User experience and SEO – how are they related?

It’s a common perception that user experience and SEO are two separate entities, but that is not the case. The fact is that the work you do to ensure visitors to your website have a good user experience can also have a positive influence on your search engine rankings.

We are going to take a look at the efforts you can make to improve the user experience of your website. As we do this, we will show you how all of this links in with your SEO.

Google Panda and beyond

When Google Panda was first introduced, back in February 2011, it represented a noticeable change in the Google algorithm. After years of a user experience which consisted of visiting websites which were often simply stuffed with keywords, Google officially recognised the importance of good content. Of course, Internet users had already become more savvy, and were demanding content that actually informed them of something.

This was one important incidence of user experience meeting search engine rankings. This meeting continues, and the Internet is a better place for it. Web users get to visit websites which contain relevant, informative and accurate content, and website owners benefit from being rewarded for good content in Google’s determination of rankings.

Thinking about navigation

Your website may contain plenty of useful information, but if your website navigation is not well thought out and clear, you risk losing out on visitor engagement, as well as search engine rankings. You need to pay attention to the user journey through your site; it has to be simple and easy to accomplish. If this is not the case, people are likely to abandon your site, and go elsewhere.

Navigation is also important for SEO purposes. If your internal links and site map are not efficient, it’s difficult for Googlebot to find the content on your website. This can prevent all of the information from being indexed, resulting in an adverse effect on your search engine rankings.

What Google looks for in a mobile friendly website

Although Mobilegeddon was not the earth shattering occurrence that many expected, it was an important point in Google’s recognition of the importance of mobile. It marked a determination to provide a good quality user experience for all web users. The qualities that Google looks for in a mobile friendly website are quite basic:

• The site can be viewed using a mobile device without the user having to zoom or scroll.
• All content can be loaded with no issues.
• Links and buttons are all touch friendly.

If a website is mobile friendly not only will it fare well with Google’s algorithm, it will also provide an enhanced experience for mobile users; another meeting of SEO and user experience.

 You should now be able to see how closely related SEO and user experience can be. This is a useful insight to have, whether you use it to inform your own actions or whether it helps you in your relationship with the professional online marketing services you use. You should always have an input into your online presence, and having additional knowledge to put to use is always a big advantage.