It’s the big question we all ask ourselves when it comes to building our website, “Do you build for search engines, or do you build for the user experience?’.
Believe it or not, the answer is actually both! Effective search engine optimization (SEO) and user experience can work together with the right balance enforced.
You want users to be able to easily navigate your website to quickly find what they’re looking for, whilst also having them come back for more.
Want to know who else wants this? Google.
The goal of Google’s search algorithm is to help users find the best answers to their questions in information and experience. As a result, there are several different aspects of user experience that Google rewards in search rankings.
So, how do you strike that perfect balance between SEO and user-friendliness? Try our top 4 tips and you’ll cross the balancing beam with ease.
Avoid excessive keywords
Keywords are essential to utilise within your content as they increase your website’s search ranking and visibility across search engines. But it’s important to avoid keyword stuffing, as this will result in your page appearing too jumbled and incoherent to the human eye.
Using keywords may seem promising to attract visitors to your site, but Google’s search algorithm is complex enough to catch websites out when stuffing keywords into content and when pages hold words that are not relevant or natural to the page. Not only will Google know, but they will actually penalize your website for the excessive number of irrelevant keywords used.
So, how do you optimise your keywords without keyword stuffing?
You utilise your headers, title tags, image captions, first paragraphs, URLs, and meta descriptions to target specific keywords. You can then further reuse those keywords throughout the copy where it flows naturally and makes sense.
Not sure if a keyword fits in a sentence?
Read it aloud to ensure it sounds natural. Whether you’ve used ten keywords or just one, what matters most is the relevancy and readability of the content. Your keywords should be a natural and seamless addition to the content you are already writing as this will make your content more engaging to your readers and search engine algorithms won’t penalize you for spamming. It’s a win-win situation!
Update your website regularly
Do you know what search engines and site visitors both have in common? They love relevant, up to date content.
Your audiences are likely to change and evolve over time, which means they will face different needs and challenges. To keep up with these changes, you need to conduct regular research on your audience to learn how your business and website can adapt.
Having new, useful information alongside an informative or engaging blog will keep your audience coming back. If your content is dull, old and riddled with spelling errors or false information, your site will have very little chance of ranking high on search engines.
Add and update regularly so your website can remain relevant and continues to appeal to your audience. And most importantly, remember you’re writing for your audience first and your search engines second.
Keep your copy short, sharp and shiny
One thing you don’t want when your customers visit your site is to have them googling the definition of every second word when reading your copy or to be left confused about what you’re saying. Why? Because they’ll be clicking the exit button in no time.
That’s why it’s important your copy is clear and concise, where your service and solution is known immediately.
To make it even better, it’s the perfect way to join both SEO and content readability!
Proofread again, again and again
Once you’ve got the content that’s optimised for both SEO and users, you need to take the time to proofread it, again and again, to ensure there are no hidden errors in between.
Scan over each word, phrase, sentence, and paragraph to detect any spelling or grammatical mistakes. This is also the perfect chance to double-check the natural readability of your content, ensuring those keywords aren’t overloaded!
Now it’s time to balance!
As you kickstart your journey to build your website you should remember that improving your user experience can improve your SEO in the long run. Ensuring those users have a positive experience once they are on your site will also help you receive more quality traffic which Google will fancy.
Start off with our top tips and you will slowly progress onto conquering the perfectly balanced website. However, make sure you keep an eye on your results, check your traffic, search ranking and audience needs to help validate your website strategy.
