Today’s article is inspired by a recent conversation and discussion with one of our latest projects and how SEO and UX go hand in hand in getting the very best results. Read more from our luxury digital agency. Within SEO, there can be a misconception that the process just involves building links and adding in keywords to content. However, whilst these blanket strategies are important, it may come as no surprise that search engines look at a lot more than this when ranking website. Over many years the importance of user experience (UX as it is also known) has increasingly been given prevalence by google within ranking factors. Elements such as the speed of a website, if it has a https certificate and its mobile-friendliness all affect how Google places it within the SERPs.
Why is UX important for SEO?
As Google has grown and refined its algorithms to achieve the most relevant results for any given search query it has increasingly adding more focus and weight to how a website is interacted by a user. This shift to focusing more on user-focused and user-friendly results.can be seen in changes to SERP such as knowledge panels and rich snippets. These are all drawn from a website and a clear, informative and easy to use website is given much more president over clunky, difficult to use design. Likewise, when actually visiting a website, having a clear navigation and layout should be of the utmost importance because, as a designer, you wish to signpost information either to guide your visitor to specific areas of a website or to assist them in finding what they want.
Rankbrain
RankBrain was introduced in 2015 and, after backlinks and content, is considered to be the 3rd most important factor that is taken into account when websites are ranked. RankBrain is driven by behavior metrics, including pages per session, bounce rate, dwell time, and organic CTR -all of which can be found in either Google Analytics or Google Search Console. In essence, Google relies on these metrics to understand how a user interacts with a site and subsequently rank a given website. This makes sense, right? If a user visits your website, spends a good amount of time, looks at various content it is a good sign. It shows that the UX and design of the site is good. Conversely, if Google sees that a visitor leaves a site quickly or doesn’t engage with content then it will decrease the rank.
UX and SEO share common goals
Both UX and SEO share the same goals. As we have seen over the last few years, SEO has moved away from just ranking for search terms, the algorithm has become more intelligent, and has moved to answering questions and queries. SEO and UX have, essentially, combined. SEO leads a visitor to the content they require and the UX answers their queries once a user ends up on the website.
On page UX factors which influence SEO include:
- Image tags
- Headings
- Page copy
- Mobile friendless
- Loading speed
Ensure that you align your UX and SEO strategies and integrate the two as, after all, one of the main objectives of your website should be to generate more leads and conversions. Both UX and SEO play a critical part in achieving this goal, but they need to work together if you are to have success.
- Focus on designs that fit SEO principles
- Invest in responsive web design
- Simplify navigation
- Focus on quality
We hope that this advice can assist you in your goals. For more information about any of our SEO agency services or any of the luxury marketing agency’s services, contact our teams here.
