What Your Website Needs Now To Engage Users and Rank in Search Engines
When it comes to web design these days, user experience (UX) and SEO are more closely linked than ever. Here’s a look at how clarity and interactivity are fundamental to keeping users on your site and ranking.
Clarity
Are visitors bouncing from your website? You’re probably already aware of the correlation between high bounce rates and poor SEO rankings. Clear navigation not only keeps users on your website, but it also helps Google index and display sitelinks. That means your website is displayed more prominently in search engine results.
Whether or not your website displays sitelinks is contingent on structure.
Via Google: We only show sitelinks for results when we think they’ll be useful to the user. If the structure of your site doesn’t allow our algorithms to find good sitelinks, or we don’t think that the sitelinks for your site are relevant for the user’s query, we won’t show them.
Interaction
Engagement metrics are weighted more heavily than ever. That means your website needs to offer visitors interactive features that explain your products and represent your brand. Recently, we designed and developed a website for a major manufacturer of custom parts for engines. To promote interaction on the homepage, users are greeted with an assembled plastic venturi that comes apart as the user scrolls down the page. This feature demonstrates how the company simplifies complex designs for their clients — part of their key messaging — and also promotes user engagement through a truly impressive feature.
Did you know that video on a landing page can increase conversions by 80%? It’s no secret that video is another powerful way to engage users. An effective way to capitalize on video is through storytelling. For the same custom engine part manufacturer, we shot and incorporated various videos, including one that tells the story of a plastic part, starting with design and finishing with delivery — another industry differentiator that’s part of their brand messaging.
You see, effective website design and interactive features should not only promote a great user experience and adhere to best SEO practices, they should also explain products and services, and communicate key messaging to your target audience.