Enhancing Customer Experience With Effective UX And SEO Strategies
Enhancing the Customer Experience With Effective UX & SEO Strategies (This article is to help people enhance customer experience of their site with effective SEO strategies)
This article has been contributed by Aimen Kahn
Every business today has to make it to the top 10 links on Google. Otherwise, it would be invisible to 75% of the population. That is where SEO, i.e., search engine optimization, dives in. However, with the digital world constantly evolving, Google has also smartened itself. That’s why your SEO strategies also have to buckle up with Google’s algorithms.
This year, a relatively new algorithm introduced by Google ranks websites based on UX or user experience. Previously, websites only needed some keyword stuffing, but now Google sees if your website is valuable to the users or not. So, for example, if users quickly turn away from your page, Google won’t let you come up. To understand how SEO and UX work together for ranking you up, read the content below.
Here Is What You Need To Know About SEO
SEO is a collection of strategies to rank you higher on Google for specific keywords. Through SEO strategies, you can increase quality traffic to your website through organic search results. That’s because it will make you more discoverable for the relevant population.
PRO TIP: Companies such as Bizmap LLC offer SEO services for many different service area businesses. Bizmap LLC is very well established as being a top rated SEO agency in NJ and NYC.
What is UX-User Experience?
UX refers to improving the experience of those visiting your website. For example, more people would like to stay on your website if your website has a comprehensive and straightforward menu, well-organized and quality content. This would trigger Google to say that your website is worth visiting for the relevant users. Thus, you’ll get more traffic on your page and even more conversions due to quality design and content.
Moreover, user experience also includes the service and products provided by your company. Your conversion rate would decrease if your website design is good but your product quality or customer service is poor. These are all things your marketing company should be able to explain to you.
Thus, it is essential to care for the users’ experience from every angle. By doing so, you can even generate 4-8% higher revenue!
Now, Lets discover How SEO and UX Work Together for Better
Some people believe that SEO and UX cannot go together. That’s because SEO is more focused on improving the website for getting in the top list on Google. You’ll undoubtedly need to stuff specific keywords into your site and play with the design elements too, but Google does not rank only based on 2 or 3 algorithms. It has over 200 algorithms, and the list is continuously growing with the increase in internet users and market competition.
The new SEO strategies must include elements to improve user experience as it’s the latest algorithm introduced in June 2021. Plus, what’s suitable for user experience is almost similar to what’s good for SEO today.
How Are SEO And UX Intertwined?
The factors that improve UX also enhance SEO ranking. Here is how they work together.
Affirmative Visitors Signals
Body content how does Google know that your website is valuable for users? One of the factors that help Google determine it is the length of stay of the visitors. For example, if a person clicks on your link, and the page is full of spam, they would instantly press the back button. On the other hand, if most users immediately leave your page, Google would know that your website should go down the line.
However, if most people find easy navigation and quality content, and their stay time is longer, your website would automatically go up on the search engine. Thus, a good user experience would send positive signals to Google for your SEO ranking.
Backlinks
If your page makes more people happy, it will gain more backlinks. That’s because when your content is valuable, people will use your site as a reference in their blogs or content. Thus, gaining more happy visitors through UX would make you fly higher on search engines.
Page Speed
Today’s generation cannot wait for more than 3 seconds for your website to load. Thus, to improve UX, optimizing your site’s loading speed is crucial. Well, the same factor is also a part of Google’s ranking criteria. Hence, you can enhance SEO and UX both together through optimized speed.
Mobile Adaptability
Today, Forbes estimates that almost 2 billion internet users access it via cell phones. By 2025, this would make up 3/4th of all the internet population. Therefore, to make your users’ experience worthwhile, your website must be mobile-friendly.
The same rule also applies to SEO ranking. From July 2019, Google started ranking based on mobile-first indexing for all new sites. Thus, mobile-friendliness is essential for both SEO and UX.
Effective Strategies For Improving SEO And UX
Since SEO and UX go hand in hand, employing strategies to improve both is vital. Here are some of the ways to get your site up.
Content Organization
Suppose that you visit a page that’s overstuffed with text without any partitions or headings. Would that be easy to read for you? You’ll probably turn your back on it.
That’s why your entire page must be divided into headings and sub-headings to make it easier for the average population to read. Most users do not even have time to read the entire text, and they prefer skimming the content for required information. Thus, if the text is well-spaced and partitioned, it’s preferred by the users.
Moreover, even Google crawls through your site to see if your main heading matches the sub-headings of your content. Doing so lets it know that your content is relevant and valuable for the users or not.
Navigation
Nowadays, people of every age group have access to the internet. Be it the elderly population or the kids’ group. Thus, your website must be easy to navigate for everyone.
This can be done by keeping a menu that is easy to understand at a single glance. For example, if you have 20 pages altogether, listing them at once in the menu bar wouldn’t be easy to follow. On the contrary, if you divide those pages into categories, it would be easier to put them into the menu. You can then provide drop-down lists under the categories to make it easier for people to navigate.
Moreover, if your menu is too crowded, it would occupy more space on the users’ screen. Thus, the user won’t be able to see what’s above or below the menu. Besides, if they’re accessing it through mobile phone, they won’t even have adequate space on the screen.
Also, your site’s structure provides a pathway for the search engine to crawl through your every page. If your site’s filled with dead ends, Google will take your website down.
Another benefit of a clean and concise menu is to make your sections appear on Google as site links directly. Thus, you’ll have more chances of beating your competitors in the SEO race.
Google My Business Profile
Google has declared that it analyzes user signals like bounce rate or length of stay on a particular website for ranking. However, there’s another user signal that has been found to affect site ranking. Although not directly declared by Google, how users interact with your business holds importance.
When you make a profile on Google My Business, more people will search your profile. Google My Business is a great way to get free leads for your business. This is just one reason you should use Google My Business. However, it’s important to not that hiring a company for Google My Business setup is crucial to get the best results.
When customers interact with your business through the direct calling option on Google, or they search your location through the Google Map link, Google intuitively knows it. Plus, if they leave reviews on your profile and give you a five-star rating, it would somehow impact your search engine ranking. That’s because Google sees and shows what most people are interested in.
Thus, if you provide quality services and make users contented, their ratings and interaction with your business would take you up the ladder.
PRO TIP: Read this article to learn whether you can get a GMB listing with no address!
Loading Speed
Since today’s average person doesn’t wait beyond 3 seconds, a site’s loading speed significantly improves both UX and search engine ranking. Conversely, a poor loading site would frustrate the users and let your rank go down on Google.
In addition, since the world’s now shrinking more into mobile phones, a site’s loading speed on mobile would soon matter more. So Google is soon about to launch this factor as its new ranking algorithm.
Therefore, it’s essential to check your site’s speed on Google’s Page Speed Insight tool. It would let you know above-the-fold loading time and full page loading time. Plus, you’ll also get suggestions on improving your page’s speed.
Mobile-Friendliness
In addition to a site’s mobile loading speed, its overall look and layout pattern on a mobile phone screen matters a lot. One of the most crucial aspects of a mobile experience is navigation; both users and Google should be able to discover what they’re looking for quickly. On your mobile website, even button sizes and styles can have an impact on user involvement.
To make your site mobile-friendly, you can make a mobile-first site and adapt it to a desktop screen. Or else, you can develop a site that appears the same on both mobile and desktop. Another option is to use responsive website technology to help your site adapt to different digital devices.
By doing such measures, your users would better view your website on their tiny screens. Also, your SEO goal would be met too, as it’s a factor in Google ranking criteria. Every element on your mobile website impacts the user’s experience and, in turn, has a direct (or indirect) influence on SEO.
User-Friendly URL
An essential but mostly neglected aspect of user experience is a website’s URL. It aids in orienting your users to their current location on your website.
For example, suppose that you encounter a URL as follows:
Do you understand what the URL is about? Yes, it’s clear that it’s a book’s chapter, but which chapter or which topic you are on isn’t apparent. Thus, if someone has to reach a specific chapter directly, it would be impossible to get to it through the URL only. Thus, this is an example of a URL that can frustrate your users and make your UX poor.
Moreover, your URL is also essential for SEO. You might not know this, but Google also uses keywords in the URLs to figure out what a page is about and then index it. It can be devastating to your SEO rankings if these keywords are absent.
How Can You Ensure That Your SEO And UX Combination Is Working?
As discussed throughout, SEO and UX are parallel rails of a train. You cannot move forward without ensuring that they’re both going together. Some of the ways to make sure your strategies are working include:
Increase Communication Between Your SEO And UX Teams
Suppose you own a business website managed by different teams. In that case, you need to ensure that your user experience team is in full coordination with the SEO team. If both worked separately, it wouldn’t prove beneficial to improve your ranking or customers’ experience.
Conduct Audits
Evaluation is always essential for tracking your performance. You cannot know if your strategies are fruitful or not unless you audit the results. Most agencies offer Free SEO Audits it’s important to note!
You can conduct an SEO audit where you can see how well your search engine performance is. There are free SEO checker tools that you can use. Plus, you can even conduct an in-depth analysis with paid SEO tools.
For UX analysis, you can track how users interact with your website. You can also evaluate customers’ feedback and reviews to see where you’re lacking. It would open gates of improvement for your business.
Test Your Site Frequently
Ongoing evaluation of your website is essential, along with UX and SEO audits. One of the strategies for it is to perform split testing.
You create two different versions of your web page in a split test and show it to other users. Then the performance of both pages is analyzed. The one that receives a more positive response is then selected for further use.
You can also change certain content or structural elements of your website and then see if its ranking improves on the search engine. This is an excellent way to test your website for SEO.
The Takeaway On Enhancing Customer Experience Through UX And SEO
UX and SEO are intertwined strands of a rope that can improve your customers’ experience and your ranking on the search engine. While UX is more focused on providing the users a good experience, SEO is about improving your website for getting on the first page of Google. However, the new Google algorithm ranks based on UX, and also the UX factors are almost similar to the SEO strategies. Thus, you must apply techniques for both to generate more organic traffic to your website.
One strategy to enhance user experience and search engine ranking include organizing the content well under heading and sub-headings. Plus, easy navigation and loading speed are also essential factors. Another way is to build your Google My Business profile and get users’ engagement on it. Additionally, mobile-friendliness and a user-friendly URL must always be considered.
After applying all the strategies, make sure that you audit your website’s UX and SEO performance. You can also split test your web pages to ensure maximum effectiveness. Your business would definitely get more public attention and conversions to increase your revenues with all these measures.
