Let’s go back to the 90s.
It was the time when getting on the desired website is the only achievement for most web surfers. Buffering or slow loading wasn’t the issue that could kill the user experience. After all, having the Internet in the first place was sufficient.
Fast-forwarding to 2010s, today’s online customer is aware of their needs and expectations as well. They not only want a website to load quickly but also expect it to be equipped with a user-friendly interface.
As online users have become savvy and smarter, search engines have to ponder over the factors of how they interpret and show information based on user intent.
So now you can see how the preferences of users changed as we move from the 90s to 2010s.
User experience or UX is the key to get success. The term was introduced by Don Norman in the 1990s while working at Apple Advanced Technology Group.
As the name suggests, it means how a user interacts with your digital products like websites. For example, a website with quick loading time, easy navigation and interactive graphics ensure greater user experience.
This is the user experience or UX that has encouraged the search engines to change their algorithms. For example, Google has changed dramatically over the years. The search engine has constantly enhanced its algorithms to ensure users are delivered with the best possible results. Each update by Google is committed to providing more user-focused and user-friendly results.
This is how ever-evolving digital environment has redefined the way customers interact with content.
So you must have understood a little bit about UX.
Let’s move to our other element that is SEO.
In SEO, you build strategies to increase the traffic of your website as well as boost conversion rate.
It has been always challenging to bring the customers to your websites, prompting businesses to work over their SEO.
So SEO and UX play different roles. One entity brings users to a website while others enhance users’ experience.
Have you ever thought that both elements can work together?
How?
SEO only brings visitors to your website. The other challenge is to hold them for longer so that they can explore more and feel encouraged to opt for your product and services.
Here comes UX. By working over UX factors like load time and navigation, you can hold them for longer and improve conversion.
This combination ensures more conversions and helps you get a competitive edge.
Why Combine UX with SEO
UX is a broad field and requires a different level of expertise. But that doesn’t mean an average SEO professional has to be a hardcore UX expert. They can integrate the norms of UX with SEO by taking care of basic UX principles.
After all, UX optimization is all about focusing on the visitor. Every online strategy we plan has to be around the visitor.
Search engines use some of the sophisticated data mining operations. They not only help people find what they want but collect data to learn their behaviour.
Understanding the Goals of SEO and UX
SEO is used to drive traffic to your website. UX comes into play to engage customers once they reach your website. For example, a specific keyword brings the users to your site; and you have a nice and user-friendly design to keep them engaged and interested. Think about it as the “bait and hook” pattern.
Getting traffic through an efficient SEO strategy is useless if you are not able to convert it. This is where UX comes in as it enhances the user experience with your website.
User experience is all about an individual’s experience with your digital product or website. UX is determined by several factors such as performance, load time, design/aesthetics, accessibility and overall human interaction. For example, if your website loads quickly and has a user-friendly interface, it delivers a great user experience.
UX is an amalgamation of navigation, user-friendliness and site design.
The Benefits of Combining UX with SEO
SEO and UX complete each other. SEO brings traffic so that UX can convert it. SEO won’t be effective if the site has a poor UX interface. Similarly, even a great UX interface needs SEO to get traffic. Whereas SEO uses a keyword to fetch traffic to the website, UX uses design and wireframes to keep the users engaged and impressed.
That’s why SEO and UX go hand in hand to make your website a success.
Here are some benefits of combining SEO with UX.
UX will Maximize SEO’s Impact:
Both processes are challenging and you require working a lot before getting any result. Once you ace them, you can see a rise in your traffic which in turn leads to better sales and profits.
Once you get visitors to your page, it is challenging to hold them for longer. Maybe you have good SEO strategies in place; but it is slow to load time and confusing graphics that irritate the users, making them leave the website.
Therefore, UX is important to convert the results of your SEO.
All Algorithms are Now User-Centric:
Poor user experience means a high bounce rate. And Google’s advanced tools can detect the bounce rate of your website which can affect your ranking. Whereas sound SEO practices are important, UX is something to be aligned with your SEO strategies.
Great UX means Better Organic Rankings:
Once people get on your website, it should be easier for them to navigate through the pages. It means that the site should be clean, simple, fast and visually appealing.
It will also keep them coming back, increasing the engagement and conversion rate, and other SEO metrics being determined by Google Analytics. A functional and aesthetic website has the potential to top the SERPs.
You need to make sure your website loads quickly. Keep in mind that people (including me and you) are not patient enough to have their coffee and snacks while the page is loading.
If your page is slow, the majority of potential customers will skip it to look for a faster option. This scenario will speed up the bounce rate which in turn kills your ranking.
So this is the very first part of this series to educate you on the relationship between SEO and UX.
The NEXT PART OF THIS SERIES will tell you how to combine SEO with UX.
But we won’t stop you from dropping your valuable feedback on this article. Do you like this information on UX and SEO? Or you think that this is not that impressive. Well, we respect democracy. Don’t hesitate to let us know your opinion.
Started working as a digital marketing expert, Varun Sharma is now also a well-known digital marketing speaker – a speaker on performance development, and a trusted mentor to businesses in the digital world. His keynote expositions are based on the digital marketing theories, which provide a fascinating insight into the secrets of high performance.