SEO & UX: Finding the Balance - Rob Ousbey

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SEO & User Experience:
Finding the Balance

Rob Ousbey
rob.ousbey@distilled.net
@RobOusbey

Never has UX been more
intertwined with SEO.

The Fastest
Guide To SEO,
Ever

When a website publishes content:
@Distilled @RobOusbey

business economics salary statistics
URL PageRank
http://study.com/articles/Sal... 3.5
http://business.ku.edu/emp... 3.8
http://www.allbusinessscho... 5.3
http://www.theglobeandmai... 4.8
http://naceweb.org/salary-re... 1.6
http://www.indeed.com/q-... 9.4
When a user performs a web search

business economics salary statistics
URL PageRank
http://study.com/articles/Sal... 3.5
http://business.ku.edu/emp... 3.8
http://www.allbusinessscho... 5.3
http://www.theglobeandmai... 4.8
http://naceweb.org/salary-re... 1.6
http://www.indeed.com/q-... 9.4
When a user performs a web search
SERP:
Search engine results page
i

2005 Ranking Factors

https://moz.com/blog/ranking-factors-version-2-released
Is the page relevant to
the term?
Is the page/site
authoritative?

Relevancy
via: page content analysis + external factors
Authority
via: external signals

Google Search Quality Team

Google’s Goal:
Portal to the Internet

Malware & viruses
Paywall / registration-wall on landing page
Out of stock products
Out of date information
Pages that make it hard to find information
Pages that are full of advertising
Bad User Experiences

http://www.thesempost.com/google-rewrites-quality-rating-guide-seos-need-know/
Quality Rater Surveys

In-Result Surveys

User Behaviour Tracking: Data Sources

User Behaviour Tracking: CTR

User Behaviour Tracking: Pogo Sticking

User Behaviour Tracking: Refinement

(This isn’t real data. I’m just illustrating a point.)
Links
On Page Optimization
Site Features
Social Metrics
User Metrics

If this were true,
we’d see correlations between
rankings & some of these factors…

Larry Kim’s research into click-through-rate’s influence on rankings:
moz.com/blog/higher-organic-click-through-conversion-rates-rankings

Brian Dean’s conclusions about the impact of bounce rate on rankings:
backlinko.com/search-engine-ranking

Searchmetrics’ analysis of time on site’s correlation with rankings:
www.searchmetrics.com/ranking-factors

SERP Click Through Rate
Does it seem desirable?
Is it credible?
Bounce Rate
Is it useable?
Is it accessible?
Time on Site
Is it useful?
Is it valuable?

SERP Click Through Rate
Does it seem desirable?
Is it credible?
Bounce Rate
Is it useable?
Is it accessible?
Time on Site
Is it useful?
Is it valuable?
Peter Morville’s User Experience Honeycomb
http://semanticstudios.com/user_experience_design/
http://intertwingled.org/user-experience-honeycomb/

EG: Ad-heavy Webpages

Peter Morville’s User Experience Honeycomb
http://semanticstudios.com/user_experience_design/
http://intertwingled.org/user-experience-honeycomb/

Some uncontroversial,
well-aligned tactics

Site Speed

👍
Lower bounce rate
👍
Longer time on site
👍
More conversions
Site Speed

Images
http://newyorkpersonalshopper.com/

Images
https://www.amandasanders.com/

Images
https://www.yourfitz.com/

Remember to:
keep the images lightweight
•
monitor your site speed
•
consider using alt tags for crawlers & accessibility
Images

Internal Links

Breadcrumbs, Related Products
shop.nordstrom.com/s/converse-chuck-taylor-shoreline-women/3367581

Mobile Considerations

Responsive Design

Mobile Friendliness

Mobile-first Index
bit.ly/Mobile-first-indexing
App Indexation
bit.ly/app-indexation
Progressive Web Apps
bit.ly/progressive-web-apps
Other Mobile Considerations

Page Structure

Content Above / Below the Fold
http://www.virginatlantic.com/us/en/destinations/uk/london.html

Keyword Research

The process of aligning your offering with searcher intent
•
Learn what the user is expecting to experience
Keyword Research

Let’s get to some more
troublesome parts

Web Apps

Web Apps
https://www.itailor.com/designshirts

Web Apps
www.itailor.com/designshirts
custom shirts
design a dress shirt

www.itailor.com/designshirts
custom shirts
design a dress shirt
slim fit shirts
blue checked shirt
french cuff dress shirt
?
www.itailor.com/??
Web Apps

www.itailor.com/slim-fit/
slim fit shirts
blue checked shirt
french cuff dress shirt
www.itailor.com/checked/blue
www.itailor.com/dress-shirt/french-cuffs
Slim-fit shirts
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aenean
commodo ligula eget dolor. Aenean massa. Cum sociis natoque.
● penatibus et magnis
● dis parturient montes
● nascetur ridiculus mus.
Checked shirts in blue
Dress shirt with french cuffs
Web Apps

Big Landing Pages

www.ipsum.com/recruiting/
All About Recruiting
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit.
Aenean commodo ligula eget dolor. Aenean massa. Cum sociis natoque.
College Recruitment
Hiring Veterans
Inclusive Practices
Consolidated Pages

www.ipsum.com/recruiting/
Recruitment Hub
commodo ligula eget dolor. Aenean massa. Cum sociis natoqu
Graduate Recruitment
Hiring Veterans
Inclusive Hiring Practices
www.ipsum.com/college-recruitment/
www.ipsum.com/hiring-veterans/
www.ipsum.com/includsive-practices/
Graduate Recruitment
Hiring Veterans
Inclusive Hiring Practices
Consolidated Pages

We can make them work for SEO, with the caveats:
You must be aiming to create the”best page on the internet”
•
You should have some chance at ranking for the head term
•
Treat it like a topic hub if necessary
Long Landing Pages

Long Landing Pages

Number of unique linking domains over time.
Data via: Majestic.com
Long Landing Pages

Infinite Scroll Webpages

www.ecom.com/category/lbd/
Black Dresses
Aenean commodo ligula eget dolor. Aenean massa. Cum sociis natoque..
Infinite Scroll Pages

Black Dresses
These
products are
discoverable &
indexable
All these other
products could
have problems.

We can make them acceptable for SEO
Make it a ‘progressive enhancement’

Black Dresses
Page 1 Page 2 Page 3
1
Show Google the
version with
pagination links
Page 4

Black Dresses
1
Show Google the
version with
pagination links
2
Mark these up with
rel = prev/next,
and use canonical
tags
Page 4

Black Dresses
1
Show Google the
version with
pagination links
2
Mark these up with
rel = prev/next,
and use canonical
tags
Page 4
3
Allow capable
browsers to replaces
the pagination
buttons with the
infinite scrolling effect

Black Dresses
1
Show Google the
version with
pagination links
2
Mark these up with
rel = prev/next,
and use canonical
tags
Page 4
3
Allow capable
browsers to replaces
the pagination
buttons with the
infinite scrolling effect
4
Don’t overlook the
power of sitemaps
for discovery &
indexation as well
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/1663744

Mega Navigation

Encourages crawlers to
discover / index lots of pages.
Strong control over
internal anchor text.
Mega Navigation

But it creates a very flat architecture.
Are all these pages equally valuable?
Are users really going to
explore this far?
Mega Navigation

The ideal main nav will:
Be as complex as it needs to be, but no more
•
Show which pages really are most important
•
Help users find the best pages, on-site and in search
Mega Navigation

On Page Markup & Targeting

The Gizmo 5000
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer
adipiscing elit. Aenean commodo ligula eget
dolor. Aenean massa. Cum sociis natoque..
A popular alternative to the the Gadget 900
Pellentesque maximus lorem nec convallis
lobortis. Aliquam Gizmo 5000 cursus elit nec
metus eleifend, eget consectetur velit commodo.
★★★★☆ based on 42 reviews
www.techstore.com/product/gizmo-5000
Markup & Targeting

The Gizmo 5000
Things that impact
the user experience:
Keywords in headings
•
Images
•
Keywords in body copy
•
Ratings & Reviews
Markup & Targeting

The Gizmo 5000
Things that impact
the user experience:
Keywords in headings
•
Images
•
Keywords in body copy
•
Ratings & Reviews
Things that the
users can’t see:
Keywords in title tag
•
Keywords in URL
•
Meta description
•
OG Tags
•
Image alt tags
•
Schema markup
Markup & Targeting

Markup & Targeting

Title tag ‘BreadcrumbList’
Markup
‘Offer’ Schema
Meta description
Table formatting
‘Name’ Markup
in json-ld
‘AggregateRating’
schema
Markup & Targeting

www.google.com/search?q=college+rankings
Lists, tables and paragraphs can
all appear here, but rely on
appropriate markup on your site.
(Among other things)
Markup & Targeting
https://getstat.com/blog/featured-snippets/
https://moz.com/blog/featured-snippets-from-start-to-finish

Markup & Targeting
https://getstat.com/blog/featured-snippets/
https://moz.com/blog/featured-snippets-from-start-to-finish
www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2015/10/value-un...

Ranking Problem Algo change
Read some
article
Typical SEO Process

Read some
article
Make a proposal for SEO changes
Typical SEO Process

Read some
article
Debate it for a while
Typical SEO Process

Read some
article
Get asked to justify changes and estimate improvements
Typical SEO Process

Read some
article
Proposed changes added to development queue
Typical SEO Process

Read some
article
Proposed changes added to development queue
Changes implemented
Typical SEO Process

“You don't use science
to show that you're right.
You use science to become right.”
Randall Munroe

A New Approach

This is the graph we really care about

The ‘fans’ show margin of error

The test is significant when the fan crosses zero

In this case, it happened here:

1. Adding ALT tags
2. Removing SEO category text
3. Using JS to show content
4. Adding structured data

1.Adding ALT tags

“ALT tags on images are good for SEO” - Established Wisdom

We found adding ALT tags to images had no effect

1. Adding ALT tags
2.Removing SEO category text

How does SEO text on category pages perform?

E-commerce site #1 - No effect

E-commerce site #2: 3.1% increase in organic sessions

1. Adding ALT tags
3.Using JS to show content

“We can render Javascript!” - Google

Javascript DisabledJavascript Enabled
What happens if your content is only visible with Javascript?

Making the content visible increased organic sessions by 6.2%

1. Adding ALT tags
4.Adding structured data

These category pages had lots of images and not much text

Add structured data to the category pages

Organic sessions increased by 11%

DistilledODN.com

Thank you!
distilled.net/blog
distilled.net/odn
bit.ly/RobIGX
Rob Ousbey
rob.ousbey@distilled.net
@RobOusbey
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SEO & UX: Finding the Balance - Rob Ousbey

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