Search Experience Optimization – a guide for beginners

Search Experience Optimization

In short, SXO (Search Experience Optimization) combines SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and UX (User Experience); however, some experts state that it also takes into consideration CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization). These are the purposes of individual components of this puzzle:

• Search Engine Optimization aims at increasing the website’s visibility in organic search results;
• The second one, User Experience, takes care of the user and his interaction with the website;
• The last piece’s, Conversion Rate Optimization, aim is to ensure that the visitor takes the desired action (for example, clicks a particular CTA button).

So, how to use this knowledge in real life? Many companies are conducting versatile audits, in order to examine their websites from various angles. It’s professional, but it’s also expensive. The good news is you can analyze your content in the context of essential elements being part of SXO yourself, then draw conclusions and make it better!

DIY Search Experience Optimization verification

There are some elements that in broader perspective can highly influence Search Experience Optimization, and – in other words – how people perceive your content, how search engine’s algorithms see it and how easy it is to find it online. Of course, SXO is a way more complex concept, and there are separate specialists dedicated solely to that matter. But some things, you can verify and optimize without additional external help. Chances are, that once you work on these, you will already notice an upgrade in the received results. So, here are some essential tips for SXO rookies 🙂 :

• First of all, take care of your website’s dwell time from organic search. It’s a great SEO metric that shows the amount of time the users spend in your corner of the web before returning to search results. Importantly, you should compare your result with industry standards. When numbers are relatively low, you know it’s time to take action;
• When you want your website to rank high in search engines, it’s essential to have well-prepared meta tags like title, description, heading tags, and more. One of the most important, yet often neglected, practices is to use H1 (heading 1) only once on a given page, since it marks up its title. Using various tags interchangeably (only because, for example, they look visually nice on the website) may lead to confusion among search engine bots. The algorithms might then consider the page incomprehensible and unreadable and, as a result, place it lower in their rankings;
• Additionally, it’s vital to strategically incorporate key phrases throughout your site. They are like a fuel powering a lot of optimizing engines – in fact, the majority of content-related operations require the proper use of keywords in order to bring great effects. And it’s not always about rating for the ones with the highest volumes, sometimes it’s better to focus on finding long-tailed keywords with low competition. Make it easier for readers to find your great content;
• What’s more, you should remember that internal and external linking ought to be utilized effectively. You don’t want to distract your readers with too many links, but with the assistance of internal ones, you will navigate your audience to other pages of your website. Accordingly, with smart usage of external ones, you can increase your content’s credibility;
• Don’t forget about User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI)! Optimizing all texts and graphic elements for readability and contrast is critical for providing your users with a seamless and enjoyable usage of your website. Fortunately, there are special tools with which you can check contrast – one of them is Contrast Checker. It’s a site where you can see whether text and background colors have good contrast ratios and are compatible with WCAG requirements. But what is WCAG? It’s the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, which were created to make the internet a more accessible place, for instance, for people with vision problems;
• Apart from readability, another important part of a well-designed website is consistency. Try to determine specific fonts, colors, and patterns you want to use within your content and stick to them. Too much variety can be associated with mess and disorder and even distract users from the real cause of their visit;
• Make sure that your website is responsive. See whether everything opens well on a desktop, tablet, or mobile phone. Nowadays, when cell phone usage statistics are skyrocketing, you can’t forget about responsiveness! In case you do, among many other things, you risk losing visitors who might get angry and quickly lose patience with a weirdly working website that they just can’t use in the mobile version. And in the case of monetization, neglecting that aspect is a simple way to lose ad revenue from ads that were not displayed properly;
• Always keep your content updated! Once in a while, read through your pages and look for any information that might be outdated. You never know when somebody will read your content (even the older pieces), and you don’t want to disappoint your audience with information that doesn’t reflect the reality – meaning is no longer applicable or even consistent with the truth;
• Knowing and adapting UX laws is essential when it comes to creating top-notch websites. There are many valuable principles to keep in mind, such as Nielsen’s 10 heuristics, or the esthetic-usability effect. This principle states that the audience recognizes esthetically pleasing design as the one that’s more usable. Therefore, for instance, it’s always a good idea to double-check any image, picture, or graphic you are about to put in your article. Is it really nice-looking and in line with other already published pieces of yours? Or maybe you are able to find a far better one? By taking that into account, you’ll be sure to impress your users with a stunning design that also will likely be perceived as highly usable;
• In the end – the most important advice is always to keep an eye on your users. That’s the person you address all your efforts to, and also (in the case of ad monetization) the engine driving your revenue. Don’t forget to speak your users’ language and always consider their needs and desires in the content-creating processes. Are you an author of a popular cooking website dedicated to Asian cuisine? We recommend not suddenly switching to posting about USA state laws, as your target audience might be unpleasantly surprised and decide to abandon your corner of the web.

These were just the most essential SXO tips to follow, that you can easily verify and implement on your own. But there is more! For instance, we have an article dedicated to E-A-T in SEO, LSI keywords, or search intent. All this knowledge will help you increase the effectiveness of your content. Yes, we know, it’s quite a lot to consider on the way to introduce SXO, but trust us – the effort will pay off!

It takes two to tango

Search Experience Optimization might seem like two different worlds colliding – the one of UX and the one of SEO. The good news is, although they are pretty different, in the end, they blend well, and all the efforts combine to bring even more spectacular results. Applying SXO can lead to higher traffic, better user retention, and ultimately higher ad revenue. As your monetization partner, we will gladly help you grow. We have many years of experience in finding the most effective methods for content monetization, so don’t waste any more time and fill in the registration form to give yourself a chance to earn more with us!