I read an econsultancy report recently where I was surprised to learn that the UK market for usability in 2007 was worth an estimated £178 million.

Why surprised?

Because in sharp contrast, the UK market for search engine marketing (search engine optimisation + pay per click advertising) for the same year was worth an estimated whopping £2.22 billion.

The figures for 2008 and 2009 are equally polar.

Year	Total UK search engine marketing value	% rise from previous year	Total UK usability (User experience) value	% Rise from previous year
2007	£2.22bn	n/a	£178m	n/a
2008	£2.75bn	23%	£187m	5%
2009	£3bn+	9%+	£196m	5%

Companies are spending fortunes getting people to their websites, and judging by the figures, doing very little to make sure that they stay. This is putting the cart before the horse in my opinion.

Undoubtedly, there is merit investing in search engine marketing, helping people find and get to your site. But what happens when people get there and can’t use it?

• The usability is so poor that that they leave, without ever purchasing your product or service.
• They leave without reading those great reasons why working with you will benefit them and help their company prosper.
• The few, fiercely determined plough ahead, try to complete a task or transaction, only to stop half way through cursing because it is too hard or confusing to use.
• All are frustrated and annoyed, telling friends and family what a “useless website it was”.

These scenarios often tend to be the rule rather than the exception. What’s more unfortunate is for many people their first interaction with a company is through the web. A very high percentage leave after a bad first experience to never return — a potential customer lost forever.

All the money being spent on search engine marketing is costing a lot more than it’s supposedly earning companies, that is, unless the usability is first and foremost. My advice is to validate the return on investment on any spend for search engine marketing before you part with your hard earned cash.

In the meantime, put a fraction of the money you are going to spend on search engine marketing into fixing what you currently have. Make your website work. Make it really usable before you bring the crowds through the front door. That way, you are sure of a return on investment. Lower bounce rates, optimised sales funnels, higher conversions, cost savings through self service that actually works, and all those things you can actually measure through web analytics, not just counting clicks.

So before you spend money on herding people to your site, make those changes that will end user frustration, ensuring that when they leave, they’ll do so saying “that’s a really great site”.