Why You Need to Balance SEO and User Experience in Your Web Design

This post was originally published on August 19, 2019. Updated for July 12th, 2022.

When it comes to building your brand, you need to be especially meticulous with your website. This is your chance to connect with your target audience. It’s important to balance SEO and user experience to attract and inspire conversions. When you combine UX and SEO, it will help your business stand out from others. But you need to understand how they work to make the balance impactful.

Understanding SEO and UX Design

SEO or Search Engine Optimization

SEO helps increase traffic to your blog or website through organic search engine results. You can do this through the use of words that trend in your industry. Otherwise known as keywords. By using SEO practices effectively, you can grow your audience.

User Experience (UX)

Buzzwords alone won’t inspire your audience to interact with you. UX design encompasses many different things together. These include information architecture, interaction design, visual design, and usability. It comes down to the look and feel of your website. It also refers to how easy your website is to use and interact with. A mindful UX design will help you stand out and gain support from your audience.

How to balance SEO and UX

Don’t overuse industry buzzwords

While you want to bring as many people to your website as possible, you don’t want to do it at the sacrifice of content. Incorporate keywords as necessary into your blog posts and website. But make sure their inclusion makes sense. An example here is us using the buzzword user experience. For this post, it makes sense to use it. But when you fill an entire website with buzzwords and industry specifics, you’ll confuse site visitors.

Utilize white space correctly

It’s important that your blog has some white space to make it easier on the eyes of your readers. If the web page or post is too busy, people will have a hard time reading it and finding the information they want. Think about the last time you had to read a lot of text that isn’t formatted with white space on a computer. Walls of text are hard to read in an electronic setting. So break things up so users can give their eyes a break.

Make things clear

Make sure that your navigation and logo are clear. This way people will be sure of where they are on your website. Consistent branding and layouts are easy to navigate.

Remove clutter

Everything on your site needs a genuine purpose. Unnecessary clutter confuses users. When you get rid of clutter, you ease the UX design and amplify SEO keywords.

Use subheaders

For your blogs, make sure to use subheaders to organize content. This will also allow you to use more SEO keywords and keep people engaged. Many users will skim over subheaders to see if the webpage is relevant. You also need to use proper heading structure to be ADA compliant.

 

If you want to run a successful blog or website, you need to have a complete harmony of SEO and UX design. By making things clear, you will be better able to engage with your target audience. By focusing on your balance of SEO and user experience, you’ll create a great website that both search engines and people can find, and enjoy.

Into the Inbound with Technology Aloha