70 to 80% of consumers research a business online before visiting the store or making a purchase. Of those, 50% will find your website through a search engine. If your website design is an unappealing mess, however, 38% of consumers will leave your site.
Understanding these stats is essential to gaining insight into how user experience (UX) design principles and search engine optimization (SEO) work together.
SEO brings consumers to your site. If your site is unappealing or difficult to use, however, you’ll scare those visitors away. Instead of buying from your business, they’ll take their money somewhere else.
By using UX design principles throughout your website, you can provide visitors with a positive experience. UX prioritizes providing users with convenience and speed. Google’s search algorithm does, too.
Let’s discover how SEO and UX work together to help boost your business. Used together, you can improve your website experience, sales, search rankings, and more.
88% of online shoppers won’t return to a website after having a bad user experience.
Everything from your content, page design, and speed time could impact your SEO. Google wants to provide its users with the best possible experience. For that, you need a website that keeps UX design principles in mind.
By improving your website’s current user experience, you can keep people on your site longer. The longer they stay on your site, the better your dwell time will improve. As people click around, your clickthrough rate will rise, too.
When visitors fail to click around, it increases your bounce rate, which has a negative impact on your SEO.
Improving your clickthrough rate and dwell time, while decreasing your bounce rate, will improve your SEO ranking. For that, you need a business website that provides a positive, convenient user experience.
As you review your website, keep an eye out for these design elements that could have a negative impact on your SEO.
When someone searches online for a product or service, then decides to visit your site, it’s likely for a reason.
Maybe they’re researching different companies. In other cases, they want to buy a product online. Other consumers are looking for helpful, informative blogs.
Your search engine optimized blogs can help you attract new visitors to your site.
Regardless of why people are visiting your site, annoying pop-ups can scare them away.
It’s true that pop-ups have their uses. For example, you could use a pop-up to direct visitors to sign up for your email list. You can also use them to direct visitors toward content, forms, or other pages on your site.
Too many pop-ups, however, can become annoying and inconvenient.
Remember, you want to use UX design principles to provide users with ease of use and convenience.
Make sure to use pop-ups sparingly throughout your website. For example, avoid having a pop-up appear the moment someone arrives on your site.
Otherwise, a visitor might leave your website without clicking around. When they bounce, it could have a negative impact on your SEO ranking. Remember, Google’s algorithm keeps your clickthrough and bounce rates in mind.
You want to encourage people to explore your content and click around. Show visitors you’re a helpful, informative resource without annoying them with pop-ups. Keep the user’s search intent in mind, too.
Their search intent is the reason they started searching. Chances are that their intent isn’t to get bothered by pop-ups. By keeping their intent in mind, you can provide users with the content and help they need.
That will help you improve their online user experience.
Imagine trying to read tiny fonts. You’ll have to zoom and squint to understand what the content says. Your content is the very reason people visited your site.
You can provide them with all the reasons to choose your product or service if they can’t read the page.
Illegible text can scare off your visitors. Placing text on a vibrantly colored background can hurt readability, too. A painful color scheme could cause you to lose visitors.
By improving your website’s readability, you’re encouraging them to read throughout your content.
There are many frustrations consumers experience when they’re online. Pop-ups aren’t the only annoyance that might cause you to lose visitors.
For example, make sure there aren’t any audio tracks or videos that play automatically on your site. If a video clip does need to play the moment the page loads, set the video to mute. Otherwise, you might shock a visitor who isn’t expecting sound.
When you search for content online, you’re probably in a rush. We live in an on-the-go society. Most consumers are checking for the answers they need from their smartphones.
People don’t want to wait around for a page to load.
Use Google’s PageSpeed Insights to make sure your page loads quickly on all devices. This tool will also tell you why your website is loading quickly.
For example, are your images compressed? Are you using heavy plugins throughout your website? There are certain elements throughout your site that could cause your pages to lag.
A slow-loading website could cause you to lose visitors.
Instead of waiting around for the page to load, your visitors might decide to take their business elsewhere.
Better UX design could yield conversion rates up to 400%. Meanwhile, 70% of online businesses fail due to bad usability. Using good UX design principles can help you improve conversions on your website.
As people click around, you can boost your SEO ranking. The higher your ranking, the more likely you’ll attract more traffic to your website. Ranking above your competitors will also help you improve your brand awareness and credibility.
People don’t often look beyond the first page of a Google search.
Ranking higher on search engines by using good UX design will ensure people find your business. As your brand awareness increases, you can attract traffic to your site. Then, you can use your SEO content to encourage visitors to become leads or paying customers.
Here are a few other ways UX design principles can help you increase leads and your online ranking.
First, make sure to complete a thorough keyword and customer research.
The better you know your target audience, the more likely you can create content they want. By using the keywords your customers are searching for, you can appear for those searches on Google. Then, people will visit your website to learn more about your product or service.
Don’t forget to research competitor keywords, too.
When people visit your site, you want to make it easy for them to find the content they need. If they have to dig around, they’ll leave and look elsewhere.
Remember, the key to a successful UX user experience is to provide visitors with convenience.
When your website is easy to read, and provides great content, Google will take notice. Google crawls and indexes your website, searching for unique content before ranking your site. If you copy someone else’s work, however, you could end up penalized.
Getting penalized by Google will cause you to lose your ranking. That will make it more difficult for future customers to find you online.
Try adding links throughout your content, too. Internal links encourage people to explore your website. Clicking on internal links will boost your site’s clickthrough rate and dwell time.
You can also use external links to improve your SEO ranking. Google wants to know you’re a credible resource. Using links from authorities in your industry will show Google you’re an authority.
Make sure those links stand out on the page. Otherwise, visitors might not realize they’re there.
When your site is easy to read and explore, you can boost your ranking and attract more traffic.
Your call-to-action (CTA) encourages website visitors to complete a specific action. For example, you might use a CTA to encourage someone to “Buy Now” or “Schedule an Appointment.”
Make sure your CTA is specific and actionable. Then, make sure the CTA button or link stands out on the page. Where you position your CTA is important.
Otherwise, visitors will fail to see it.
You might choose to place your CTA above the fold of your website. If so, make sure there’s a headline above it. The headline will give readers context into the action you want them to complete.
Let people know the value of your product or service. Highlighting your value will give people a reason to complete that action. Then, you can increase your clickthrough rate and attract more site traffic.
A messy, content-stuffed website is overwhelming and difficult to explore.
One of the best ways to improve the user experience on your site is to clear out the clutter. Instead, use white space to improve your site’s readability. When your content is easy to read, people are more likely to linger on the page longer.
Remember, the longer someone explores your site, the better for your dwell time, which is better for your SEO.
Give your text and images space to breathe on the page. You can use headlines to break up your text as well. Then, split huge paragraphs into smaller ones.
You can also improve readability by using bullet points and lists.
These UX user experience tips will keep people on your website and attract new visitors.
Certain colors can spark different emotional reactions. In fact, studies show that color impacts 60 to 80% of a customer’s purchasing decision. Every color on your website like CTA buttons, background colors, and text colors, influences the visitor.
Take a look at your headlines, buttons, navigation, and links. Your buttons need to stand out from the page’s background. Otherwise, they’ll fail to draw someone’s eye.
An eye-catching button will encourage people to click around and explore.
There are color emotion guides online that can help you choose the right colors for your website.
However, it’s also important to keep your branding in mind. A consistent brand can also impact the user experience. If your brand looks different on each page, users might get confused.
If they think they’re on a completely different website, they’ll leave and take your business elsewhere.
How are people getting around your website? Most sites feature an organized navigation bar either at the top of the side of the page. You might also use a footer menu to help visitors reach main pages, like your blog or contact page.
Using more than one menu gives visitors multiple chances to explore.
You’re also providing them with convenience, which improves user experience.
Make sure your navigation is well-organized and easy to use. If it’s difficult to understand how to explore your site, visitors might leave.
Next, make sure the menu is easy-on-the-eyes. For example, make sure the text and background colors contrast. The more they explore, the better for your SEO.
Having a mobile-friendly website is essential. After all, more consumers are using their smartphones to search online than their desktop devices. Your website and SEO ranking can both benefit if you’re using responsive design.
Make sure your site visitors can view and explore your content on all devices. That way, your visitors can check their phone throughout the day (even when they’re in your store). An easy-to-use mobile website will allow customers to compare products and prices online.
That way, you’re providing convenience for mobile and desktop users.
You can use this tool to make sure your site is mobile-optimized.
Google also indexes the mobile version of your website first. If your site isn’t mobile-optimized, it could impact your ranking.
Your site’s speed is also an important component for a positive user experience. As you implement these UX design principles, make sure it doesn’t hurt your site speed.
53% of mobile site visitors leave a page that takes longer than three seconds to load.
Make sure your site loads quickly on all devices. In addition to compressing images and checking plugins, you might also want to check your code. JavaScript issues and Flash content can slow your site, too.
A speedy website will make life easier for your users and boost your SEO ranking.
Give your website the boost it needs. By keeping these UX design principles in mind, you can improve your site for your users and encourage them to explore. As they click around, they’ll improve your SEO ranking, which can help you attract more traffic.
Then, you can use your content and CTA language to convert those visitors into sales.
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