Kim Krause Berg started a rant on her blog about how the Sphinn community was not welcoming of usability experts. Her rant became a hot topic on Sphinn and it prompted Danny to create a Usability category. Kim brought the discussion to Cre8asite Forums asking if her rant went too far.
It was unanimous; everyone felt that it did not.
In fact, what about search conferences? Everyone agreed that Usability is something that should be integrated into the agenda for future search conferences.
I think we're really seeing something different: SEO is encompassing so many different terms and ideas, and usability should be part of it.
There have been plenty of times, when SEOs have been thinking that some other angle should be considered SEO or not. I recall the same talk about copywriting, marketing, hand-coding, link baiting and now it is about usability.
As EGOL says, "Usability is the big part of the New SEO."
However, Ammon Johns disagrees. He feels that Usability is not part of the new SEO per se, but it's definitely been something that was there for awhile.
It is part of old-school marketing. We call it making a smooth presentation.
Forum discussion continues at Cre8asite Forums.