I have been working with SEO specialists (other web content writers and front-end technicians mostly) for over a decade. Some of my coworkers have more experience than others, and most of them remember how easy it was to stuff a bunch of keywords on a page, and rank first on Google. Good old times…
However, things have changed significantly nowadays.
The basic rules of thumb in SEO (the ones that can be found in pretty much every “good SEO practices” blog out there) are not that reliable in 2018. What Google bots are trying to evaluate, is the good UX (User Experience). Besides, many webmasters and web content writers forget about their human visitors and only optimize their pages for search engines. It’s called search-engine optimization, right? Well, my advice is to never forget about your human readers.
Professional SEO & smart UX should come in pairs
Ranking your website on the first page is not good enough if your target audience is going to close the window as soon as the page loads. That makes sense, right? Well, a lot of so-called SEO specialists ignore that as long as their client is ranked first. However, if you are the one optimizing your own website, you should never forget to make sure your targeted users are feeling comfortable, never!
In this blog article, I’ll talk about the elements that impact both SEO and UX that desire a bit more attention.
#1. Headings
The heading’s job is to tell both your human visitors and the search engines what the following text is all about. Unlike the search engine, your reader can get lost in a longer page and could use the headings to navigate better. Plus one for the user experience!
#2. Overall Site Structure
In a case any other page is ranked higher than your Landing/Homepage, your visitor flow would most likely come from that particular page. If the reader actually decides to stay on your website, you need to make sure your that particular page is well organized and leads to other pages or at least your main one – the Homepage or what we at 411Writers call Landing Page.
#3. Site Speed
The web page speed has been a ranking factor for Google for a long time. There are even free tools out there that let you check what possible issues your website may be having. I personally recommend the Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool. You can easily agree with me that is beneficial for both, your ranking and your human visitors.
#4. Mobile Experience
Ever since 2015 when Google’s mobile-friendly update was announced, every SEO specialist knows how important is to have a mobile-responsive web design. In the future, we expect that mobile sites will be considered the “main” website when Google puts the new algorithms in use.
With all the SEO tips and tricks, many web content writers forget about what an appropriate user experience means. People should learn how to properly combine both SEO and UX, especially if they have an amazing content to present. If you have any thoughts about the topic, I would love to read and discuss them with you.
