Hi everyone, While our website has been bringing in business, we have not optimised the site. I'm wondering if we should get an SEO expert first and then a usability expert or vice-versa. Or should we just get an expert who is able to do both SEO and Usability? We want to have the website functioning properly and optimized. Any advice would be most appreciated. Thanks!
I would say that usability is more important. It won't do you any good if search engines send people to a site that doesn't work. Make your site for people before search engines.
I agree with /\ above, it would make sense that your site should be easy to navigate for your users and functioning properly before work is done to increase the traffic.
That would be the ideal condition to go for - a seo with knowledge of usability is the best you can get if you don't get one, going for SEO first would be the second best scenario
The usability expert will probably need to alter the website. When his job is done, the SEO will also need to make some minor changes to the website code. Some SEO's will be able to do both tasks. If you cant't find one, I'd go for the usability first. If you have the site optimized and then change its appearance, you may alter the HTML code and ruin some of the optimization done. First create a website you're pleased with, then worry about attracting traffic.
Usability should be the first thing in my opinion. You should also get some users to test your website in order to fix errors it might have. If you don't have many money to spend, just do it yourself. This website might help you: www.sensible.com. After that, go to SEO. Hope I helped you in some way. Good luck for your business!