Meta Tags – The Ultimate guide for SEO Best Practices

By | Date posted: | Last updated: April 30, 2021

Meta tags, also known as meta elements, are invisible instructions in the area of a website that tell search engine crawlers how to use the page. This technique dates back to the 1990s.

Back then, search engines couldn’t make their own decisions. However, it is still used today to provide important information to Google and Co. We show which meta tags site operators should consider when optimizing search engines in order to improve their position on Google.

Which meta elements are relevant for Google?

In principle, meta tags do not impact the ranking on Google. Any of them, however, may be indirectly relevant to SEO:

Meta Description

An optimal meta description describes what users can expect on a website. It is therefore one of the first points of contact users have in their search in the Google ranking. Based on the meta description (and the title), they decide whether to visit a website. That means: It is responsible for the click-through rate. If this is high, Google knows that a website is particularly relevant for users. This in turn has an impact on the ranking of the page. Therefore, every description should also have a call-to-action.

The length of the meta description is only of limited relevance for SEO. Because: Google only shows between 145 and 160 characters in a search result. However, a longer meta description does not necessarily have an effect on search engine optimization. The restriction to a limited number of characters, as it is now prescribed by many CMS, only comes from a time when search engine optimization was still carried out by programmers. They only wrote the most necessary content. Today a description can be as long as website operators consider necessary. However, a short and concise description helps users to decide in a few seconds whether a search result contains the content and information they are looking for. Check out the guide about On-Page SEO for Ecommerce Website!

However, if site operators have stored a meta description, that does not mean that the search engine also uses this for its search results. If Google considers other content to be more useful for describing the page, then this will be used. Site operators should then usually rewrite their previous meta description. For example, you can include other relevant keywords (no keyword stuffing) or give the content of the description a different focus – in case the topic is broad enough.

Meta descriptions can look different on mobile / desktop.

Title tag

Technically, the title tag is not a meta tag. Together with the meta description, however, it forms the snippet that is important for Google. The title tag acts as a heading in the snippet that tells Google and users (often using the right keywords) what content a page offers. It therefore also decides whether users visit a page. The title tag thus has a great influence on the CTR and thus also on SEO and is part of every SEO optimization.

Robots

The robots attributes show search engine crawlers whether and how they are allowed to use a website. In this way you decide whether a website can appear in the search on Google. There are these values:

nofollow:

If site operators do not want a page on their homepage to appear in the Google ranking, they can use the value “nofollow”. In doing so, however, they also tell the crawlers that no link juice may be passed on to their own linked pages via the affected page. Nofollow is therefore only suitable for login and backend pages.

noindex:

The “noindex” value tells Google that it is not allowed to include a website in its index. However, that doesn’t mean that Google won’t follow the link. This only causes the instruction “nofollow”. Nevertheless, Google has confirmed that after some time it will treat a noindex page as if the page operator had also specified a nofollow.

nosnippet:

The value “nosnippet” shows Google that it is not allowed to use the content of a page for its featured snippet.

noarchive:

The value “noarchive” tells the search engine that it should not display a page stored in the cache.

Basically, if site operators don’t specify a robots value, Google is allowed to do anything. Conversely, this means: You don’t have to add a meta-robot tag to appear in the search results.

Viewport:

The meta-element viewport is responsible for a correct responsive display of a website on mobile devices. If site operators do not use this value, browsers usually use the standard viewpoint of the desktop width (980px). This can have a negative impact on the ranking on Google. Because: The search engine prefers mobile-friendly websites, especially for mobile search queries. So, if site operators specify the meta element Viewport, Google will recognize that a site is mobile-friendly.

How important is the keywords meta element to Google?

The keywords meta element has no effect on the ranking of a page. There is a persistent rumour that website operators can use it to improve their position on Google. However, the search engine has never used this to generate its SERPs.

Conclusion: Meta tags for SEO

Meta elements do not immediately provide a significant ranking boost. However, some of them tell Google how it can use a webpage in search results. And: They directly influence the behaviour of the user. If they click a website particularly often, the CTR increases. Google sees this as a positive ranking signal.

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Top 8 Google Analytics Event Tracking Keys for your ecommerce store

By | Date posted: | Last updated: April 17, 2021

Do you want to know in detail how the traffic in your ecommerce store is developing? A good solution is an extension of Google Analytics: event tracking.

In order to precisely track the performance of the traffic in an ecommerce store and to be able to track certain user actions, the standard implementation of Google Analytics needs to be expanded. Event tracking provides such measurement data beyond the usual performance metrics.

Event tracking is the use of event functions that are added to HTML pages.

With these functions, operators of ecommerce stores and other websites get a precise insight into the use of elements that are below the level of the data measured by Google Analytics.

Without an event tracking extension, analytics only measures activities that relate to entire HTML pages, but not actions that relate to the use of elements within pages, such as videos, downloads, forms, individual buttons and links, gadgets etc. Only event tracking gives ecommerce operators a precise insight into the behaviour of their users. Therefore, a real ecommerce conversion rate optimization is only possible with event tracking.

The technical implementation of GA event tracking

Here and there advisors write that event tracking can also be implemented without programming knowledge. It is true that you do not have to be a specialist to add the necessary components to the page code. General basic knowledge of web programming should be available, however, because the implementation is by no means work for laypeople.

As a prerequisite, the following things should be implemented first:

  • Integration of the source code into the website, which loads the external JavaScript every time the page is viewed;
  • Assignment of all actions to a specific protocol;
  • Reduction of the IPs of the website users in accordance
  • Securing the recording of all page views on Google Analytics through the event tracking function.

The basic function call is made using the parameters:
ga (‘send’, ‘event’, ‘Category’, ‘Action’)

The concrete source code then specifies these parameters and integrates the original code.
In the case of event tracking of a whitepaper download, it looks like this, for example:

<a href = “http://www.domain-name.com/document-name.pdf” onClick=”ga (‘send’, ‘event’, ‘Download’, ‘pdf name’);”>Download</a>.

The implementation can be quite complicated for certain applications, for example for interactions via social sharing buttons, form or mouse scroll tracking.

In the following, we will focus on the possibilities that event tracking opens up for an ecommerce store.

1. Home Page Promotion – How successful are special offers on your ecommerce store home page?

Most ecommerce stores have special offers on their home page. Special offers, new products, specials and other items are presented in certain areas of the page that lead to the corresponding category or product pages. There are of course other ways to get to these pages.

In the standard implementation of Google Analytics, the operator therefore does not know how successful homepage promotions are. Event tracking provides the answer. In daily practice, the corresponding function is used to test different products, categories and placement variants in order to find the most successful in each case, and to identify generally successful products and categories.

2. View product – How often are individual products viewed?

An interesting question for ecommerce store operators concerns the mathematical difference between the number of “product shows” and the number of their purchases. Some products are often viewed without the number of purchases corresponding to them. It is the other way around with other products. It is possible that the detailed description of the products that are attractive at first glance is not optimal and needs to be improved. This important question of ecommerce store optimization only allows the appropriate event tracking.

3. 404 Errors – Find error pages and notify the operator

Error pages are ugly things that are very detrimental to the branding of an ecommerce store in general and the customer journey specifically. For this reason, a corresponding event label should be generated for every ecommerce store, which is linked to the URL of the HTTP 404 error and issues a warning to the operator.

4. Payment Methods – What are the preferred payment methods?

The payment methods are particularly interesting for visitors to ecommerce stores. Some people have one or more credit cards and others do not, some visitors prefer to pay via PayPal, others prefer to pay by direct transfer. For some users, it is the only possible payment method.

Ecommerce store owners respond to the multitude of preferences that they cannot mathematically estimate by setting up as many payment methods as possible. Which payment method is more popular than the other is usually only revealed to the ecommerce store owner after a labour-intensive examination of the accounting department?

Event tracking opens up the possibility of getting a precise and quick answer to the question. On the basis of the result data, they can make decisions about the extent to which the provision of certain payment methods is of particular importance or more worthwhile than others for the operation of the ecommerce store.

5. Internal store search – Which products are searched for in the ecommerce store?

Anyone who tracks the search results in their ecommerce store as an event will also gain important insights.

  • Are certain products searched for in the ecommerce store but not found?
  • So, should they be included in the repertoire?
  • Should the product you be looking for be offered in the event of negative search results?

Search results that are particularly frequent could be specially advertised on the ecommerce store ‘s homepage in order to increase the success of the product. After all, popular search results are used to usefully expand the keyword list of search engine optimization and Google advertising.

6. Checkout – How many users leave the ecommerce store without buying?

The implementation of a function that connects checkout data with conversions enables a quick insight without detours. Has a user who leaves the ecommerce store bought something beforehand? The function provides valuable information for questions about usability such as inventory and general pricing.

7. Continue Shopping – How many users buy how many products?

This event also allows a comfortable insight into a question, which would be much more time-consuming to answer by reviewing the entire order.

When a product has been placed in the shopping cart, a button with a name such as “Continue Shopping” usually allows you to continue browsing the store. If you do not use this button, you go to the checkout with the product placed in the shopping cart.

Some users take a different route on their customer journey, but this is the usual one. The connection of the function with a number of passes enables the counting of the button usage and thus the number of products purchased. If the number of users of the button is low, the ecommerce store operator will try to increase the purchases per visitor in one way or another.

8. Add product to shopping cart – Which products are bought most often?

The question is of course not entirely correct because not every item that ends up in the shopping cart is actually bought. On the shopping cart page, articles can be removed from the product list or their number modified. After all, this is a good approximation to determine which products in the ecommerce store are bought most (or least). With this event tracking, of course, not the name of each individual product, but a variable for all product names is entered in the EventLabel field.

There are many more applications that can be measured by event tracking, such as video and form usage, scrolling through a page, mouse-over activities, downloading documents, leaving a website using certain external links, and many others. The above is only a small selection of events that are of interest to ecommerce store operators. One thing is certain: Anyone who has started using event tracking for their ecommerce store optimization will use the method again and again with great enthusiasm.

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The Effects of Voice Search Optimization on Digital Marketing!

By | Date posted: | Last updated: May 7, 2021

The number of people who use the so-called voice search assistant is increasing continuously. According to estimates and surveys, almost 60% of all young people use this method of Google search very regularly. But even among adults, a good 45% use the voice search function at least once a day, and the trend is growing rapidly. But the use of mobile surfing continues to increase overall. According to study, a good 81% now go online via smartphone – a new record. The question now is what effects these developments have on the workspace of SEOs. The changed user habits due to the voice search function also make new approaches to SEO optimization necessary in order to be taken into account in the result list of Google searches using voice search.

Which voice search assistants are there?

In addition to Google with its system Google Now (“Ok Google”), other industry giants have also followed suit and developed their own language software. Windows Phone owners have known Cortana for a little longer, voice search assistant has been widely used since the introduction of Windows 10.

How does voice search work?

In its origins, voice commands were mainly used to start calls, dictate texts for an SMS, for Word or for an e-mail, or to call up websites directly. In the meantime, the technology has become more sophisticated and complex. In the meantime, the search engine is mainly operated using voice searches.

How does the voice assistant manage to display meaningful and relevant results?

Of course, when it comes to the secret algorithms, Google can hardly be looked into. Nevertheless, the Hummingbird update from 2013 should be mentioned first. The algorithm, which was new at the time, made it possible for the first time not to search for more words and word combinations 1:1, but to recognize the context behind them that the user associates with the input. This so-called “semantic search” revolutionized Google search in the long term and was at the same time a milestone in terms of the accuracy and quality of the search results displayed.

Voice Search independently recognizes the context!

The search on Google differs very much in which respect the user carries out it. Experience shows that typing in search terms only includes 1 to 3 words, while the search using voice search includes 3 to 6 terms. Even complete sentences are sometimes spoken by the users. Of course, that changes the way SEOs work immensely. Optimizing for individual keywords is no longer sufficient here to be sufficiently taken into account in the voice search. The search using voice search differs greatly from the usual Google search in terms of its search technology. It must therefore be made easier for Google to ensure that its own website offers users the required semantic sense in order to land at the top of the hit list in voice search.

How speech recognition works?

The operation of the speech recognition (voice recognition) is performed at all platforms on a similar principle. The text recognition is carried out by recording the spoken words into an audio file. This audio file is then converted into text that can be “read” by the respective software. The second step is crucial. In addition to the correct recognition of the spoken terms, the software must now be able to classify them correctly. The meaning of the search query must be recognized. In the third and last step, the instruction is then executed, i.e. performing the search and displaying the list of results. This shows how well the voice search function has done its job.

What innovations has voice search brought with it so far?

Due to the high level of comfort and ease of use, it is highly likely that voice search will establish itself in the medium term. But Google itself is also doing a lot to ensure that voice search is becoming increasingly important. Here are a few trends on this.

Direct Answers and Rich Answers from Google

With the Direct Answers, Google wants to enable its users to quickly and efficiently provide the right answer to the question asked. For this purpose, the user is no longer only shown links in the list of search results, but also a so-called knowledge box (knowledge graph) in a special form. Around 20% of user inquiries are currently answered in this way, and the trend is rising. So far, information about famous cities, people or places, but also the weather, has been clearly displayed in this way. In addition to the above knowledge boxes, so-called rich answers are now increasingly appearing in the SERPs. Above all, these offer the user useful functions such as converting currencies and measurements.

Rich answer conversion speed

With the help of such rich answers or a so-called quick answer box, Google would like to give users the answer to the search query as quickly as possible. It is astonishing that the voice search is used especially in situations in which the users actually pursue another occupation.

At the same time, however, this also shows Google’s upcoming change. Due to these developments, the search engine is increasingly becoming an answer machine.

Voice search is gaining in importance, especially in local searches

In addition to providing background information, voice search plays a key role, especially for local searches. According to Google, local retailers and service providers in particular benefit from mobile search. According to Google, 50% of consumers who use their smartphone to search for a retailer, product or service provider are actually on site within 30 minutes in a shop that was displayed in the hit list. Frequent searches in this context are the opening times of shops, the search for discounts and special offers, and reviews from other customers.

What effects does voice search have on SEO?

Two good news first. Google does not (yet) penalize sites that are not optimized for voice search. However, this is in all probability only a matter of time. And all those who have already worked solidly in the area of ” content ” over the past few years have little to fear. On the contrary. Good content is once again greatly enhanced by voice search and is rewarded accordingly by Google. Nevertheless, there are some changes in the area of SEO to make your own domain fit for voice search. Check out the guide on how Voice Search Optimization play a significant role in SEO.

The spoken language significantly changes the nature of the search queries

Since search queries in voice search are sometimes formulated in whole sentences, it is now of far less use if websites are only optimized for single or a few keywords. The spoken language is very different from the usual input of terms on Google. Here it is necessary to adapt your own strategy. In this case, long-tail keywords in particular provide answers to complex questions. In addition, headings on websites or in blog articles can be formulated in W-form, for example, and the answer can already be formulated below. Headings That When? How? What? Where? Why? contain, Google offer themselves as a potential source of answers – provided that Google’s own domain is considered authentic (site authority) enough. The classic FAQs, which provide clear answers to previously asked questions, seem to be experiencing a kind of renaissance here – FAQs reloaded, so to speak.

Semantics and content will play an even more central role

Online forums and blogs are likely to be of particular importance here in the future. In these, not only can users ask questions, which are then answered immediately. This also has the effect that user-generated content is created. This, in turn, is particularly appreciated by Google by classifying it as particularly relevant, as there is a clear added value here.

In general, it can also be said that the already increased importance of high-quality content in the course of voice search will continue to increase. Anyone who offers their visitors no or inferior content should not be surprised by low visitor numbers, poor ranking and high bounce rates.

Local SEO is becoming increasingly important

Since the voice search goes hand in hand with the search for dealers, services and entertainment options on site, the area of local SEO will gain in importance in the future. Local SEO means all measures that bring about an optimal placement of your own company or your own products in the local search of a user. Above all, the areas of rating and reviews play a special role. Positive user ratings on platforms and portals have a major impact on the results list in voice search. In addition, of course, the distance to the target, the degree of agreement with the searcher’s request (relevance) as well as the importance or awareness of the company and other relevant influencing factors. If, in the past, large amounts of data on user behaviour were already collected, voice search takes this to a new level. Speech recognition is used, for example, to determine the gender of the user and adjust the results accordingly. Positioning (GPS tracking) also plays a central role in local searches.

Conclusion on voice search and SEO

Voice search is not yet fully developed and is still used cautiously, depending on the age group, but industry experts assume that it is only a matter of time before voice search is fully established. In addition, Google is constantly working on optimizing the voice search function. In the medium term, the results will become more and more precise and voice search will become indispensable. With the increasing number of users, however, all SEOs will have to deal more intensively with the voice search and take appropriate SEO measures.

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SEO and UX – A Perfect Team to Bring Value & Achieve your Business Goals!

By | Date posted: | Last updated: May 31, 2021
seo and ux

No matter how someone finds and consumes your website or its content – users have certain expectations when they interact with your website. The demands, expectations and needs of the users should not only be satisfied, but ideally also be exceeded. Positive associations should be awakened in the user! For this reason, it is important for every company to adapt to the current situation. The user must be on the entire customer journey, from the information search to the conversion, are accompanied and enjoy an optimal experience when interacting with your company. Search engines have been adapting to changing user behaviour for years and are now in a very good position to interpret the user’s intentions and to deliver tailor-made search results.

Combine user experience and search engine optimization for more conversions

With the help of the combination of the two disciplines SEO and UX, you ensure that, on the one hand, qualified visitors become aware of your website and, on the other hand, more conversions and sales can be generated. If you only concentrate on one of the two disciplines, this leads to suboptimal experiences, either when searching or when using your website. This leads to fewer conversions, lower user satisfaction, fewer customers and thus less sales.

In this blog, we will look at all important aspects of the combination of SEO and UX. In this way, you will find out what the two disciplines are all about and how they should be combined with one another in order to make a significant contribution to the growth of your company. SEO and UX these both terms are interconnected and one should follow some website design tips to increase user engagement. Following those tips will be of great help to you in achieving further goals for SEO KPIs.

How UX affect SEO?

The user experience (UX) is now a decisive influencing factor for search engine optimization and includes the user experience or the entire customer journey. In other words, all the effects that arise for the user with the use of a user interface before, during and after use.

Elements of UX

A good user experience starts even before you actually visit the website. The following points show where exactly the interfaces to SEO are:

  • Relevance

    A good user experience starts in the SERP (Search Engine Result Page). The snippet should clarify what the website is about and match the search intention. No false expectations should be aroused! This would only lead to the visitor arriving at the website and leaving it disappointed. That would be a bad user signal and affect SEO.

  • Trust

    Would you go shopping in a shop that looked dubious? No? – We neither! The same applies in the online area. A website must appear trustworthy so that the visitor can shop in a relaxed manner. We don’t want to take any risks when making important decisions. Trust elements, seals of approval, social proof signals and a professional design are suitable for building trust.

  • Orientation

    Users have a low tolerance for barriers. It must therefore be immediately clear what the respective website is about and where further information can be found. If visitors have problems with the user guidance and feel overwhelmed with the selection, the probability of a jump increases. A clear structure is therefore of essential importance.

    A few tips for a clear orientation:

    • Structure content
    • Focus on the relevant content with added value for the user
    • Content according to the proximity rule
    • how users where they are (breadcrumb)
  • Stimulation

    Arouse emotions with your content! Because without stimulation, no action is triggered in the user. It is therefore fundamentally important to know your own target group. This is the only way to address users emotionally.

  • Comfort

    Don’t put obstacles in the way of your users! Make the structures and processes on your website as simple as possible. It is important to avoid frustration in any case. Use well-known patterns and learned action, because this makes it easier for the user to orientate himself.

The common goals of UX and SEO

No matter what industry your company is in, you depend on your website to build trust, offer services, answer questions from potential customers and sell products. So, you need a holistic online presence to generate qualified traffic and increase conversions on your website.

Your customers have specific problems and run searches to find answers. Accordingly, the expectations of the content and the use of the website after the first search results in the SERPs are very high.

If you have followed the topic of SEO in recent years, you know that the optimizations are specifically aimed at offering the searcher the best possible experience when using search engines and the respective website. The focus here is on the user. For this reason, the search intention should be met and the best possible user experience should be sought. Check out top 3 things to boost your website conversion rate through SEO and UX Design. Check out top 3 things to boost your website conversion rate through SEO and UX Design.

Build customer journey with great user experience

SEO focuses on directing searchers to the content of a website through various optimization options. Simply put, the first goal is to drive traffic to the website. However, this is only half the battle. UX primarily focuses on reaching users as soon as they reach a certain website (e.g. via organic search). Essential goals are to ensure the best possible website experience and to turn users into customers.

ux and seo

However, the organic traffic is worthless if it is not qualified. At the same time, a positive user experience on your website is worthless if you don’t have visitors to convert into customers. So, on the one hand you have to maximize the visibility in search engines in order to attract as many qualified visitors as possible to your website and on the other hand you have to continuously optimize your website in order to turn as many users into customers as possible.

Why SEO and UX aren’t mutually exclusive?

In the past, UX designers and SEOs have often competed. Many companies have allocated their marketing budgets for both disciplines separately, which in turn gave the impression that one had to “compete” for the budgets.

In the meantime, however, online marketing is much more focused on the user. As a result, companies have found that the disciplines of online marketing, such as SEO and UX, have to be viewed holistically in order to reach target groups, survive in the market and ultimately generate more sales and growth.

As a promising alternative to the idea of competition, both areas should work together to offer a great user experience when using the website. The optimizations and measures of the respective disciplines only start in different phases of the customer journey: While SEOs bring the user to the website through the best possible search experience in the course of the search query, the UX team then starts to refer the user to a customer do.

As search engine algorithms continue to evolve based on user experience and user intention, marketers should learn to look at both disciplines together in order to generate qualified traffic and increase leads and conversions on the website.

How SEO and UX influence each other?

While users are always better informed through the many different sources of information, they receive more and more suitable offers and results in the course of their search query in order to solve their problems and questions and to satisfy their needs in the best possible way.

As a company, you have to stand out from the competition and position your website excellently on the Internet. You have to succeed in making your content, values and mission visible to users in every phase of the customer journey. The knowledge and usage data of both disciplines must be linked in order to be able to draw the right decisions for the best possible experience when using the website for the user. However, this process only works if SEO and UX teams work together and share their results, data and knowledge.

seo and user experience

How SEO affects user experience?

A typical SEO does not have to be a full-fledged UX expert. But every SEO should know and be able to apply the basics of UX design. All processes and activities must take the user into account and offer added value. Of course, SEOs specifically take into account aspects that are important for search engines. Often, however, these are still aimed at the user, since search engines have learned what users are looking for and need.

Search engines use algorithms to identify patterns that people are looking for. They collect data that help them to understand user behaviour as best as possible. The algorithms are optimized from this data in order to better satisfy searchers and offer fewer results that are not aimed at the needs of the user.

This means that websites that address the search queries better have a better chance of landing on the first page of results with their content. For the ranking, Google uses over 200 ranking factors, which determine the final placement of your website in the course of the user’s individual search query.

If Google see that someone returns to the search results after calling up the website, then this is an indication that the user was not satisfied with the result. The search engine only sees the bounce and states that something is wrong with the website. The job of SEOs is to find out what caused this behaviour and then ultimately find ways to provide the user with a better result. UX experts can provide support with their findings.

This data can be used to make more informed decisions about how to optimize the website. After all, it is easier to make adjustments when you know what users are looking for and what needs and questions exist and need to be met. These adjustments and optimization potential can help to increase conversions and sales for the company. Watch out how to improve landing page conversion rate through UI.

Why is UX essential for search engine optimization?

SEO data is great for identifying general user trends. However, this information cannot identify specific problems on the website itself that affect how users interact with the content of a webpage. An optimized website experience means that users spend more time on the website and ideally are also recurring. In addition, the goal of a conversion is sought. The added value of a good UX is still underestimated and neglected. However, a great user experience is crucial for the user experience on the website. User experience not only influences how individuals perceive a website, but can also have a positive impact on how search engines rate the authority, relevance and satisfaction of user intention on your website. This in turn affects your rankings.

Happy users and customers

An appealing design and intuitive user guidance improve the entire user experience of the website, which at the same time ensures improved user and ranking signals. The design of the layout and the arrangement of the information with regard to the search intention and the goals of the user has a direct influence on the user experience in the course of the search query and during the interaction with the website content.

How can Google determine user experience?

Google and other search engines know where, how and when users consume content. Various methods are used to determine, based on data, how the respective website is perceived. Search engines consider elements such as loading speed, mobile user-friendliness, the structure of the content as well as internal and external links to the websites.

In addition, Google uses user signals to find out how users perceive the quality of your website. User signals are patterns of behaviour that Google sees on your website. These include, for example:

  • Returning users
  • Bounce rate
  • Scroll depth
  • Dwell time (time on site)
  • traffic
  • Number of pages viewed
  • Social signals
  • Click-through rate

The influence of the user signals (user signals) on SEO is shown by the fact that the user signals rated positively by Google contribute directly to a better ranking in the SERPs. Consequently, a positive development leads to added value for everyone involved. Continuous observation and optimization of these key figures therefore plays an important role.

Why “Responsive Design” is so important?

The importance of a good interaction of both disciplines in the course of optimization is increasingly evident in the behaviour and expectations of users. The increasing expectations, multiscreen and the increasing importance of mobile devices mean that the responsive design of a website should now be seen as a basic requirement. This involves the dynamic adaptation of the content and efficient use of the display area of the terminal device currently in use.

Google has already taken this point and the consideration of a responsive design with the switch to the Mobile Index and the published Mobile-Friendly-Update into account several times. When optimizing a website, mobile user-friendliness therefore plays a role that can never be neglected in the course of responsive design for all devices. A website that is not yet fully optimized for mobile devices offers a poor user experience and has a high probability of not meeting user expectations and requirements.

In addition, Google has now switched to the Mobile First Index and defined it as the new main index. In addition to the mobile version of a website, it is now checked whether there is also a suitable desktop version. Website operators who continue to ignore this aspect will have to rethink and make adjustments at short notice.

Language of the seeker

The search inputs of the users provide a valuable impression of how the target group searches and thinks about products and services. Far too often we see companies that speak the language of the industry. However, users looking for products and services often enter completely different words in search engines because they are seldom familiar with the terms used in the industry. Keyword research not only reveals the words and phrases that your target group is entering, but also lets you determine which problems your target group is facing and which solutions are being sought.

High-click snippets

Search engine optimization isn’t just about building rankings. It is more about attracting as many qualified visitors as possible to your website. Better rankings ensure a higher placement on the SERP and thus higher click rates and more visitors. In addition, there are more options for more users and higher click rates. It’s entirely possible to get more clicks than a better positioned competitor. If you manage to get more attention than other search results through your entry in the SERPs, you will also get more visitors. Speak a language that encourages the searcher to click on your result.

Title tags

The title tag is the heading of the search result and is limited to approx. 70 characters. Write a short and concise text that includes the important keyword inputs and, if necessary, further information or a call-to-action (CTA). The user must become aware of your entry while scanning the results and be encouraged to click.

URL / breadcrumb

The URL or breadcrumb of the page follows in the search result below the title tag. Here you should also make sure that the respective main keyword of the page is placed so that the user can directly see what content user can expect on your page. If the name of the URL deviates from the user’s intention, the user will presumably not click on your result entry.

Meta description

The meta description represents the description of the search result. This follows the URL in the search engine result entry. Here you could briefly describe what content the user can expect on the page, currently about 160 characters. Provide as valuable information as possible here that animate the user to click and place a specific call-to-action.

Content & structure

Content quality

The quality of your content is one of the most important factors for good search engine rankings and a good experience using your website. If you offer irrelevant or inferior content, it usually leads to a poor user experience and bad user signals.

Navigation

A website’s navigation is a UX element that is also very essential for search engine optimization. In order to avoid crashes, users have to find all relevant content quickly and intuitively.

Loading time

The topic of loading times is now a central aspect when optimizing your website. Google defines the core web vitals as the central benchmarks. These move the user experience even more into the foreground and consist of the following key figures that are important for UX & SEO:

  • Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
  • First input delay (FID)
  • Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)

This topic offers great potential for many companies in the course of optimization and is extremely relevant for both disciplines.

Headlines

Headings are a relevant factor in search engine optimization. But how do they influence the user experience? They improve the legibility of pages; help structure the content and are intended to encourage the reader to read the following paragraph. Users can scan the content via headings more easily and get a rough overview without having to read the entire content in advance.

Image tags

An often overlooked UX problem on websites. By adding tags to images, you optimize the usability of your website. You use it to provide information if the images cannot be loaded. From an SEO perspective, you can also use images to improve the quality of your content and generate additional users using the image search.

Also make sure to optimize the following aspects, for which you will receive helpful information in our Knowledge area:

  • Meta title
  • Meta description
  • URL presentation and breadcrumb

Avoid typical mistakes

Poor SEO often leads to poor UX – and vice versa. When looking at websites, you will often find the same, typical errors that were made in the course of an optimization. The result is a negative influence on both disciplines. In addition, an unexpected development of the key figures under the previously defined goals can often be attributed to these errors.

Optimizations always take place with separate consideration of the two disciplines SEO and UX. This lead, for example, to the fact that the website is viewed as a whole with regard to its user experience, but ignores the individual entry of a user in the course of different search queries. Confusing navigation and incorrect user expectations can be the result and ultimately lead to the visit being cancelled.

The well-known relevance of cross-device optimizations from the point of view of search engines and users should show that individual consideration and tracking are not a target-oriented method. But also make sure to gather your own experience and test it regularly and carry out competition analyses. Just because a certain measure works in one industry doesn’t necessarily work in another.

5 helpful Search Experience Optimization tips:

In order to avoid these typical mistakes, we would like to give you 5 tips to take with you as part of your website optimization:

  • Always cultivate the search experience idea – Because both disciplines are only half as successful on their own
  • Put on user glasses – what does your target group really want?
  • Uniqueness & Quality – Offer users high quality website content with added value
  • Meet expectations – Pick up users on their respective customer journey
  • Cross-device optimization – Right from the start & at all times.

Conclusion: Use SEO and UX to grow your business

Search engine optimization and user experience go hand in hand in order to offer search engines and users the best possible experience when visiting your website. The changed behaviour and the requirements of the users as well as the relevance and ranking evaluations of the search engines based on numerous updates of the algorithms show an increased merging of the discipline’s SEO and UX. As a result, search experience optimization is being used more and more. The focus is directly on the user, which means that the user experience should be considered at every point in the customer journey and in the course of website optimization.

We integrate UX strategies into our SEO and marketing processes. Do you need any help to improve your website usability or user experience? We are here to help you out! If you are looking for UX/UI web design, online store design, ecommerce website design, Please explore our website design services! We also provide website redesign service, website revamp service, online store redesign service or ecommerce website redesign service, for more information, please explore our website redesign services! Ultimately, UX helps to improve conversion rate. If you require help with search engine optimization, digital marketing, social media marketing, content marketing, explore our SEO Services!

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