5 Ways To Know How User Experience Impacts SEO
When it comes down to determining the quality sites worthy of being on top of search rankings, Google recognizes real human behavior. In turn, UX design and usability have become integral elements of SEO. It does not only require the fundamentals of on-page SEO however the simple UX design considerations go a long way to support user engagement and rankings. You can understand it more lately through our digital marketing blog.
Below we have highlighted five best practices on who to effectively start leveraging on the UX design and usability variables for supporting the SEO performance of your site to help shed light on whatever efforts you make.
1. Simplify Your Site’s Navigation
One of the common conflicts between SEO and UX design is that the latter often encourages stronger site architectures that often lend to complex navigations. The more there are pages, the better it becomes but not so much.
Debunking the earlier SEO practices for creating granular pages aiming at tight-knit keyword groupings is revealed through a study by Ahref that supports the latest SEO practices in a single page for related keywords. Essentially, having one very user-friendly and content-rich page is a potential asset for SEO across varied search queries.
2. Utilize UX Design for SEO-friendly Layouts
There are innumerable cases where the layout design and how the content gets formatted disrupts SEO. The easy reason behind it all is the aesthetics, like having a perfectly-sized header with the right amount of text that gets in the way of SEO.
However, what if the UX design can locate the happy marriage with on-page SEO and the formatting of the layout? It is the best companion that helps in supporting the generation of organic traffic and usability, which we understand complements the success of each other.
The following are a couple of principles of using the UX design to support the layout of the page which is SEO-friendly:
- Making easy-to-digest content: In SEO, the copy and word count are essential; avoid the text-heavy pages that make you feel like you are reading a technical manual. The easy-to-absorb blocks of copy being organized with the imagery and headers would help with usability while retaining SEO. Additionally, you can also take advantage of the number and bullet lists.
- Leverage headers in many forms: As a rule of thumb, every page should have a single header with 1 tag that defines whatever the page is about. The supportive ideas should be better organized with Header 2 and 3 tags, and you can use them liberally.
- Infusing videos and images wherever possible: Visual media is not only engaging the users, but these are the components that get optimized for SEO. Including relevant videos or images under every content, the block is a great practice.
- Liberal use of CTAs: Whenever it comes down to Conversion rate optimization, it is important to keep your users on the site for a longer time by using calls-to-action buttons. These are simple, like the in-copy link or the attractive button link, to learn more. The aim is to facilitate the journey of the users on your site to satisfy their best interests and the actions you wish them to take.
- Include elements that link to related content: The common strategy supporting both SEO and usability is to dedicate the page layout feature to offering links to the related content. These are the callout links to help retain the users on the site for a longer time while cross-linking relevant content following good SEO practices like the CTAs.
3. Harnessing the Search Data to Inform Site Architecture
No more do you need to build hundreds of SEO landing pages for the exact queries while checking back at the point regarding the simplicity and optimization of the pages across larger themes against the granular keywords.
We understand the importance of search data and keyword research for SEO. However, it is the way data is used for creating all differences.
4. Optimize for Site Load Speed
GTmetrix is one of the most potent yet often overlooked tools for technical UX purposes. GTmetrix offers vital technical insights about the site's performance, namely the load speed, with an asset for every SEO toolbox. It allows the technical SEO and UX designers to extract actionable insights like minifying the CSS, HTML, and JavaScript and optimizing attractive images and redirects.
Site speed is now the vital ranking signal, with Google's overarching mission to serve users with the possible experiences. In return, Google rewards the rapidly loading sites across Google and Search Ads.
5. Ensure Mobile Responsiveness
The mobile responsive design is compulsory for both SEO and usability. Since over 50% of every traffic is now being driven by mobile search, the sites are not at all mobile responsive to compromise the experience of more than half of their visitors.
It is, by now, most savvy UX designers who are emphasizing mobile-responsive design in every project where they are engaged in. However, if your site is not responsive across mobile, you can check your user engagement metrics to perform badly across devices.
Summary
User experience design should become the main consideration for the SEO campaigns to conclude. UX design directly impacts SEO rankings or Digital marketing blogs through the various metrics that search engines use to track user engagement. It can help you understand how users engage and interact with your site while it is considered to have factors such as page speed, menu or header layout, mobile responsiveness, and URL structure.