me, because they drive me batty, Search Engine Optimization checklists would rank high.
Unfortunately, I never gave my co-workers such a list. So, when I walked into the office this morning, I had two sample Search Engine Optimization checklists sitting neatly on my keyboard. These lists are from some piece of internet dreck called Deliver First-Class Web Sites: 101 Essential Checklists by Shirley Kaiser.
Shirley, being a true expert in the web, realized no one in the technology industry has the attention span to read a book that isn't in list format and that she doesn't have the content to write more than a few hundred pithy statements about what makes a web site first class.
I have no problems with SEO and really no problems with checklists. Best practices have their place and a list reminding you what those best practices are is helpful. My problem is when best practices are elevated to essential checklists for first-class websites. I know plenty of folks that will shake their head at a feature implementation because it violated one of these sacred checklists. "You've violated rule #14 on good web design," the SEO checklist holder says. To which I reply, we are building a great user experience. I don't care if we violate rule #14 or any other rule for that matter, because building a great user experience trumps any rule.
Let me repeat that: building a great user experience trumps any rule. It's the one rule that puts a site like craigslist over SEO optimized classified ads. It's the rule that puts EBay way above any other auction site, even with their dynamic variable loaded URLs (Rule #22). They built brand. They built a cult. And there's no list that will beat brand and cult.
In typical, passive-agressive Seattle fashion, I made my own SEO checklist and wrote it on the company's whiteboard, so everyone who passes by the windowed conference room can see it. It reads:
Build great sites that people love.
And that's it.
