How to help your business website perform better with great UX and SEO

Search engines have, over the years, changed the way search engine optimisation (SEO) and user experience (UX) are implemented by digital marketing professionals. Now more than ever, innovative approaches have become critical. This is because there’s a lot more taken into consideration than flashy designs or link building or even keywords.

The visitor takes priority over everything else. It’s all about providing the user with quality, trustworthy, highly relevant results for their queries. With each algorithm update, search engines collect and use the data to make updates tailored to improve the results for searchers.

So, what does any of this mean for your business? Considering that a website is the backbone of your brand’s image, it’s best to integrate SEO and UX today. Not only to meet the needs of your users but also those of web crawlers, which can ultimately place you in the right position to rank better.

Consider the shared goals of SEO and UX 

Although good-user-experience differs from end-user to end-user depending on their needs when using the product – the universal purpose of a good UX is to offer the end-user a usable product that is also easy to understand and navigate.

SEO, on the other hand, ensures that the end-user receives search results that are relevant to their search query. In a nutshell, search engine optimisation helps users find the information they need.

Together, SEO and UX help users find exactly the information they need, fast and offer the users a pleasant and easy experience when interacting with that information on a website page. Whether it is on a desktop or on mobile.

So, how do you then merge these two digital marketing fundamentals to ensure the greater purpose for your customers and rewards for your business?

Create synergy between SEO and UX 

Now that you know these digital marketing building blocks share the same goal and are important in performance-based marketing, it’s time to put them to work.

Start with keyword research; it will give you an idea of what users search for in relation to your industry or specific business. You’ll learn more about a user’s search intent through keyword research. For example, ecommerce SEO strategies make use of keywords customers are searching for. These insights can only be collected through keyword research.

Your next move is to convince users to open your webpage by using a language that users will relate to and convince them that they need to read through the information. Of course, this includes a lengthy and informative website copy. But with optimisation and user experience, it involves ramping up your efforts on many factors such as title tags, page URLs, meta descriptions, headline tags, site ID, site loading speed, site navigation, and calls to action.

• Title tags 

Ensure that the title tag you use is in the same language as the keywords you’ve used and that it makes users want to click on the link and read more about what you have to say on the topic.

• Page URL 

A page URL needs to be relevant to a user’s intent and should provide them with additional options to help them decide if it matches the information they’re searching for.

• Meta description 

Meta description is the lengthier information below a URL link. If you have, in your meta description, keywords or phrases a user is searching, search engines will pull up the page on the results. It is thus critical for you to write a meta description that adds value for the intended user’s search.

• Headline tags 

The headline written on your website copy should provide fast and relevant information to the search they’re after. If it reads differently and doesn’t align with all of the above optimisation elements, users can leave immediately without even scrolling down on the copy. Because the headline tag doesn’t convince them that the article will provide them with the information they need.

• Site ID

Site ID refers to your brand’s logo. It should be visible, clear and clean. It needs to be prominent and offer users some idea of what the brand does.

• Site loading speed 

A website’s loading speed has become increasingly important for users. They want a page to load fast whether they’re on a desktop or on mobile. If it doesn’t load fast, they get frustrated and possibly leave the website altogether. Fortunately, you can get your site to load a lot faster if you hire the right experts who put the needs of website visitors first.

• Site navigation 

The structure and navigation of the website should instantly give users an idea of what information is available to them on the website and where to get that information.

• Call to action 

All of the actions a user will need and want to perform should be visible on the website page and easily accessible. Do you want them to buy your products or service? The answer is yes, so let them convert easily without being lost where to buy the product or service.

Ramp up your SEO and UX efforts 

SEO gets people on a website, and a great UX (and content) can easily make people stay, engage on the website and offer high chances of ultimately converting. So, brands that have not already implemented strategies to create positive end-user experiences when interacting with their websites should seriously start ramping up their digital marketing efforts.

If you don’t know where to start, your best option is to initiate conversations with an SEO agency like us, a performance-based marketing that offers the best SEO services in Cape Town.