The Secret Ingredient to SEO: UX/UI

User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) design are foundational in developing a website and an important part of using SEO to assist your paid efforts. UI/UX can make or break the SEO rankings of a website, even as the algorithm continues to change. Keeping a user engaged, making actionable items on a page clear, and laying out the page in an organized way are all ways to boost your site’s SEO ranking and attract more organic traffic without added costs to your budget.? Here are how these three UI/UX principles can influence SEO:??

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Site Organization??

A well-organized and mobile friendly site that is easy to navigate can improve customer retention, user visits, and conversions. Organized UI/UX uses scale and negative space to highlight where the users’ eyes should go. Establishing a hierarchy using the H1-H6 headline tags helps crawlers understand what content is important and relevant on your site and creates visual clarity* . An unorganized website can lead to confusion and high bounce rates from frustrated users. At the same time, good site organization creates a positive experience that leads to customer retention and returning visitors.??

Engaging Design?????

An engaging site can encourage users to explore more pages and discourage bounce rates. When users examine more pages on your website and stay on a single page for longer, it signifies to search engines that your site is relevant and worth bringing to the attention of search engine users* . Using colors, imagery, iconography, illustrations, and other branding elements can make a site more appealing and add creditability. It’s key to include relevant content displayed in an easy-to-read format to engage users in multiple ways and show expertise on the subject* .?

Encouraging Action??

It’s important to consider how a user will perceive links, buttons, accordions, and other clickable items on a page. Using hierarchy, space, and color to highlight what you want a user to do will help them easily find what they’re looking for and take a desired action. Good UX/UI utilizes consistency and trains users by repeating the colors on actionable items and letting the user know, for example, that “orange = click” will decrease confusion and increase conversions. Keeping users happy and conversion rates up is vital to solid SEO scores. ?

The UI/UX principles outlined above can significantly benefit SEO rankings. But it is crucial to combine this with staying on top of the ever-changing digital landscape. Keep a pulse on what search engines are looking for and how user behavior is evolving with it. Try putting these UI/UX design principles at the forefront of your thinking the next time you build a website to improve your SEO rankings and stay informed on the latest SEO trends to see what comes next.?

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