Website Usability Analysis – Why It Is Key For SEO?

At first impression, SEO and website usability might sound worlds apart. However, they are more related to each other if you think about it. SEO is what happens before a click and website usability is what happens afterward. Regardless, both are required if you wish to convert a website visitor to a customer. One is incomplete without the other.

In this blog, you’ll understand extensively what website usability is all about and why it’s necessary for SEO services. You’ll be able to comprehend the relationship between these two and develop business strategies that can lead to profit for any business.

What is Website Usability: A Basic Definition

Website usability is all about the ease a user experiences after landing on a website page. On the other hand, SEO is all about increasing website rankings, visibility on search engines, and then acquiring organic website traffic. SEO can include measures such as content, link building, resolving technical website issues, and more. All of this increases a website’s visibility and search rankings on the search engines.

SEO and website usability support each other and are necessary for a business to thrive. Website usability has some parameters some of which are discussed below:

• Website usability is about making it easy for the user to navigate and find the information that they require.
• It’s effective on all devices and should be efficient to use from the user’s point of view.
• No technical errors.
• Attractive design and content arrangement.

Hence, website usability is all about providing a good experience to the website user. SEO covers the initial part of showing the website on a search. However, after a click, website usability plays an effective role.

Therefore, website usability is about making an impression on the website visitor. If it’s positive, there’s a chance that they’ll most likely convert, and if not, all your SEO efforts can go in vain. Hence, website usability should always be taken care of by all businesses today.

Why Website Usability Is Required For SEO?

Website usability is all about retaining the website visitor. They are a group of factors that enhances a website visitor’s experience. Initially, SEO was all about getting the keywords right. On the web, it was easy to get a page ranked if we go back 10-15 years ago. However, as more websites got developed, the web algorithm got more complex.

Individuals also started using black hat SEO techniques to get their pages ranked. This includes keyword stuffing, irrelevant links, duplicate content, and more. These are meant to only rank a website page but provide no value to the user.

With search engines getting smarter and taking a step against spam or black hat websites, they started adding more factors under White Hat SEO. White Hat SEO includes good website tactics that please both the user as well as the search engine bots.

Today, SEO is beyond just content and links as it encompasses several factors to provide relevant information and a better experience to users. If a website provides this to users, a website has a high chance of ranking higher on the search engines.

Today, the relevant SEO factors include:

• User-friendly website design
• Webpage loading speed
• Number of web pages
• Mobile optimization
• Content length and more

As you can see how Google and other search engines are increasingly emphasizing website usability instead of outdated black hat SEO tactics. Therefore, website usability factors have become an essential component of SEO.

People rely a ton on getting information quickly from search engines. Hence, search engines present those websites to the users that are easy to navigate, perform well on all devices, and display information to the user in a concise manner. So, it’s not just presenting content to the user but how it gets represented on the website. Hence, the overall experience of finding the website and user experience on it is what’s classified as SEO today.

How Can Website Usability Be Optimized?

As established, website usability plays a crucial role in SEO. So, if that’s the case, there must be ways through which one can improve it. Some of the proven ways are discussed below:

1. Decrease Page Load Times

Users can back off from the site if it’s taking too long to load. The bounce rate can increase drastically leading to poor user experience. People want answers in a few clicks and in less time, and any website having optimum loading performance on any device is likely to rank better and give users a better experience.

Therefore, the focus should be on decreasing the page load so that it opens quickly. One effective way of reducing page loading times is through compressing images and reducing their size. Scaling the images to the right size on the website can reduce the page load and hence, it can load faster.  Browser caching and optimizing CSS files are some other measures that decrease page loading times.

2. A Responsive Website Design

A responsive website design enables the website to perform well on all devices. Be it smartphones, desktops, tablets, or any device, the website functions smoothly with a responsive web design. With many users now actively using mobiles for accessing the web, mobile friendliness is no longer an option.

A large chunk of traffic and sales could get lost if the website isn’t responsive. Remember, a desktop theme based version should be applied regardless of the device. Moreover, a small number of tweaks itself can make the website responsive. The maximum width of the page, image sizes, etc. are some of the minor changes that need to be bought from the mobile version to the desktop version. Any major change should not be done as it can only confuse the user. Adding the responsive design code to the page can automatically allow the website to adjust as per the device requirement.

3. Familiar Website Layout

It’s okay to make your website stand out but it shouldn’t confuse the user. A simple website layout with easy navigation is what users want where they can easily find what they desire. If users find it hard to navigate a website, they’re most likely to abandon the website.

Whereas, if users are in a comfortable and familiar environment, they can conveniently navigate and that converts to a convincing user experience. Doing something unusual with navigation is unlikely to generate some positive results.

Therefore, keeping a familiar website layout makes it easy for the user to navigate and that translates to a good experience beneficial for website usability and SEO.

Conclusion

Website usability factors have now become an essential part of SEO. It also leads to a better experience alongside enhanced rankings for a website. Therefore, with the measures that are explained in this blog, you can easily enhance the website experience for a visitor and convert them as desired. If you opt for SEO packages from a reliable SEO firm then will help you with website usability analysis.