Have you ever been on a website or searched for a company only to find their website overly confusing? Not enough information? Too many menu options? This is exactly what UX aims to fix.
What is UX?
Overall, User Experience (UX) is defined by Google as “the overall experience of a person using a product such as a website or computer application, especially in terms of how easy or pleasing it is to use.” What this means is that as a user interacts with your website or app, challenges in navigation can deter people from using your product or service.
User Experience for a website is a fairly new concept that has emerged on a larger scale since Google released a significant new mobile-friendly ranking algorithm, AKA Mobilegeddon, in 2015.
UX experts are critical to the development of websites from conception to testing phases because they work with the developers and designers to build an experience optimized for the target users of a website. Beginning with a website concept, they follow steps to Understand, Define, Prototype and Validate a website. What this means is that UX is not a concrete science but changes as the objectives or target audiences change.
The interesting thing about this is that search engines have ways of tracking some UX elements and that can factor into Search Engine Results Pages.
How does UX affect SEO?
Robots that search all web pages look for many things that make up the search algorithm and ranks each website before a search result takes place. UX elements like site speed, page content and menus all factor into Google search results meaning that if users are not going to be inclined to enjoy your website experience, your website can rank lower than others in the same search category.
As User Experience awareness continues to grow and influence how websites are being viewed, the importance of a qualified team that can help your next website project is paramount to its success.