The team of 411 Locals has been working together for over a decade. Some of us have more experience than others, and we remember how easy it was to stuff a bunch of keywords on a page, and rank first on Google. Things have changed significantly nowadays… We recently read an article by Sherry Bonelli, where she explains how SEO and UX (User Experience) work together, and we couldn’t agree more with her. See what the 411 Team and Sherry have in common when it comes to SEO and UX below on this page.
Both SEO & US share a COMMON goal of giving users the best experience!
Ranking your website on the first page is not good enough if your target audience is going to close the window as soon as the page loads. That makes sense, right? Well, a lot of SEO technicians ignore that as long as their client is ranked first – they did their job and they are happy with it. Never forget to make sure your targeted users are feeling comfortable, never!
The most common website elements that impact both SEO & UX are described below.
Headings
The heading’s job is to tell both the readers and the search engines what the following paragraphs are about. Unlike the search engine, your reader can get lost in a longer page and could use the headings to navigate better. Plus one for the UX!
Overall Site Structure
Imagine the following scenario: you ranked any other page higher than your actual Homepage. Could be an additional, long-tail keyword, could be something else. So far, both the search engine and your potential reader see that page. When the reader actually clicks on that page and decides to stay on it, you need to make sure your that particular page is well organized and leads to other pages or at least your main one – the Homepage.
User Signals
Google has officially denied that user signals such as click-to-call, time on site, etc are direct factors. However, a recent SEMrush study showed that a much higher percentage of better ranked web pages have at least a few user signal features compared to lower ranks websites with one or no such features pages.
Site Speed
A web page speed has been a ranking factor for Google for a long time. You can even check what possible issues your site might be having with Google’s PageSpeed Insights too. You can easily agree with us that is beneficial for both, your ranking and your readers.
Mobile Experience
Ever since Google’s mobile-friendly update in 2015, every SEO tech knows how important is to have a mobile-responsive web design. In the future, we expect that mobile sites will be considered the “main” website when Google puts the new algorithms in use.
In conclusion, the combination of good search engine optimization and friendly user experience lead to success. Make sure your website is providing an excellent experience for both human visitors and search engines. The team of 411 Locals wish you luck!