SEO & UX: So Happy Together
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Rand Fishkin, Wizard of Moz | @randfish | [email protected] SEO & UX: So Happy Together How to combine the practices of user experience and SEO for greater shared value, traffic, and visitor satisfaction
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Transcript of SEO & UX: So Happy Together
Rand Fishkin, Wizard of Moz | @randfish | [email protected]
SEO & UX: So Happy Together How to combine the practices of user experience and SEO
for greater shared value, traffic, and visitor satisfaction
Bit.ly/seouxtogether
Once upon a time…SEO and UX were enemies (sorta).
SEO: Keywords Everywhere!
UX: Gah! My eyes… They burn!
SEO: Jam in the Links & Text!
UX: Oh god…It’s horrible!
SEO: Static HTML only
UX: But, we could do so much more…
As search engines evolved,UX & SEO converged
Goals of Modern SEO:
#1: Drive high quality traffic from search engines
#2: Help understand what searchers are seeking
#3: Identify missed opportunities to influence searchers
#4: Positively impact brand reputations in search
#5: Create long-term value with minimal risk
Goals of Modern UX:
#1: Help users accomplish their tasks easily & enjoyably
#2: Help organizations w/ their user-influencing goals
#3: Positively impact access & reach for every potential user
#4: Improve desirability, credibility, findability, & usability
#5: Uncover potential needs & fulfill themSource
In 2017, Google’s ranking inputs bolster, rather than compete with, UX priorities
Search Engine Ranking Inputs
Accessibility
Content Relevance
Search Query Keyword Use
External Links
Visitor Engagement
Site & URL Structure
Brand Mentions & Citations
CTR + Pogo-Sticking
Internal Links
Outlinks
Spam Analysis
Mobile Friendliness
Page Load Speed
HTTPS
Temporal/Seasonal Factors
Thin/Duplicate Content
Strong Influence: Some Influence:
Accessibility
C’mon Google…
Content Relevance
Phrasing like “differences between”
Words like “tatami,” “yukata,” “onsen,”
“kaiseki” and “Japanese”
Search Query Keyword Use
For most search queries, using the searcher’s language still helps
External Links
Visitor Engagement
Site & URL Structure
Subdomain
Root Domain
Subfolder
Totally unnecessary subfolder
Page
Brand Mentions & Citations
The brands most talked about on the web usually
rank highest
CTR + Pogo-Sticking
If many searchers click #2, then click back & choose a different result, Google may not rank
LuckyPeach as well in the future
Internal Links
Outlinks
Outlinks not only help users, but are correlated w/ more inlinks &
higher rankings.
Spam Signals
HTTPS
Source
Temporal Factors
QDF (Query Deserves Freshness) biases
Google to rank recent content higher
Accuracy Factors
Uh oh…
Source
Phew!
Thin/Duplicate Content
Google filters duplicates, and may depress
rankings of sites w/ lots of thin or useless content
How can UX professionals getmore value from SEO?
1) Recognize Google is Often the First Point of Navigation to Your Site
Source
You Can Control the Brand’s Experience Here
with SEO
2) Serve People the Content They Want
Keyword research tells us what people are
actually seeking, and how they’re looking for
it.
The relative volume & phrasing with which people search for varying queries can lead us to better serve
their needs.
Via Moz’s Keyword Explorer
e.g. If you’re offering “bartending certification,” but
people search 10X more often for “bartending
classes” & “schools,” might be time to update your
language.
3) Serve Content in the Ways People Want
Google only shows these different types of results when they get decent levels
of interaction.
4) Use SEO to Help Make the Case for UX
5) Google Uses User, Usage, & EngagementData to Determine How to Rank Content
I hate bullet points, but this slide from Google Search Engineer Paul Haahr, shows how clicks are used to grade performance
Via How Google Works on Slideshare
How can SEO professionals getmore value from UX?
Just saying!
2) Eliminate Content that Fails to Help
Whoa! Either the content or the UX needs some serious help…
Broad search Narrower search
Even narrower search
Website visit
Website visit Brand search
Social validation Highly-specific search
Type-in/direct visit Completion of Task
3) Enable the Searcher’s Full Journey
Broad search
All the sites (or answers) you probably would have visited/sought along that path
Completion of Task
This is Google’s Ultimate Goal:
If Google sees that many people
who perform these types of queries:
Eventually end their queries on the topic after visiting Ramen
Rater…
The Ramen Rater
They might use the clickstream data to help
rank that site higher, even if it doesn’t have
traditional ranking signals
UX Research Can Uncover Exactly This!
Via Marta Fioni @Prezi
4) Balance UX and Conversion Goals
Via Craig Kistler
Managing Tensions & Tradeoffs Between SEO & UX…
(thankfully, there aren’t very many)
Keyword Use vs. Natural Language
Consolidation vs. Segmentation
SEO best practices dictate that only a single page be indexable for a single keyword target & searcher intent.
But there may be UX reasons to have multiple pages serving the
same or similar user intent
Internal Linking & Navigation
Source
There may be SEO reasons to link that aren’t as useful or high priority for users.
Search Engine-Parseable Content
Because Google can’t parse the interactive elements of the page, 538 misses out on this featured snippet opportunity
For every bit of tension,there’s 10X more opportunity when
UX & SEO work together
So Happy Together!The only one for me is you…And you for me…
So happy together!
