In the last decade, digital marketers could rank a website using keywords and backings only. However, several other variables such as bounce rate, page visits, and time on a page have become necessary as well. Google considers them essential ranking factors because they can signify user experience on a website.
Google has been giving importance to human behavior to determine the sites that should rank high on search engine result pages. That is why Google announced to roll out a Page Experience update that prioritizes user-friendliness of the website.
The update was initially supposed to come into effect this month onwards. However, Google has postponed the algorithm update to be a gradual one from July this year and will be fully effective by August.
Many digital marketers are not sure how to prioritize their efforts to optimize the user experience. If you have been going through a similar struggle, you have come to the right place. We will discuss some of the best practices that you can use to leverage user experience to optimize your website SEO performance.
But you should know that this is a brief guide that focuses on the most crucial elements. If you wish to learn more about it, you should consult a professional digital marketing agency like Marketing 1on1. The company has more than 10 years of experience in digital marketing and SEO. They will be able to advise you on comprehensive online and offline marketing strategies.
You should also sign up for a free Google Analytics account. It will enable you to check the various user experience metrics for your website.
Site Navigation
Even though you may think this is an obvious point, you would be surprised by the number of website design that forget to simplify their site navigation. Complex websites can have a negative impact on user experience and SEO. These are some of the most effective tips to create user-friendly navigation menus.
- Make sure not to include complex or multilevel things on the menu.
- The mobile version of your website should be easy to navigate.
- Users may not always land on your homepage. So make sure you include a navigation menu on all the pages of your website.
- Make sure you use clear descriptives about where each button on the menu leads visitors to your website.
- Always include a search bar so that people can look for specific products, services, or content on your website.
A properly designed website navigation menu aids Google to crawl through the website properly. Your website menu may also show up in actual search results. That way, users can click on a specific page instead of looking for it on your website. You should also check and make sure that your navigation menu is compatible with various mobile devices and web browsers.
Bounce Rate
Visitors might abandon your website for various reasons, including mismatched keywords, slow loading pages, or access errors. Ideally, your bounce rates should be as low as possible. These are some of the best practices to follow if you wish to optimize the user experience and reduce the bounce rate of your website.
- The organic traffic should land on multiple landing pages optimized for different keywords and users.
- Publish high-quality content that features the relevant keywords.
- Make sure that you add alternative text tags to the images.
- Create meta descriptions that can attract people to click on the link when it appears in search results.
- Increase your website and page loading speed by using a user-friendly theme. Also, ensure that the theme Is compatible with smartphones and tablets.
Keep in mind that the website/web page bounce rate is only one of the metrics that can influence the user experience from your website. So make sure that you monitor the data and formulate the necessary UX strategies to boost your website SEO.
Website Speed
Website speed and performance cannot only increase the bounce rate but also affect your website ranking directly. As per the Google Page Experience update, website loading speed is one of the components of the Core Web Vitals that have become official ranking factors.
You can use the free Google PageSpeed Insights tool to test your website performance for desktops and mobile browsers. The tool will measure your website speed and may provide the following suggestions to optimize your site:
- Reduce the number of HTTP requests
- Minify the JavaScript and CSS files
- Minimize the image file sizes by compressing them
- Upgrade the hosting service
- Utilize caching
- Enable CDN
- Reduce the use of plug-ins
- Minimize redirects
Increasing your website loading speed will optimize the user experience as well as directly improve your website SEO.
Average Session Duration
The average time spent by visitors on your website is a direct result of an optimized user experience. People landing on your website should find the content engaging and productive so that they can benefit from the knowledge, leave comments, or even purchase your products or services.
According to experts, the average time spent on a website is the second most important ranking factor. You can use Google Analytics to check the amount of time spent by users on your website.
You can utilize the data to understand which aspects are working on your website and the ones you need to improve. For example, if you notice that users are spending more time on pages with infographics, you can add some more of them to the rest of the continent.
But if you see that visitors are not engaging with one of the landing pages, you should try to find out the reason. Some of the most common reasons can be:
- The ranking keywords are not relevant to your products and services
- Visitors are feeling overwhelmed by the amount of information present on the landing pages
- Call to action (CTA) buttons are not well defined
- Visitors cannot access the website homepage from the landing pages
Although A/B testing is a traditional way to check these aspects, you can also use modern AI-powered solutions to achieve better results.
There is no denying that user experience from a website plays a vital role in website ranking and SEO. As Google continues to optimize the ranking algorithms, they are focusing on how the visitors feel when they land on your website.
So make sure that you evaluate your website from a user’s perspective and optimize it accordingly. We believe that focusing on these four crucial aspects can improve the user experience from your website.
