SEO vs. UX: How to Bring Them Together for Higher Rankings

While different, search engine optimization (SEO) and user experience (UX) are critical in your website’s online visibility and profitability. With SEO and UX, you improve your website’s usefulness and helpfulness. Learn more about SEO vs. UX (and using them to grow your rankings) now!

Learn the basics of SEO vs. UX

Learn the basics of SEO vs. UX with these FAQs:

What is the difference between SEO vs. UX?

The difference between SEO vs. UX is search engine optimization focuses on improving your website’s visibility in organic search results, while UX focuses on improving your website’s user experience. However, UX is a part of search engine optimization because user experience is a ranking factor.

Is UX an SEO ranking factor?

Yes, UX is an SEO ranking factor. Search engines like Google use UX elements like page speed, mobile-friendliness, and accessibility as ranking factors. UX elements like readability, page structure, and messaging can indirectly affect SEO by influencing user behavior.

What is SEO?

Search engine optimization is optimizing a website to improve its visibility in organic search results. Common SEO optimizations include keyword research, content creation, page speed optimization, and more.

Why is SEO important?

Search engine optimization is important because it helps websites reach their target audience. Via SEO, companies can attract qualified website traffic and convert that traffic to revenue, which allows the organization to grow.

What is UX?

User experience is the process of improving a website’s user experience. UX focuses on page speed, mobile-friendliness, usability, accessibility, messaging, and more. User experience can extend beyond a company’s website to its sales and customer support processes.

Why is UX important?

UX is important because poor or mediocre user experiences affect a business’s revenue. With better UX, companies can attract, convert, and retain more customers while improving other digital marketing strategies like search engine optimization.

How to optimize your UX for SEO

You can bring your SEO and UX efforts together with these optimizations:

Page speed

With a faster page speed, you make it easier for users to view, read, and interact with your content. That provides a better user experience, which is why Google created Core Web Vitals, a ranking factor that evaluates a page’s speed and interactivity.

Improve your page speed with the following tactics:

• Compress your site’s media
• Enable browser caching
• Minify your website code
• Get a reliable hosting provider

Usability

There is no UX vs. SEO in usability. Usability is a critical metric for delivering a helpful experience, which search engines and users value. When it comes to websites, usability can range from navigation ease to page responsiveness.

Below are some ways to optimize your website’s usability:

• Set up usability testing software to get direct feedback
• Condense navigation menus for simplicity
• Use accurate anchor text for internal links
• Create clear, easy-to-follow calls-to-action

Mobile-friendliness

Mobile-friendliness is one of the more better-known areas of SEO and UX. When you have a mobile-friendly or responsive design, your website “responds” to different devices and their dimensions, like smartphones, tablets, and laptops.

You can create a mobile-friendly experience on your site by:

• Using a responsive design
• Visiting site pages on different devices
• Optimizing site experiences for on-the-go users

Accessibility

With an accessible website, you make accessing, reading, and using your site possible for everyone. While most businesses believe they have an accessible site, that isn’t the case when comparing your website to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

Some changes that can improve your site’s accessibility include:

• Add alt text to images
• Provide optimal contrast between fonts and background colors
• Use proper HTML markup

Page structure

While page structure may seem like a given in SEO and UX, it can get overlooked. Page structure refers to how you organize your page, like with headings, and how you make your page skimmable for readers looking to get information fast.

A few of the most effective ways to improve your page structure include:

• Dividing your content into headings
• Using hierarchies for headings to organize content, like with H1, H2s, and H3s
• Adding lists, images, and videos to break up content
• Creating descriptive headings that help users navigate the page

Messaging

For UX and SEO to deliver a bottom-line impact, you need definitive messaging on your site. From your calls to action to your product taglines, you need a message that users understand. Confuse them, and you won’t convert them.

Here are some ways to improve your site’s messaging:

• Write descriptive headings
• Use readability tools to test content’s readability
• Limit jargon use

Bring your UX and SEO together with SEO.com

Congrats, you’ve learned the basics of SEO and user experience. You’re ready to improve your site’s SEO and UX. If you need professional help getting started, consider the award-winning SEO.com team. Contact us today to learn more about our SEO services!