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Why User Experience is More Important Than SEO

by Article by Remington Begg Remington Begg | September 28, 2015 at 8:58 AM

We’ve talked many times before about how the entire landscape of SEO is changing. With recent changes to Local listings and numerous friendly-animal named algorithm updates, it can be hard to keep up. I’m going to tell you something to relieve your burden…

Don’t worry about it.

Really? Yes! Instead of overly-obsessing with Google’s method to their madness, focus on your website’s users. Creating remarkable content, crafted specifically for your target audience, and posted regularly onto the right channels will benefit you in the long run far more than keyword stuffing and trying to trick Google into showing your site.

It is What Google Cares About

“Google’s goal is to provide users with the most relevant results and a great user experience”

That’s a direct quote from Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. Essentially, Google’s goal is to provide users with the best experience of their search engine and show them websites that are exactly what they are looking to find. Notice, it doesn’t say “Google’s goal is to make sure everyone follows their rules” or “ Google’s goal is to confuse and trick marketers until they eventually pay for AdWords.” Google’s focus is on the user experience, and if yours is too, then you are automatically following what they want you to do.

It Will Bring in New Users

One of the most important parts of bringing new users to your website, after initially showing up for the search term of course, it your meta description. If you aren’t familiar with the term, your meta description is the phrase a user sees on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) to describe your page, giving them a reason to click over to it. This is your Click Through Rate (CTR). An enticing meta description will be the deciding factor between your website and a similar page either ranking just above or below you. Sounds like a big deal, right? It definitely is, but it also holds no SEO value at all. A well-crafted meta description boosts your CTR, without being directly sourced in Google’s algorithm to rank your page, so it serves as an important reminder to care about what your users want, first and foremost.

You’ll Convert More New Users to Customers

Let’s say by some special feat, you actually trick Google and get your website to rank for a term that isn’t related to what you do. What do you think will happen when a new user visits your website? Will they say “Oh, this isn’t what I was looking for, but I guess I’ll buy it anyway…”? No way! They’ll get off your website, increase your Bounce Rate, and never come back. That’s a lot of wasted effort that doesn’t lead to a sale. On the other hand, if you fill your website with quality content that truly reflects what you do, new users will arrive on your website, find exactly what they are looking for, and convert to being a customer.

Crafting content filled with awkward sentences to phrase your keywords in exactly the right way will turn a reader off and not help you toward winning Google’s favor. Lucky for those who adhere to the inbound methodology, creating the type of content that readers like actually ends up helping their organic results anyway. When users are actively engaged in your website by clicking on multiple pages and staying on these pages long enough to read, it tells Google that your pages are relevant. That, in turn, makes them rank higher. This outstanding content is what modern SEO is all about.

Ready to learn more? Download our free eBook Modern SEO for even more proven, yet simple ways to boost your organic reach.