UX Design and SEO: How they affect one another
Search Engine Optimization is all about organically ranking a website over time in search engines; on the other hand, User Experience (UX) design is about designing and developing a website that is all about the searcher. How could these two notions both interlap and NEED to work together?
What is SEO
Search Engine Optimization is the strategy of organically ranking a website overtime using keywords and phrases specifically targeted based on a number of ranking factors. The goal is to increase the volume of organic traffic driven to the website and to increase the quality of this traffic.
What would matter to the decision-makers, board members and C-Suite executives in a company? The amount of website traffic and the QUALITY of this website traffic. A website that has 1,000 visitors per month, but only has one or two leads might not be garnering the best quality of traffic. On the other hand, a website that gets 300 visitors a month but has 10 or more leads is garnering the right quality traffic. Now, while SEO is critical and ALWAYS should be implemented, another element that is critical is user-experience design (UX).
What is User Experience (UX)
User Experience (UX) design is the process of design to provide meaningful and relevant experience to users. The entire process includes from the why, what and how of the product that is being used, in this case, the product being used is the website.
As the searcher is navigating through the website, why did they stop there and for what? How will the user interact with the website?
A bad website can cost a company thousands of dollars because you have about half a second to impress Google and searchers at the same time. With half a second, a company does not have the luxury to have a bad Denver web design. Not only will it cost money but a poorly designed website can cost consumers, brand awareness and damages any credibility that searchers thought you had.
What makes a great Denver web design? As Usability Geek lists out:
- Updated content
- User Friendly Design: Easy navigation, little backtracking and a clear end goal
- Compatibility
- Fast loading speeds
- Simplicity with a beautiful design
- CTAs
Wait, SEO and UX design are two totally different spectrums of your company?! How do both of these notion correlate and work together on a daily basis?
How do they work together?
The main notion that any SEO expert or marketer should understand is that UX optimization is about the user. UX should never be a by-product of SEO and vice versa. A search engine wants custom content as much as it wants a good design because that is what searchers want. At the end of the day, a search engine wants to provide the best results possible. These two notions work together the following ways:
- Improving website speed
- Simple navigation
- Responsiveness
- Title tags
- Nice URLs
- Meta Descriptions
- Correctly sized images
- Fast servers
- Always optimizing
- “White hat” SEO
- Gain credibility
When a website follows a simple design, navigate with on-page SEO strategies that have meta-descriptions and tags, all of this starts to work together to provide the best website out there. Without these factors and others, a website will continue to be in poor conditions and suffer.
Are you showing up on search engines? If not, it is time to take into consideration the design and seo of the company’s website. Give the leading Denver web design company a call today.