When building a website, you are effectively targeting two different but closely linked sets of audiences. The first is your potential customers — real people who will be navigating the site to learn more about your company, products, and services. The second audience is search engines themselves. Google deploys thousands of ‘bots’ to scan and crawl your website. These bots aim to learn as much about your site as possible so that they can direct relevant traffic your way. The way you structure your website, the quality of your content, and technical aspects like page speed and site security, all have an impact on the overall user experience for both sets of audiences.
SEO and UX can be thought of as two interrelated aspects of digital marketing that target each of these audience groups. SEO — or search engine optimisation — is about making your website as accessible as possible for search engine bots. UX, on the other hand, is all about creating a user friendly experience for your actual customers.
The advantages of using a full services digital agency, like Newpath Web, is that you get the best of both worlds. As a leading provider of UX and search engine optimisation in Melbourne, our experienced team can ensure your site is fit for all audiences — both real and robotic.
What is SEO?
SEO stands for search engine optimisation, a branch of digital marketing that is all about improving the visibility of your site.
What does that mean? Well, one way that users can find you online is by directly typing your URL address into the search bar. Another is by searching for commonly used terms that describe the types of products and services you offer. These terms are known as keywords. If Google perceives your website to be trustworthy, relevant, and accessible, its algorithms will reward you by promoting your site to increased numbers of potential customers.
In implementing an SEO strategy, your aim is to get your website to rank as highly as possible for targeted keywords. For example, if you run a plumbing business, your customers might commonly be searching for phrases like ‘plumber near me’ ‘plumber in Melbourne’ ‘pipe replacement’. If your website manages to rank in the top two or three results for any of these keywords, you can expect to see a considerable increase in customer contacts. This process takes considerable time (typically 6 to 12 months before you start seeing consistent results), effort, and knowledge of the inner workings of Google’s algorithms.
SEO typically works by targeting three separate aspects of your website. On-page SEO refers to the optimisation of your on-page content. Technical SEO is all about improving the back-end of your site; increasing page speed and strengthening security. Finally, off-page SEO involves promoting your site and content to relevant audiences — like publishing a feature article on a popular blog, for example.
All of these activities are designed to signal to Google’s bots that your site is trustworthy, relevant to potential customers, and will provide a good user experience. Search engine optimisation in Melbourne may be difficult, but it’s certainly worth your time.
What is UX?
UX stands for User Experience, a type of design that focuses on every aspect of an interaction between a product and a consumer. While UX design has actually been around for hundreds of years, it is most commonly now discussed in reference to web design.
A UX designer considers how every element of a website — from the placement of headings to the scrolling style — affects the user experience. Their aim is, of course, to ensure that all visitors can access the information they need in a seamless and engaging manner.
UX designers typically undertake significant planning, workshopping, and testing to come up with an end product that is appropriate for all users.
SEO + UX = a successful website
Oftentimes, SEO experts and UX designers butt heads while under the impression that they can’t possibly simultaneously appeal to their target audiences. After all, the way in which a bot and a real person perceive information differs significantly.
While this may have been true ten or fifteen years ago, Google’s algorithm is becoming more and more complex every year. Its aim — to deliver the most relevant and reliable information available — informs every algorithm update. SEO and UX best principles are now effectively in alignment.
It certainly helps to have SEO and UX experts on your web designing team to advocate for their respective audiences. Newpath Web is fortunate enough to boast both digital marketing and design professionals, who can collaborate to ensure your website is accessible to everyone. After all, there’s no use in having a beautiful website if nobody can find it. In the same vein, Google may rate your website well from an SEO perspective but unless your potential customers find it engaging, they’re not going to stick around for too long.
If you’re interested in finding out more about the link between SEO and UX in Australia and how your website can be optimised to ensure a positive user experience for all audiences, contact Newpath Web today.
