The best lesson I’ve learned from all the years I’ve spent working in digital marketing is that the easiest and quickest fix is rarely the best solution. Over the past years, Google’s constant changing has caused SEO techniques and Digital Marketing to evolve. User experience, or UX, isn’t a new concept for business. However, organisations sometimes underestimate just how important it is to SEO.
What is UX?
Ever been to a website and found yourself frustrated because you couldn’t find the information you were looking for quickly? Maybe the structure is really confusing or you find yourself having to click through way too many pages to finally find what you were looking for. UX is a phrase that was originally coined by Don Norman who became the go-to user experience/usability consultant in the 1990s. His university studies in electrical engineering and psychology gave him the insight and the skills to see what was needed and provide what seems like an obvious point – that to gain fans, you need to focus on the needs of the visitor and make their journey through your website as simple as possible.
Why is UX important to SEO?
The rules about SEO are constantly evolving, mainly thanks to Google’s constant crackdown on shady practices. But this has resulted in an unexpected benefit for users in that, as part of the optimisation process, Google takes the quality of the experience that users are having on your website into account and with the incorporation of machine learning into its ranking signals, this development is about to rapidly accelerate. Therefore, having a good UX factor in combination with effective SEO implementation usually results in a big win for your organic rankings.
User experience, or UX, isn’t a new concept for business. However, organisations sometimes underestimate just how important it is to SEO. Share on XUX and SEO quick wins
There are a few quick wins you can use to make your website more UX- friendly and help your organic rankings:
- Page speed, i.e. making your website load as quickly as possible
Users are getting more impatient. If your website takes too long to load, they are likely to leave and try somewhere else with a faster load time. Bounce rate is also likely to increase as people get bored and bounce off the website before even having a look at other pages within the website. This could end up being reflected on your rankings in search engines.
- Add Schema
By adding Schema, you don’t only tell Google what your content says, but, more importantly, what it means.
- Speak the language of your users
Revise your website copy to make sure it gets into the mindset of your target market and speaks their language. Remember that your audience doesn’t have the same in-depth knowledge of your business or the language that surrounds it, so avoid using jargon.
- Questions
Imagine questions (or tasks) that potential customers using your website may have and make sure that each is answered easily. If you struggle to find the information, your users will find it even harder.
In conclusion, whilst technical SEO is an essential part of your organic rankings, you must also look at ways of providing a great user experience. Therefore, understanding your users’ intent and using that information to focus on meeting their needs is a vital part of your SEO.
If you would like to discuss any aspect of SEO and UX and find out how they can be used as a formidable partnership, contact us for a chat.
