The year 2021, and the previous three years for that matter, have seen a fresh wave of hyper-digitalization. A substantial portion of the economy’s products and services are now entirely digital, taking competition to unprecedented heights.
As a result, SEO is a critical growth component for all online businesses, with each trying to be ranked first and attract the most visitors. However, SEO alone is insufficient. Effective SEO goes hand in hand with User Experience (UX).
Even though Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the cornerstone for achieving constant, long-term high traffic to a website, User Experience is the key to retaining high traffic. Internet users’ average attention spans continue to shrink by the day and people generally expect quick results, ease of access, and overall great site usability.
Continue reading to find more about User Experience (UX): What it is, How to enhance it, and Why it’s so important for every website owner.
What Is User Experience?
People in the digital marketing world and entrepreneurs at large may have heard a little bit about UX, but what does it entail? – UX, as the name states, focuses on providing your audience with the best experience on your website. The more your audience enjoys spending time on your site, the longer they will remain on it.
UX helps businesses earn conversions. It’s one thing to get leads on your site, but a completely different ball game to keep them interested and engaged on your page.
Which Elements Contribute to a Positive User Experience?
They include (but are not limited to):
• Site speed: Website loading and page loading speed
• Simple and Straightforward site navigation
• Minimal ads and pop-ups
• Well-written text, has enough white space and is divided into subheadings
• Page Experience
• Content that can be scanned rapidly
• A website that is pleasing to the sight and easy to navigate.
• Simplicity is key.
• Having a commonly asked questions page (FAQ)
• A clear call to action (CTA).
In a nutshell, the goal is for the visitor to have a fantastic visual experience and browse your site effortlessly. It sounds basic, but it’s not that simple as it sounds. A lot of other factors are needed to achieve the maximum experience, outcomes, and conversions.
Who Is Interested in User Experience?
Your target audience cares about good UX, so basically everyone. Websites that provide a positive user experience increase their visitors’ dwell time. On the flip side, websites that have large blocks of texts, flashing ads, bright colors, and are hard to navigate will chase away visitors at a glance.
As mentioned, site speed is a crucial element of excellent UX. In as much as the visitor’s internet speed will play a role in the speed, the website needs to cater to the needs of the impatient 21st-century digital man.
But speed is not everything. A quick website load time won’t matter if the site contains problems, a long load time, a slow TTFB, and is hard to navigate. The goal is to ensure that each page of the website loads swiftly and smoothly. Moreover, it should be easy to navigate with high-quality content.
This way, a website can retain its visitors for longer and lower your bounce rate, both of which are beneficial to your Google rankings. Google and Bing, the top 2 search engines in the world consider User Experience to be extremely important, and this will be explained next.
Is Poor User Experience Linked To Lower Search Engine Rankings?
Google emphasizes the importance of website owners offering a great user experience for visitors, and this can have a favorable or bad impact on a business’s online presence. This is because UX has a direct impact on conversion rates, bounce rates, and even rankings. This could translate to more or less traffic, rankings, and new clients.
Site speed is particularly one of the core areas where Google and Bing are concentrating their efforts. Sites that take a long time to load will have a harder time ranking higher in the SERP results. Although low site speed won’t result in a manual punishment or the deindexing of your site, it will degrade your rankings and raise your bounce rates.
Google strives to provide the most relevant results for a given search query. To do this, numerous aspects go into Google’s decision-making process. Natural backlinks and high-quality content are always important. UX is also right up there, as overall quality is becoming a huge deal in the realm of search engines.
If Google picks up a repeated case of users visiting a website and then leaving right away, the search engines will interpret this as an indication of poor UX. It could be poor quality content, slow load times, a cluttered mess, name it! That said, every website owner should consider their site from the perspective of a visitor to modify, test, and make design modifications that will improve the user experience.
Why is Technical SEO and User Experience Important?
The overall SEO and ranking performance of your site is highly dependent on technical SEO and UX. Technical SEO and UX also improve the user experience by ensuring that the website works properly and delivers the promised material found in search results.
Technical SEO includes:
• The website’s initial interaction with the SERPs
• Page loading speed
• The landing page’s overall quality and relevancy
• JavaScript frameworks
• A whole lot more
To take your UX a notch higher, you can give your visitors options for them to interact with your site and brand. This might include things like requesting people to join your email list or follow you on social media, perhaps joining a drip campaign, remarketing, and so on.
How Can You Make Your Website’s User Experience Better?
To be competitive in today’s market, every website owner needs to learn the fundamentals of white hat SEO and user experience design. One of the most effective ways to improve your website’s user experience is to look at it through the eyes of your visitors’ personas:
• What do they expect to find when they arrive?
• Is the information useful and simple to read or scan?
• Are there too many distractions on the pages?
• Would you want to spend time on your site if you were a visitor?
• Is the menu and navigation clear and straightforward to use, making it simple to find information, goods, and resources?
By asking such questions, site owners can enhance their site and provide the best user experience possible. Enlisting the assistance of industry specialists who are well-versed in the mechanics of SEO and providing a high-quality user experience would also be extremely beneficial.
The Bottomline: A Positive User Experience is a Must-Have
Did you know that 73% of internet users expect their content to look good no matter what device they’re using? Moreover, that 47% of users expect a web page to load in 2 seconds or less? You cannot afford to skimp on UX!
In the future, search engine behemoths like Google will weigh in more and more indicators of a favorable user experience with each algorithm update. So, if you want your website to stay ahead of the curve and compete rather than fall behind, focus on offering an amazing user experience!
