It’s no secret that SEO has changed and continues to change at a rapid pace. Even just looking at the last few years, SEO has evolved dramatically.
Gone are the days of stuffing keywords throughout a page and ranking well for them, along with many other black hat tactics. Google, and other search engines, are much smarter now. With constant algorithm updates and new technologies to optimize for like voice search, it can be challenging to find consistency and focus.
So, what are some factors that are fundamental to SEO success?
One factor is the user experience.
3 Factors that Make SEO and UX a Winning Combination
It makes sense that search engines would put emphasis on user experience (UX). After all, their business depends on satisfying user intent and matching queries with the most relevant results. Overall, the happier the user, the better it is for everyone involved.
Here are some factors to think about when considering SEO and UX.
Clear and Clean Navigation
A website’s navigation is a digital roadmap for users to find important content on the site. The clearer it is for users (and search engines!) to find your content, the more satisfying and rewarding the experience will be for everyone.
Conversely, if the user cannot find what they are looking for quickly, they are likely to bounce out to another website that is clearer.
People are not particularly patient when it comes to finding answers online. That said, keep your navigation clean and logical and it will make all the difference.
Site Speed and Loading Times
Like navigation, people want to find their information and they want to find it fast! According to world leaders in research-based user experience, 47% of visitors expect a website to load in less than 2 seconds, and 40% of visitors will leave the website if the loading process takes more than 3 seconds.
If users are bouncing because of speed issues, search engines will assume they did not find what they were looking for on your site and penalize you accordingly with lower rankings in SERPs. Not to mention, a slow page speed means that search engines can crawl fewer pages with your given crawl budget, negatively affecting indexation as a result.
With only a few seconds to impress visitors, it’s extremely important to optimize your code to load your entire website quickly. Whether it’s the user or search engines, it’s imperative that your desktop and mobile site load quickly.
Unique Mobile Experience
Let’s not forget about mobile! And at this point, how could we? With Google’s official release of mobile-first indexing this year as well as statistics from Smart Insights showcasing the continuous rise of mobile searches over desktop, it would be foolish to disregard mobile when it comes to SEO and UX.
The user experience on a mobile device is very different than that on desktop. It needs a fully custom, well thought out, and clear execution that demands site speed and navigation be looked at again.
The good news is, it will pay off if you take the time to create your mobile experience from an SEO and UX perspective. In fact, 50% of users who perform a mobile search are likely to convert within one day! Mobile isn’t going anywhere but up, so it’s important to optimize your content and overall site for the user and for search engines.
Clean navigation, quick site speed, and a distinguished mobile experience are just a few of the factors that make SEO and UX a winning combination for everyone.
Does your site have all three boxes checked? Not sure? Get your website audited by Liquid!