{"id":142588,"date":"2020-12-21T10:00:49","date_gmt":"2020-12-21T10:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.searchenginewatch.com\/?p=142588"},"modified":"2020-12-17T20:29:00","modified_gmt":"2020-12-17T20:29:00","slug":"four-website-usability-elements-that-improve-your-search-rankings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2020\/12\/21\/four-website-usability-elements-that-improve-your-search-rankings\/","title":{"rendered":"Four website usability elements that improve your search rankings"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"well\">\n<h2>30-second summary:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Website usability refers to how easy or intuitive a website is for visitors to interact with, and usability lies at the heart of delivering a compelling user experience (UX).<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Incorporating relevant keywords and building backlinks to your website is still crucial, but Google\u2019s algorithm is continually evolving to reward websites that render top-notch UX.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In this post, we\u2019ll discuss four core elements you must optimize to gratify both human visitors and search engine crawlers so as to attain top rankings and stay there.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There was a time when usability \u2014 how easy-to-use and functional your website is \u2014 was seen as a separate concern from SEO.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Usability was often regarded as something that improves visitor engagement and conversions on your website and was not associated directly with SEO \u2014 the process used to improve your search engine rankings and organic traffic.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While the former part of the previous statement is still true, Google\u2019s ranking algorithm has changed significantly in the last few years \u2014 with an increasingly stronger focus on determining the level of user experience of websites and delivering the most user-friendly results at the top.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Make no mistake \u2014 all the mainstream SEO tactics such as guest blogging, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2020\/11\/16\/top-strategies-behind-link-building-success\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">link building<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and keyword optimization are very much applicable today \u2014 and you need to continue working on these as you\u2019ve been doing since you first started optimizing your website for search engines.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But if you wish to reach the very top of the SERPs and stay there in 2021 and beyond, you must shift your focus toward optimizing the various usability elements on your website, such as the ones discussed below.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>1. Site speed<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Site speed has been a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/developers.google.com\/search\/blog\/2010\/04\/using-site-speed-in-web-search-ranking\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">pivotal ranking factor<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for more than a decade. So, if your pages take too long to load \u2014 anything more than three seconds \u2014 not only will your visitors bounce away out of frustration but your rankings on Google will also floor.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In other words, ensuring optimal page load speed is critical for both usability and rankings. There\u2019s a lot you can do in this regard, such as:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Keep your code clean, minify CSS and JS<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Use browser caching<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Improve server response time by using a CDN and fast hosting<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Optimize bulky image files with image compression tools<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Minimize page redirects<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Use <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/developers.google.com\/speed\/pagespeed\/insights\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Google\u2019s PageSpeed Insights<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to evaluate your current site speed. The tool will provide you with a list of recommendations that you can then work on to improve your speed. For instance, you may have bulky images that need to be compressed or too many unnecessary redirects.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Essentially, PageSpeed Insights helps you pinpoint where your site is lacking and tells you exactly what you need to do to satisfy the need for speed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Knowing that even a one-second delay in mobile load times can impact <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thinkwithgoogle.com\/marketing-strategies\/app-and-mobile\/mobile-site-speed-tools\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">mobile conversions by up to 20%<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, site speed is a super important usability element that you must get absolutely right.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Talking about mobile&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>2. Mobile-friendliness<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Today, mobile devices (excluding tablets) account for more than half of the global website traffic, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.statista.com\/statistics\/277125\/share-of-website-traffic-coming-from-mobile-devices\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">50.81% to be precise<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Unsurprisingly, due to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/webmasters.googleblog.com\/2016\/11\/mobile-first-indexing.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Google\u2019s mobile-first indexing<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the mobile \u2014 not the desktop \u2014 version of your website is the benchmark for how Google indexes and ranks your site. Simply put, your mobile usability can effectively make or break your website\u2019s rankings on Google.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here\u2019s how you can improve your site\u2019s mobile-friendliness:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Optimize your content\u2019s layout for one-handed use:<\/b> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uxmatters.com\/mt\/archives\/2017\/03\/design-for-fingers-touch-and-people-part-1.php\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">75% of users<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> touch the screen only with one thumb, and 10% of users hold their phone in one hand and tap with a finger of the other hand. So, put primary interactions front and center (easy-to-reach areas of the screen), and less crucial ones at the edges. This makes it easy to use your website and constitutes a better mobile experience.<\/span><\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Get rid of the navigation bar:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> A navbar can take up a lot of space that could otherwise be used for displaying other important content. Instead of keeping it as is, incorporate a hamburger menu, which turns your space-hungry navbar into an expandable menu.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Minimize the amount of typing required:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Good mobile usability means minimal touch-screen typing. Minimize the number of form fields on the mobile version of your site, enable autofill wherever possible, and provide the option to connect existing accounts (such as Facebook or Google) rather than asking to sign up from scratch.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Disable popups:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Popups on mobile devices can be extremely annoying and seriously hurt the user experience. Google may also penalize you for popups or similar <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/developers.google.com\/search\/blog\/2016\/08\/helping-users-easily-access-content-on\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cintrusive interstitials\u201d<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that make the content less accessible, so disable them right away.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-142592\" src=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/interstitials-that-hamper-website-usability-and-search-rankings.png\" alt=\"interstitials that hamper website usability and search rankings\" width=\"512\" height=\"469\" srcset=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/interstitials-that-hamper-website-usability-and-search-rankings.png 512w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/interstitials-that-hamper-website-usability-and-search-rankings-300x275.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Furthermore, avoid <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/developers.google.com\/search\/mobile-sites\/mobile-seo\/common-mistakes\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">common mobile usability mistakes<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, such as:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Unplayable video content due to Flash<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Font size too small<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Touch elements too close to each other<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can check how mobile-friendly your website is with <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/search.google.com\/test\/mobile-friendly\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Google\u2019s mobile-friendly test<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>3. Content quality<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As you\u2019d expect, the quality of the content on your website is strongly linked to the usability of your website. Poor quality content doesn\u2019t inspire visitors to take action or engage with your offerings, and consequently, won\u2019t help your website rank well.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To create high-quality content, you first need to understand your target persona \u2014 get to know your audience, their desires, questions, and pain points. Analyze the search phrases that bring people to your site and understand what your visitors are looking for in order to create content that\u2019s relevant and aligns with their intent.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Make sure to get the following pointers right.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Layout<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Proper content layout is vital for a better user experience. For that, you can use different font sizes, bullets and numbered lists, and an <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nngroup.com\/articles\/f-shaped-pattern-reading-web-content-discovered\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">F-shaped pattern<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> as shown below.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Also, be consistent with your layout throughout your website to avoid user confusion.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-142591\" src=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/layout-and-how-it-helps-website-usability-and-search-rankings.jpg\" alt=\"layout and how it helps website usability and search rankings\" width=\"512\" height=\"256\" srcset=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/layout-and-how-it-helps-website-usability-and-search-rankings.jpg 512w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/layout-and-how-it-helps-website-usability-and-search-rankings-300x150.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>Hierarchy<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Use subheadings \u2014 H2, H3,&#8230;, H6 \u2014 to create a logical content hierarchy on all pages. This aids readability and scannability by breaking up your content, which makes for better usability.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Also, make sure to have a unique H1 title tag for each page that is <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2020\/11\/24\/10-effective-ways-to-boost-click-through-rate-ctr-using-serps\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">inviting for search engine users to click on<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Comprehensiveness<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All your content should be in-depth, answering all the questions on the topic so the visitor doesn\u2019t feel the need to refer to other sources and is satisfied with their search experience.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That being said, don\u2019t add fluff to increase the word count \u2014 visitors will easily recognize if you do and this will lead to a poor user experience.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Links<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Link to reputable and authoritative websites to improve your site\u2019s credibility in the eyes of Google and visitors. Back up your claims with recent statistics and facts from reliable sources.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Have a logical internal linking structure to guide visitors to relevant pages from your content.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Also, broken links (\u201c404 not found\u201d) also harm usability and rankings, so find and fix them immediately.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Format<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Publishing long-form articles and text-based content is obviously crucial to rank high on Google.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But what if your target audience prefers <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2020\/11\/10\/how-visual-content-can-give-a-boost-to-your-seo-and-how-to-take-advantage\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">more visual content<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, such as vlogs or infographics? For optimal usability, create content in the format that your audience prefers.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>4. Site navigation<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Regardless of what your website is about, its navigation structure plays a key role in its usability.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For example, if your website is a blog. How are your blog posts organized? Can visitors search for a specific post? How many clicks does it take to reach from point A to point B? Or, if it\u2019s a web app, does it have easy onboarding for <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.whatfix.com\/best-walkme-alternatives-whatfix\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">seamless digital adoption<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by users?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Keep these questions in mind to improve your site\u2019s navigation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Use menu bars, recognizable icons, and clickable links to aid navigation. For instance, if the text on your homepage is clickable and brings visitors to a particular landing page, it needs to be evident. Make it descriptive, change its color, underline it, or turn that text into a button.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Intuitive navigation means your visitors don\u2019t have to think when browsing your site. They are less likely to get frustrated and easily find what they need \u2014 all of which means great usability and thus, rankings.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Wrapping up<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Better website usability translates to better rankings, plain and simple.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With each update, Google\u2019s ranking algorithm is having an increasing focus on rewarding websites that contribute to \u201cdelightful\u201d web experiences for its users \u2014 on fast, intuitive, and engaging experiences across all devices.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So, don\u2019t just fixate on incorporating keywords and building backlinks in the hopes of better search rankings. While doing that is important, prioritize the various usability elements outlined above too in order to ensure you stay on top of the SERPs in the long run.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hazel Raoult is a freelance marketing writer and works with <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.prmention.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">PRmention<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. She has 6+ years of experience in writing about business, entrepreneurship, marketing, and all things SaaS. Hazel loves to split her time between writing, editing, and hanging out with her family.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Your website\u2019s usability and search engine rankings are closely intertwined. Focus on optimizing the four key usability elements outlined in this post to improve your visitors\u2019 on-site experience and boost your rankings on Google in a sustainable way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1092,"featured_media":142594,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,12,5],"tags":[75,27895,37,391,103,22,32,110,727,279,27413,28005],"content_type":[],"class_list":["post-142588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-development","category-mobile","category-seo","tag-content-2","tag-content-quality","tag-google","tag-mobile-optimization","tag-search-rankings","tag-seo","tag-serps","tag-site-speed","tag-user-experience-ux","tag-website-navigation","tag-website-optimization","tag-website-usability"],"acf":{"tad_independentcommercial":false,"tad_content_format":false},"post_info":{"name":"idris.nagri@blenheimchalcot.com idris.nagri@blenheimchalcot.com","title":"","thumbnail_url":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Four-website-usability-elements-that-improve-your-search-rankings.png","category":"Development","timeago":"5y"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1092"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142588"},{"taxonomy":"content_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content_type?post=142588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}