A glimpse into how UX affect rankings and conversions. This presentation offers perspectives from both a back end technical SEO perspective as well as a front end user perspective.
Presented By: Dave and Mary Davies
2. @beanstalkim #stateofsearch @beanstalk
What Is UX?
User experience (UX) is a person's entire experience using a
particular product, system or service. It includes the practical,
experiential, affective, meaningful and valuable aspects of human–
computer interaction and product ownership.
Additionally, it includes a person’s perceptions of system aspects
such as utility, ease of use and efficiency.
User experience may be considered subjective in nature to the
degree that it is about individual perception and thought with respect to
the system. Source: Wikipedia.org
4. @beanstalkim #stateofsearch @beanstalk
Keep Users Coming Back
• Users Will Choose The PATH OF LEAST RESISTANCE
• Users Increasingly Are Demanding INSTANT SATISFACTION
• Users Have Pretty Much NO PATIENCE
• User Loyalty Is About An EXPERIENCE/RELATIONSHIP With
Your Brand
6. @beanstalkim #stateofsearch @beanstalk
There’s Money In It (A LOT!)
In the 2nd Quarter 2018:
• Parent Company “Alphabet” Revenue Hit $32.7 Billion
• Of That Google Ad Revenue Alone Was $28.1 Billion
7. @beanstalkim #stateofsearch @beanstalk
Adaptation
“News Corp (owner of MySpace)
tried to guide MySpace, to add
planning, and to use “professional
management” to determine the
business’ future. That was fatally
flawed when competing with
Facebook which was managed in
White Space, letting the marketplace
decide where the business should
go.” - Forbes
12. @beanstalkim #stateofsearch @beanstalk
How Does It Impact SEO?
Basically it turns
this …
Sundar Pichai
Google CEO
Into this …
But more like …
7 of 88,110
Google Engineer
38. @beanstalkim #stateofsearch @beanstalk
What This Means For You …
In a nutshell this means:
1 - You need to pay
attention to how Google is
changing layouts to take
advantage of
opportunities.
2 - You need to consider
that if Google is willing to
put that time in, what do
they expect of you?
39. @beanstalkim #stateofsearch @beanstalk
How Would Google Determine The
Success Of A Site?
Essentially… Machine Learning.
A Rankbrainesk system tasked with
watching what happens post-click.
There are fundamentally 4 options…
41. @beanstalkim #stateofsearch @beanstalk
Post Click Option 2
User Clicks Results And Then Back In A Long Period Of
Time – Clicks On Next Results
• While the action is similar the user cannot
be viewed as dissatisfied.
• They may be shopping around or seeing
additional information or opinions.
43. @beanstalkim #stateofsearch @beanstalk
Post Click Option 4
User Clicks Results And Then Back In A Short Or Long
Period Of Time – Adjusts Query To A Completely
Different One
44. @beanstalkim #stateofsearch @beanstalk
What Are Some Ways To Tell
Google We Are Rocking Our UX?
• Titles & Descriptions
• Navigation
• Useful Content
• Digestible Content
• Broken Links
(Fix Them!)
• Page Speed
• Human Testing
• 404 Pages
• + MUCH MORE That
We Don’t Have Time
To Cover
45. @beanstalkim #stateofsearch @beanstalk
Titles & Descriptions
• This Is Your First Impression
• Tell Google & Users That You Are
What They Are Looking For
• Find Problems (Use A Tool Like
Screaming Frog)
• Test/Adjust Your Titles & Descriptions
• Mooch Off Your Competitors 😉
46. @beanstalkim #stateofsearch @beanstalk
Navigation
• Don’t Lose Your Visitors To
Navigation Exhaustion
• Clear Direction & Fewer Choices
• Breadcrumb Navigation
• Logical Journey (In & Out)
• Where Are You Taking Them?
47. @beanstalkim #stateofsearch @beanstalk
Useful Content
• Think Of Content That You Actually Read/Engage With
• Don’t Focus On Keywords - Write For People First
• Find Ideas For Useful, Searched For Content In Google
Suggest (www.answerthepublic.com is also great!)
“Content is not king, usefulness is king.” - Duane Forrester
48. @beanstalkim #stateofsearch @beanstalk
Digestible Content
• Wealth of Information = Poverty of Attention
• Break Up Content Into Logical Blocks & Pages
• Use Accordion Style Content Boxes & Tabs
• Break Up Text With Images That Connect With Users
My Cat
49. @beanstalkim #stateofsearch @beanstalk
Broken Links
• Major Frustration Factor
• Missing Out on Link
Weight
• Fix Internal - Xenu
• Fix External - Google
Search Console (Crawl
Errors Report)
50. @beanstalkim #stateofsearch @beanstalk
Page Speed
• Probably The Single Most
Important Thing You Can Do From
A UX Perspective
• Google: 2 Seconds Is The
Threshold For Ecommerce Website
Accessibility.
• Begin A Users Journey Without
Frustration
51. @beanstalkim #stateofsearch @beanstalk
Human Testing
• Don’t Trust Your Designer,
Your Best Friend, Your Boss
or Your Mom
• Tools/Resources To Help You
-
www.fivesecondtest.com
-
www.usertesting.com
-
www.luckyorange.com
52. @beanstalkim #stateofsearch @beanstalk
“But my site is doing well & people like it!”
• There is always room for
improvement
• “Good Enough” is NEVER
GOOD ENOUGH!
• Your baby just might be ugly …
sorry
56. @beanstalkim #stateofsearch @beanstalk
What UX Elements Directly
Affect Rankings?
Definitely:
• PageSpeed
• HTTPS
• Mobile Friendly
• Broken Links
• Titles &
Descriptions
Maybe:
• Click Through Rate
• Bounce Rate
• Time On Site
• Social Sharing
(A Google patent suggests
this may be used as a signal for
results fed to users based on
their network’s user behavior in
future)
57. @beanstalkim #stateofsearch @beanstalk
But It All Matters!
• Google Is Steadily Adding UX Based Signals To Its
Algorithms
• Gaining Higher Rankings With A Poor Converting Site
Won’t Allow For Your Maximum ROI
• There’s Zero Harm In Creating A Good Overall User
Experience
• There’s So Much To Gain In Creating A Good User
Experience
58. @beanstalkim #stateofsearch @beanstalk
“User experience is dynamic as it is
constantly modified over time due
to changing usage circumstances …”
• User Experience Is Adaptation
• Adaptation Is About Survival
• Google Does Not Want To Be Another
MySpace Story
• As Google Adapts So Must You
59. @beanstalkim #stateofsearch @beanstalk
Creating A Good User Experience
Checklist …
• HTTPS
• Portable Data
• Page Speed
• Broken Links
• Titles & Descriptions
• Navigation
• Useful Content
• Digestible Content
• Links To External Sites
• Calls To Action
• Avoid Frustration
• Human Testing
• Engaging Imagery
• Contact Page
• 404 Pages
• Connect/Tell Stories
• Make Sharing & Following
Easy
60. @beanstalkim #stateofsearch @beanstalk
Minimum Tools You Should Have
• Screaming Frog / Sitebulb
• SEMRush / Moz *
• Majestic / Ahrefs / Search
Console
• Lucky Orange / CrazyEgg
• PageSpeed insights
• Google Tag Manager
• Google Optimize
• Answer The Public