UX Archives - Unwired Web Solutions

The internet is a crowded environment. It takes planning and effort to make sure that your website gets noticed. For the past three decades, search engines have been cataloging content on the web, and content providers have been looking for ways to ensure their sites land on the first page of the search results. Search engine optimization is a set of processes that seek to improve site visibility and rankings for search results that are relevant.

These days, Google algorithms direct traffic on busy internet highways. Keeping up with the ever-changing methods the company uses to determine what gets seen in search results is not easy. Unfortunately, any changes they make ultimately alter optimization strategies. This leads many businesses to hire an SEO company to do the work for them. While it is important to get people to visit your site, there is more to a good SEO strategy than simply getting views.

Prioritize Your Users’ Experience

In 2021, optimizing your content so that it turns up in relevant search results is going to take more than just getting people to your website. Getting visitors to stay on your site is imperative to good rankings. The quicker they leave, the lower your position falls. There are multiple ways you can create content that is engaging enough to make people want to stick around. Your optimization strategy should utilize more than one method, but each should seek to place the primary focus on user experience. Possible strategies include:

Write content that is centred on medium-tail keywords, and make sure that that page is high quality. Make it meaningful and relevant and get rid of the fluff.
More people are inclined to watch a video than read a post, so take advantage of opportunities to create engaging video content.
Optimize your content to show up as a featured snippet by incorporating keywords, lists, images and graphs into your content.
Write long-form content that has some staying power, rather than providing information that is likely to change in a few months’ time.
Make sure that your site is mobile-friendly. So many people use their devices these days that a mobile site is considered the primary site, rather than the desktop version.

Perhaps it seems intuitive that user experience is important to finding and keeping customers. It has always been the key to any successful business. The internet and search engines have altered marketing strategies, but, in the end, SEO rankings are circling back around to placing importance on user experience to determine which sites rank high and which sink into the depths of search results.

Familiarize Yourself With Google’s RankBrain

So, what’s driving the shift in SEO strategies? Simply said, it’s Google. The company utilizes a number of elements in its ranking algorithm, and RankBrain is one of them. Google now uses the “learning” capabilities of artificial intelligence to determine what ultimately shows up on search results pages.

This AI is capable of ascertaining probable user intent based on the way people interact with the results that turn up for a given search query. If a user clicks on a link for your site, and then immediately leaves, it tells the AI that your site wasn’t what that person was looking for when they entered the search terms. When they spend more time on your page, RankBrain takes it to mean that you are providing them the information they are seeking, which, in turn, boosts your ranking, drives more traffic to your page and increases your lead generation and sales.

Give Your Business a Boost

Keeping up with the ever-shifting landscape of SEO is a full-time endeavor. Unwired Web Solutions makes it our business to stay on top of the newest trends in marketing. Our SEO services provide you with the most up-to-date approaches to optimizing your site, driving more organic traffic to your online properties. Take the next step in growing your business by contacting us today!

Google takes hundreds of elements into account when it ranks your website. Although keywords are one big factor, elements of user experience, aka UX, is also considered. UX is about the user and concerns how easy your website is to use and navigate.

When visitors come to your site, can they understand your site and find what they want? UX also takes into account your site’s credibility and accessibility. When your site is designed to meet expectations for users, search engines use that information for search rankings. More importantly, users come back to your site.

Here are five tips for improving user experience.

1. How easy is it to read your website?

When users come to your website, the information needs to be organized in a way to let them easily find information. Use bulleted lists. Keep paragraphs short. Put in headings for easy skimming. The sad reality is that most people don’t read blocks of text; they’ll just scan the headers.

Use a conventional flow for your site:

Logo in the left-hand corner
Call-to-action at the top
Search feature at the top of the page
Contact information, social media icons and sign-up forms in the footer

Make sure your text stands out against the background. It’s okay to get creative, but keep UX in mind.

2. Is your content fresh and relevant?

Users who come to your site want updated information. Fresh content helps your site be found by search engines. Content that is up-to-date and interesting adds to your credibility. Create blog posts that offer new information about your industry and business to give customers insight. Meet consumers at any place along the sales journey, whether they’re just gathering information or ready to purchase.

3. Can users connect with you on social media?

Modern shoppers want to know about your business before walking into your store. Give customers a way to connect with you through social media. Your promotions and campaigns online can help you grow your customer base when you provide value. Giving ways for customers to easily find you on social media increases the user experience.

4. Do you interact with your customers?

When customers post reviews, negative or positive, do you answer? You need to post responses to users who interact with your business on social media and through Google Business Profile reviews. Not only does this keep current customers, but potential customers are watching your brand. They’ll get to know you through your engagement on your social media. Demonstrate your commitment to customer service and support.

5. Is your website optimized for performance?

Content is king, but the technical side of your website is just as important to UX as what you post. If you want users to click on something, make it obvious. Optimize your site to make pages load quickly and get rid of features that cause slow load-times. Make sure your website looks great on different screen sizes. Add metadata that helps search engines find your pages. Although your users may not recognize these things, ignoring the technical aspects of SEO decreases UX.

Analyze How People Are Using Your Site

Use analytical data to see how you are doing. Test different versions of your pages to see which performs better. Have a plan for using your website. Set goals and constantly work to achieve those goals.

Building a website isn’t as easy as putting words up and waiting for people to come. You have to be proactive and work hard to grow a customer base that responds to your brand. Talk to an SEO company about making your website SEO friendly and customer-oriented. User experience boosts your online presence by increasing customer engagement, which in turn helps your search engine rankings.