As we’re making our way through the early weeks of 2019, we can’t help but stop and think about what the coming year will bring for digital marketing. Last year brought about noticeable changes in how consumers engage with businesses online and what elements of their user experience (UX) mattered most in forming relationships.
The Significance of User Experience
As many businesses are approaching the new year with a renewed perspective and a fresh approach to SEO, it’s important to look at one of the most crucial components of SEM – the user experience. Is UX still vital to SEO and why is key for digital success in 2019?
The Google Factor
Search engine optimization has changed drastically over the years. Back in the early days of SEO, the focus was entirely on getting a search engine’s attention and nothing else. This tactic lead to some practices that weren’t only on the wrong side of being shady but also detracted from the overall quality of the user experience. It didn’t take long for search engines to catch on to their user’s discontent.
Fast forward to 2019, and search engines put a lot more weight on your ability to provide quality and value to their users than they do about your ability to stuff a bunch of keywords into a piece of content. In fact, while Google remains fairly elusive about their algorithm, many of the most important ranking factors that we do know about are focused on UX in one way or another.
For example, Google pays attention to metrics like your speed, bounce rates and how long visitors are lingering on your site. Details like these paint the story of how well you’re meeting your visitor’s UX expectations.
Search Engines Are Becoming Smarter
The time-honored elements of effective SEM aren’t going anywhere. Keyword optimization, backlinks and website architecture are still critical for SEO, but search engines have become significantly more sophisticated in recent years, and it’s no longer necessary to always spell things out for them.
What this means is that while you need some of the basics of SEO for search engines to find and crawl your site, they’ve also become more sensitive to intent and relevancy and can pick up on them through minor cues. This update allows businesses to focus more on providing an optimized UX for their website visitors rather than worrying about appealing to search engines. Essentially, if you’ve created a website and content that your audience reacts positively to, this is going to be looked upon very favorably in the eyes of search engines.
UX Helps You Stand Out
Let’s face it; the digital landscape is becoming more crowded by the second. This growth translates to a ton of competition that you need to elbow your way through to make it to the top of search results. With so many businesses taking the same standard approach to SEO, it’s going to be an optimized UX that helps you stand out.
UX Design Experts
Would you like to know more about how to provide an exceptional UX for your audience? At Double Up Digital, we offer the SEO services that will expand your brand’s presence online and earn you a reputation of excellence. Contact us today to learn more.
