Putting a lot of keywords on a page used to be enough to make it the best. Not anymore. Search engines like Google are a lot smarter now. They don't just look at what's on the page they also look at how people use it. If people leave your page quickly or can't find what they're looking for search engines will think it's not as valuable as it looks.
The science and art of making your website fun and easy to use is called UX. When the UX is good users stay longer look around more and think about coming back. All of these are good signs for search engines. Google even keeps track of things like dwell time which is how long someone stays on your page and bounce rate which is how quickly they leave after going to a page. These numbers go up when users have a good experience.
One of these is making sure that your website works well on phones and tablets. People are using their phones to go online more than ever before. Your SEO will suffer if your site isn't mobile friendly because people won't enjoy using it. Google's Mobile First Indexing https://developers.google.com/search/mobile-sites/ lets them see your site the way a mobile user would. If you're not ready it's time to catch up.
No one likes a website that loads slowly. No matter how good the content is people won't stay on your pages if they take a long time to load. That's why it's important for both user experience (UX) and search engine optimization (SEO) to have fast pages. Google did a big study and found that the chance of a mobile visitor leaving goes up by 123% when the page takes one to ten seconds to load. https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/marketing-strategies/app-and-mobile/mobile-page-speed-load-time/.
People are happy when sites load quickly because it makes the experience better and easier. But how do you speed things up? Start by optimizing images which are often the biggest reason for bloat. TinyPNG and ImageOptim are two tools you can use to make images smaller without losing quality.
Checking how well your server is working can also help you. If your hosting service is slow it might be time to upgrade. You might want to use a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to speed up the loading of assets around the world. A lot of people like Amazon CloudFront and Cloudflare. They have a network of data centers where they store copies of your site's resources. This makes it load faster for users.
Content is the most important part of any SEO plan. But it's not just about the rank. It's about getting people interested right away. When was the last time you really enjoyed a book? It probably talked to you directly without any extra words. A good piece of writing should sound like a conversation not a speech.
To do this you need to know who you're talking to. What do they really want to know when they get to your page? This means using the right keywords and figuring out what the user wants. What made them search for what they did? AnswerThePublic and Google Trends are two tools that can help you figure out what questions people are really asking.
You can make your content more interesting by adding videos infographics and podcasts. They make your pages more interesting and give you more information. Adding a relevant video for instance can keep visitors on your site longer which is a good sign of a good user experience. Canva is a great tool for people who are new to making infographics because it has a lot of templates to choose from.
Imagine this you go into a store and everything is a mess. Shelves piled up with no order. You'd probably be mad when you left right? A website that isn't well organized is the same. It's easier for people and search engines to find their way around a site that is well organized. A smooth navigation ladder also makes the user experience better.
Users can find what they need more easily when sites are set up in a hierarchical way. Keep related topics together by using categories and subcategories. A clean URL structure is also important. It should be easy to read clear and full of information. This helps both people and search engines find their way around more easily.
Another way to do this is to link to other parts of the content. It helps with SEO by spreading link equity throughout your site and it keeps people interested by letting them find related information without having to look for it. Yoast SEO https://yoast.com/site-structure-seo/ has great advice on how to make a website that people and search engines will both like.
Let's talk about how everyone has the right to get information on the internet. Everyone even people with disabilities can use websites that are easy to get to. Making your site easier to use for everyone also makes it better for search engines.
For instance screen readers and other tools that help people with disabilities need correct alt text to explain pictures. If your site's code doesn't make it clear where these technologies are most useful a lot of people won't be able to use them. Improving these things will make users more interested and give you a better chance of ranking higher.
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) [https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/] are a set of rules that you should follow. Add things like keyboard navigation video captions and headings that are set up right. You can check how accessible your site is and find ways to make it better with tools like WAVE [https://wave.webaim.org/].
The best way to make things easier for everyone is to put UX first and make sure that no one is left behind no matter what their needs are.
That's all there is to it. Your website is like a digital symphony when UX and SEO work together. Your customers have an easier time and search engines give you better rankings. It's about making a place that people want to return to stay loyal to and tell others about.
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