Tough, but Worth It!
We are already familiar with the term UX (user experience) and its place in the world of web design and online advertising. This time around, we are bringing a new element into the mix, and it is called CX (customer experience). While UX is focused on users in general, Customer Experience is a relatively new discipline that is focused more strictly on actual clients, whether they are current or potential ones.
You may think that the difference between CX and UX is almost non-existent, but this would be a really wrong assumption. They are defined in two very different ways, and you can learn about what separates them right here.
Going back to Search Engine Optimization, we shouldn’t neglect that it is also focused on both users and potential clients, but its effects are felt mostly in the time lapse before and after you actually arrive to a particular website or another kind of digital experience.
SEO specialists can benefit immensely from understanding the role of CX and realizing the motivations behind creating a web-based product that will provide a particular user with the experience that will guide them to making a given choice.
While search engines may be attracted to proper keyword selection, link structure and original content, the user’s attraction to pages that have a lot to offer in terms of intuitive and beautiful design is much stronger.
SEO plus UX equals much love!
There is substantial research and various factors behind the work of UX developers and designers, and as Search Engine Optimization experts, we can contribute to that by ensuring that users and potential customers have a pleasant experience with the digital platform that we are working on. Information is the key behind the motivations that drive a UX specialist to take a certain path in building the website so that it favors effortless usability, making it easy for users to find what they need in order to make decisions and complete certain actions.
The tools and metrics for analyzing user behavior here are heat maps, scroll depth and of course – bounce rate and the actual time they spend on every given page. There are various tests and focus groups that help developers lean towards the real data that users need in every particular case.
In turn, the changes made by using these metrics should help us make the right and educated decisions when we plan and implement our SEO strategies. This means determining what kind and amount of content and other on-page elements such as images and graphs are most important to users, what they actually need, pay attention to and use.
SEO plus CX equals eternal happiness!
It’s time to talk business, which is exactly what our Customer Experience partners should focus on. If SEO experts can understand what makes their minds produce stunning solutions, we will have a completely new opportunity to perform our responsibilities more successfully by guiding the right type of users to our digital platforms and turn them into customers.
Business goals are what CX is concerned with, and the professionals are responsible for making sure that a potential customer achieves them. This can mean many things such as selling more of a specific high-end product or leaving more positive impressions and reviews for a piece of media or service that the given company has provided.
An insight into what CX pros do and how they do it can determine what exactly SEO experts should focus on by balancing the ‘business as usual’ with some new unique solutions and opportunities. Our content and marketing strategy should also be determined by understanding the general business goals of our CX counterparts and used to create new methods and ways to tackle the constantly evolving challenges in our daily tasks.
Some final thoughts
The more knowledge we have of how the different aspects and components of the industry work, the bigger opportunities we have for making proper and informed decisions. This means substantial benefits for our optimization efforts and better results for our clients, which is the main goal behind the work that we do at 411 Locals.