How can user experience improve your site SEO?
How can user experience improve your site SEO?
User experience (UX) and referencing (SEO) of your website are now closely linked. These two elements must now be combined in order to obtain favorable indexing on search engines like Google.
Previously, good SEO and incorporating relevant keywords into your content could be enough to get your website to rank among the top search results. With a change in algorithm, Google now considers the user experience of each page on your site. A site with excellent UX will benefit the search engine, while a site with poor UX will have difficulty positioning itself well.
The Google Page Experience
Just a few days ago, Google announced a new measure of website indexing, the page experience (or Google page experience). This change is still not active at the time of this writing and will be rolled out shortly. It is nevertheless to the advantage of website owners to make the necessary changes before setting up Google page experience in order to bring their site into compliance with this indexing measure.
This update includes in particular the Essential Web Signals (or Core Web Vitals), a set of elements allowing website owners to measure the effectiveness of the user experience of their website, including its speed, interactivity and its visual stability. These elements are essential to offer an adequate web experience to Internet users. Of course, things that were previously rated by Google will continue to be rated, such as mobile optimization, safe browsing, HTTPS security, and intrusive interstitial guidelines.
In terms of Core Web Vitals, here’s what you need to know:
- The loading time of a page (or the Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)) should display its content in less than 2.5 seconds.
- First Input Delay (FID), or interactivity, will measure the time between the user’s first interaction on your site and when the browser responds to that action. The FID must therefore be less than 100 milliseconds.
- Visual stability (or Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)) is the offsets in your layout. Good visual stability has elements that never change position on a page, i.e. a CLS less than 0.1.
By the way, don’t forget that, since 2018, Google now considers your mobile site to be your main site (Mobile-first Index). The responsive aspect of your website is therefore particularly important and can greatly influence your natural referencing on the search engine.
Optimize the user experience
The user experience aims to provide your website visitor with simple, enjoyable navigation that makes it easy for them to find the items they are looking for. The UX must take into account both the visual of the site and the content it offers. The fluidity of navigation, the aesthetics and responsiveness of the site are other elements that improve the user experience offered by your website.
Here are some elements of the user experience that can improve your website’s ranking on search engines.
Loading time
On the web, the attention span of Internet users is approximately 8 seconds. This means you need to capture your visitors’ attention very quickly to keep them visiting your site.
Too long a loading time will adversely affect the performance of your site with Internet users. They will prefer to leave your website and find a faster one to see the information they need.
In addition, a good loading speed of your site and its pages will improve your natural referencing on Google, because this is an element taken into account in the algorithm of this search engine during the indexing process.
Interactive content
The more your website is original, innovative and stands out from others, the more users will enjoy browsing it. Integrating interactive content, such as videos, infographics, quizzes, or anything else, will capture your visitors’ attention and improve your UX.
But beware! You don’t want to fill your site with interactive elements just to create interaction. You need to find the right balance between your static text content as well as your interactive content so that Internet users can find the information they need quickly. At all costs, avoid overwhelming your visitor with irrelevant interactive content.
Adding interactive elements to your site also increases the time your visitors spend on it. The better this factor, the better your SEO will be on Google.
A responsive website
As mentioned earlier, Google now indexes websites according to the Mobile-first Index principle. That is, the search engine considers your mobile site to be your main site. It is therefore essential that your site be able to adapt perfectly to all media and all screen formats: desktop, laptop, smartphone, tablet, etc.
An amazing website on desktop, but outdated on mobile will be at a disadvantage by Google when indexed. In addition, a site that does not display well on mobile is likely to be less appealing to users, thus affecting the user experience.
Adding relevant links
In order to improve your SEO, you can add relevant links in your content that redirects to other pages on your site.
For the user, this way of doing things allows him to easily consult more content related to his research, without leaving your site. This also increases the average time of your visitors on your site as well as the number of page views, while reducing your bounce rate.
For Google, adding relevant links to your content shows your interest in improving the user experience of your site. The search engine will then allow your website to be better indexed and have a better SEO ranking.
If you were in doubt about the relevance of a good UX for your website, now you know that it is an important element to consider in order to improve your SEO on Google. Don’t wait any longer and think about enhancing your website with an adequate user experience.
In order to optimize your UX as much as possible, our team offers you to test several versions of your website, each with a particularity or a differentiating element: moving the call-to-action button, using different colors, renaming certain sections, moving images, etc.
This exercise, called A / B testing, allows you to compare the interest of your visitors for each version of your site and choose the one that offers the best results. Your final website will therefore offer a user experience that will appeal to Internet users as well as to Google. You can then benefit from better ranking on search engines.
Remember that from now on, good SEO will not go without an optimal user experience. You will therefore need to make sure that your website is consistent and that it offers simplified navigation in order to appeal to your visitors and to be better indexed in Google.
If you are less familiar with the concepts of UX and SEO, please do not hesitate to contact us. Our team can provide you with recommendations specific to your website in order to optimize its ranking in search engines as well as the user experience you offer.
