Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the most effective ways to get your site traffic and brand known globally. According to a leading SEO Company, an essential part of SEO is making sure that your website is set up and designed to encourage easy access and focus on giving users exactly what they need.
Search Experience Optimization and User Experience Alignment (UXA) should not be treated as separate entities but as an integral part of the experience. An un-optimized experience creates confusion, frustration, and numerous support tickets.
Excellent user experience is an integral part of any website, and in today’s competitive marketplace, it can mean the difference between success and failure. A site that ranks high on search engine listings and improves through search rankings can attract a large audience and make it easier to generate conversions and sales.
It’s easy to brush off a poorly designed website. After all, what do you care if it looks bad and is hard to use? The problem is that this affects your business in two ways: First, you’ll lose potential customers who struggle with clumsy design or vague navigation. Second, that poor usability makes it harder for your existing customers to find the things they are looking for and ultimately drives them away.
How Do We Align SEO and User Experience?
The user experience on a website is not just about meeting the user’s needs but ensuring search engines understand and pick up on how users interact with the site. If users can’t find what they want or do not see the site as simple to use, then it is unlikely that you will attract visitors and repeat business. The recommended ways to align SEO and user experience include:
1. Enable Collaboration
Internal and external teams have a common advantage in aligning their efforts on content. Creating cross-functional teams will help ensure the strategy and projects are implemented correctly. Enabling collaboration is a critical component of user-centered design that can easily be used across many projects. When you can effectively collaborate with others, you increase the likelihood that your project will meet your clients’ objectives, provide value to your users, and develop an effective solution–all while enabling your team to iterate on the design together
2. Understand Your Page Pathways
Page paths refer to how a visitor can interact with your page. When a person searches for something online, there is a specific pathway that they must follow to get from point A to point B. Understanding what paths correspond to your page is key to creating an effective SEO Company strategy. Understanding your page pathways will enable you to create a physical structure (content navigation).
3. Work Incrementally and Measurably
Aligning SEO and the User Experience can be relatively seamless if you work incrementally and measurably. Measuring success, in turn, requires ongoing assessment of the entire user experience and a deep understanding of how it can be improved to align with your organization’s objectives.
4. Align on Performance
An effective SEO strategy must account for On-Page User Experience (USE MAP) and Off-Page User Experience to create a cohesive, natural experience for your users. They don’t have to think about the steps they need to follow to accomplish their goal. When the goals of both disciplines are aligned on performance, the user is given a great user experience, and Google ranks your site more effectively.
SEO and UX alignment is an essential key to a successful website. The two work intrinsically together. The result is a well-designed, user-friendly website that achieves the goals established by its owner.