The Perfect Match: 4 Reasons for Blending SEO and UX

The question as to whether User Experience (UX) is necessary has been answered over and over in different languages by now. Whether you should provide a solid User Experience in order to engage your users and obtain their trust is no longer a question of debate. Today, the real issue how to deliver value to business owners by selecting the most effective development platforms to pair with UX; one of these being SEO.

UX focuses on appealing to your target audience as decisions rely heavily on usability, aesthetic preferences and industry trends. Search Engine Optimization (SEO), on the other hand, focuses more on the concrete data working to increase your website’s search engine visibility. Although the two have separate objectives, when UX and SEO strategies are in alignment, you’re likely to see a positive increase in your ROI.

Google’s Webmaster Guidelines emphasizes that content creators and curators should put the spotlight on users, not search engines, regardless of the purposes of the website. This user-centric focus implies that pure SEO can no longer work on its own. It is only one subset of a larger array of factors needed to improve site performance. The days of stuffing articles with keywords after every three words are gone. Here is how SEO and UX are working together to present added value to consumers and generate more revenue for business owners.

1. Content focused on the user

To ensure the end-user experience is taken into consideration (as opposed to pure, technical page optimization), Google rewards creators of great content. There is a human element that both the search engines and other users appreciate when interacting with content. Both the design of the content and its optimization play a role in improving a page’s performance, and the target audience will respond to this effort by spending more time on the website. In effect, users will be more inclined to share it with their colleagues and circles of influence. This process then translates not only to more favorable rankings but also to more possible conversions.

2. Relevant and readable content

Creating content is like trying to sell your house: it’s the structure and amenities of the building that make the sale, but you’re going to get a lot more interest if the lawn is neat and the rooms are tidy. Likewise, your content’s substance and relevancy may get your users to visit your page, but users are going to respond more positively if your content is presented well.

When quality and engaging content is presented in an appealing and easy-to-access way, users are drawn in. They engage and take action based on the information provided. As a result, they are easier to persuade when you want personal data such as email addresses.

For UX, readability is about first impressions – appealing to the user’s visual senses. A well-structured and functional page with responsive design (the ability to adapt to difference screen sizes across multiple devices) builds an overall fulfilling user experience. Once these requirements are fulfilled, then it is easier to engage with the audience.  Legible, concise, and properly formatted content defines readability for both UX and SEO. Combined, users don’t have to search for too long to find great content.

Your content should be clear, well-ordered and informative, providing substantial detail on a particular topic. This increases a page’s authority and therefore ranking. Also, utilizing on-page optimization and relevant keywords assist in a post’s ease of reading, as long as they are applied to improve the user’s browsing experience. If a focus on target keywords affects the readability and quality of the content, then it is better to compromise for the sake of the user. The rewards are worth it.

3. Visual Appeal

Human beings process the visual elements around them before they consume and understand information coded in letters. For this reason, videos and images have become more commonplace. They contribute to a page’s appeal, and both SEO and UX can optimize this experience for the user.

It is, however, important to observe certain equilibrium between the two kinds of content: visual and text. If one or the other is overdone, the user experience will be ruined.  Large images and video slow down the loading time and ultimately bring to a halt a seamless experience. Users tend to move on to other websites if it is taking longer than they anticipated, making the work you put into developing your layout irrelevant.

To maintain a low bounce rate, it is important to monitor the page speed by constant measuring. Users are generally impatient, which is why the right speed is critical with all the adverts, images and videos on a website.

The trick is to optimize visual content while bearing in mind the size and needs of the different devices today’s user interacts with, especially desktop and mobile. Mobile users need special consideration because of the sizes and capacity of their devices. It is wiser to keep the page as light as possible in order to engage more people for longer. Accessibility and seamless functionality are beneficial to both SEO and UX.

4. Usability

The functionality of a web page is a key part of user experience. Factors such as navigating easily throughout a single page, and switching to different pages leave users more satisfied than just having a solid design. Users can find and consume the information they are seeking and in some cases, to act on it (e.g. order and pay for an item).

Once you’ve provided users with exactly what they’re looking for, users will convert with a compelling call-to-action that consider their order of clicks as well as the desired conversion goal. In effect, your will be fulfilled, and your business’s owners will see a positive return on their investment.

Conclusion: Using SEO and UX to enhance site performance.

Blending your SEO and UX strategy to improve site performance does not need to be a complicated process. It’s just important for business owners and online marketers to understand that one can no longer work independently of the other, at least not for businesses that are after efficacy.

In summary, all sites that are hoping to improve their performance, conversions and sales should provide the following to their customers:

• High-quality, relevant and useful content
• An easily navigable structure
• Optimal images and text to provide what search engines and users need to see
• Appealing designs which also focus on accessibility
• Clear call-to-action sections

Using SEO will bring traffic into the site by helping the website to rank higher in SERPs and hence get more click-throughs. Subsequently, UX determines whether or not traffic sent into the site will remain engaged and convert according to business objectives.