A decade ago, you were able to rank a site purely based on keywords and backlinks. Today, metrics such as bounce rate, time spent on site, and pages visited all play an important role in ranking. Apart from these, website security also plays a significant role.
When determining the quality sites that deserve top rankings, Google considers real human behavior. Consequently, SEO has become increasingly concerned with usability and UX design. Along with on-page SEO, simple UX design changes can support engagement and lead to an increase in search engine rankings.
In this post, we talk about five actions you can take to boost your website’s SEO performance by effectively leveraging UX design & usability variables and some FAQs regarding the same.
1. Easy Navigation on your Website
Often, SEO and UX design clash because the latter enables robust site architectures which lend themselves to complex navigation. It makes sense to have more pages, right? Not really. Research by Ahrefs shows that ranking just one page for many related keywords is better than creating granular pages focused on tight-knit keyword groupings. An SEO-friendly page with a lot of content can be a great asset across a wide range of search queries.
Having a very focused website with simple navigation is the key to harnessing search data to inform the architecture of your website. Ultimately, you want your users to be able to navigate your site easily. Despite potentially being more SEO-friendly, complicated navigation structures can cause a user’s experience to be interrupted, resulting in them leaving faster. Instead of traditional SEO thinking about how search engines can access all pages, think about how easy it is for users to access those pages. It is often more SEO-friendly to have stripped-down navigation with fewer pages.
2. Use Search Data to mold Site Architecture
Coming back to simplicity and optimizing pages keeping bigger themes in mind than just using keywords. In today’s times, you need an approach that is decluttered and puts a greater emphasis on better quality than quantity. Gone are those times when you had to create loads of landing pages to answer precise queries.
Researching keywords and collecting search data is important for SEO. What makes the difference is how you use the data. As part of your keyword targeting strategy, you should consider what variations and long-tail keywords to include. Rather than creating different pages for variations around the keywords, try incorporating them into one page. UX design can help in doing this. The on-page content, as well as the site architecture, should be structured such that UX and SEO are in harmony.
3. Create SEO-friendly layouts by utilizing UX design
Designing layout and formatting the content can have a negative effect on SEO in many cases. This is because aesthetics, like having the right size headers and an appropriate amount of text, can interfere with SEO.
If UX design and on-page SEO could succeed together, what would that look like? A companionship like this would assist with both usability and organic traffic generation, which, as we now know, are complementary. Here’s how you can make use of UX design principles to compliment SEO-friendly layouts:
- Provide easy-to-digest content:
Things like word count are surely important, but if your pages have too much text, it can be a bit of an annoyance for the readers. Well-formatted copies that are easy to absorb and visually attractive with headings and images can lead to better user retention without hampering SEO. Make sure you use Bullet Points and Numbered Lists as these can lead to further promotion by Google through featured snippets.
- Make use of headers of all kinds:
A good SEO rule of thumb is to have one Header 1 tag for each page that describes the page’s goal (and which includes its target keyword). Other ideas can be placed in Headers 2 and 3.
- Add in visuals wherever possible:
Pictures and videos make the user more engaged in your content and these can be SEO optimized too. In general, within each block of content, it is a good idea to insert a relevant image or video (typically defined by the Header 2 tags).
- Calls-to-action:
These are essential for conversion rate optimization (CRO) and keeping users on your site longer. This can be as simple as an in-copy link or a button that directs the user to “learn more.” The goal is to facilitate the user’s journey on your site that addresses both their needs and the action you want them to take.
- Links to related content:
It is common practice to devote a portion of a page layout (typically towards the end) to provide links to related content. This strategy also promotes usability and SEO. This type of callout link keeps your users on your site longer and links them to relevant content. Cross-linking relevant content and keeping users on your site are both good SEO practices.
4. Mobile Responsiveness
Both usability and SEO have become dependent on mobile-responsive design. The fact that more than half of all traffic today comes from mobile search means that sites that do not have a mobile-friendly design will compromise the experience of more than half of their visitors.
Nowadays, most UX designers make mobile-responsive design a priority in all projects they work on. However, if your website is not mobile-friendly, you will probably see very poor performance by your user engagement metrics. The Google Mobile-friendly Testing tool can help you determine whether your site is mobile-friendly.
5. Site Load Speed
As Google’s overarching mission is to provide the best possible experience for its users (and will continue to do so in the future), site speed has become an important ranking factor. Fast-loading websites are rewarded in both Google Search and Google Ads.
Speed and performance can be tested and improved using Google tools such as Google PageSpeed Insights tools and Core Web Vitals on Google’s Search Console to measure other metrics related to speed, responsiveness and visual stability.
With these handy website optimization tools, you can analyze your website’s performance and get guidance across several components.
Depending on the tool, recommendations can range from simple image compression to altering the way the server interacts with requests. UX designers can use them to determine how a website can improve its SEO and user experience.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is UX?
UX stands for User experience. It involves the study of how users interact and perceive web interfaces. Its main purpose is to create a user-centric web experience that focuses primarily on the user’s pain points – the points where a user may be confused by the interface.
The UX design of your website helps your users find what they are looking for. Furthermore, it makes your audience more engaged, which has a positive impact on user metrics that search engines employ in their search rankings. Your search ranking will increase if you create an engaging user experience.
Which User Engagement Metrics Are Most Important?
- Bounce Rate
The bounce rate of your website indicates how many people leave your page after viewing only one page – usually your homepage or a landing page. A high bounce rate may indicate that your users haven’t found what they wanted and have left after looking at only the first page.
- Page Dwell Time
Search engines also take into account how long users stay on your website. This is known as “dwell time.”. Google measures how engaged users are by the amount of time they spend on a page. A high dwell time indicates that your content is relevant and interesting to your audience.
Why is there a need to focus on both UX and SEO?
The goal of SEO is to drive traffic to a website, while User Experience is to convert that traffic into paying customers. If you want qualified traffic on your website that converts into paying customers, these two elements of your SEO marketing strategy must work together.
Wrapping Up
Marketing and design teams may have departmental differences, but clear website objectives and coordinated project management have made it possible to create harmony between UX design and SEO strategies. The integration of roles is becoming more common, as more and more agencies (including vendors, partners, and consultants) arrive at the conclusion that SEO must be prioritized without usability and design being compromised.
