Great user experience is about so much more than pretty visuals and simple navigation. It’s about creating an interaction that is fast, seamless, and delightful for your users on every interaction. User experience and search engine optimization (or SEO) might seem like two very different things. After all, one is concerned with making sure users can find your site easily while the other focuses on ensuring they want to come back again and again. However, as you’ll see in this article, they are actually quite similar when you get right down to it. That’s because great UX will also help your website rank higher in search engines like Google and Bing by focusing on readability, simplicity, and quick load times among other things. So if you’re ready to take your website to the next level of user experience…
Make it easy for users to find what they’re looking for
Sure, it’s nice to wow your users with high-quality photography, stunning graphics, and engaging (yet distracting) animations, but it’s even more important to make sure that those users can easily find what they’re looking for. If your content is buried under a ton of other information or if it’s not labeled clearly and effectively, you’re going to drive people away, not bring them in. A great way to ensure that your users find exactly what they’re looking for is to use clear and effective headings. Headings like H1, H2, and H3 can be really effective in creating a visual hierarchy that will help users easily jump to their desired page. They are also amongst the most underutilized elements within the web and can have a huge impact on the usability of your site.
Keep loads times fast
We’ve all been there: You’re eagerly waiting for a page to load only to realise you’ve been staring at a spinning wheel for five minutes. We’ve all experienced that too-long waiting period between clicking on a link and actually being taken to the page we wanted. That’s because we have short attention spans and are easily distracted (and irritated). After all, who wants to wait for a page to load when there are plenty of other options available? Keeping your page load times as low as possible will ensure that your potential users never get to that point of frustration. It will also help your SEO by improving your content readability and increasing your site’s overall speed (which also plays a part in load times). There are many ways you can keep your load times low, like optimizing your site’s images, using a content delivery network, and keeping your website off of a server that is overpopulated.
Establish a strong visual brand with strong typography
You may think that visual branding is only important in marketing campaigns but it’s actually a crucial element in SEO as well. A consistent visual brand across all of your marketing materials, such as your website, social media pages, and even your email campaigns, will help users recognise your business. That recognition will then carry over to your website’s search engine ranking by giving Google a very clear idea of what your site is all about. Using a consistent typeface is also an important part of creating a strong visual brand. If your website already has a visual brand, try to include that same typeface in your on-page content to ensure that Google knows what you’re talking about. If you don’t yet have a visual brand, now’s the time to start!
Test and track constantly
Before you launch any new changes to your website, it’s important to know how they will affect your SEO. Even if you’re not trying to make dramatic changes to your site, small modifications can still have a huge impact on your SEO. It’s because Google’s algorithm is always being updated and changed, so if you want to stay ahead of the curve, you’ll need a reliable way to keep track of the changes and how they affect your SEO. There are a number of great tools that can help you do this including Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and industry-specific monitoring tools. If you don’t have any of these tools in place, it’s time to start.
Don’t forget about mobile users
It’s important not to forget about your mobile users. After all, they represent a huge portion of your overall site traffic. In fact, if your site isn’t optimized for mobile devices, Google may even penalize you for it. And while you may think that your regular site is already optimized for smartphones, it’s easy to miss some things that can really affect your SEO. For example, while most people will use a desktop computer or laptop to visit your site, many are also using mobile devices like smartphones or tablets. Be sure to test your site on these devices and make any necessary changes to ensure that your site is just as optimized for mobile as it is for desktop.
Summing up
No matter what your marketing strategy is, the most important thing is that your users are happy. However, it’s important to remember that people aren’t just visiting your website for enjoyment, they’re also there for information. And if they can’t find what they’re looking for in a clear and concise way, they won’t stick around. So remember to keep all of these tips in mind as you’re creating content for your website. Not only will it help your users, but it will also help you in the long run. After all, happy users are more likely to come back again and again and that can only help your SEO in the long run.
