SEO Experts Are Frustrated by Web Design Practices

SEO professionals who work with web developers understand how difficult it is to communicate the significance of SEO requirements.

That visually stunning website masterpiece could end up being a visually stunning page load nightmare.

SEO professionals who consider web design to be part of their job are in high demand. They are aware of how certain web design practices can degrade the user experience.

When the user experience is poor, the page performs poorly in search engine results. Meeting search engine criteria is never a one-time event in today’s digital world.

Google isn’t the only search engine out there. People are increasingly using new search engines that reduce clutter, hide advertisements, and protect their privacy.

Being competitive is an ongoing process. An SEO expert is always looking for new ways to boost his or her ranking.

Because changes can be costly or detrimental to the user experience, the best SEO experts are constantly monitoring web design practices.

The attention spans of searchers have shrunk. We expect answers to our queries to be as precise as possible in meeting our search criteria when we browse the web.

Being an SEO professional who is paid to outsmart, outrank, and outmaneuver a global army of computerized bots is not easy, but competition is in every SEO professional’s DNA.

Marketing requirements are frequently incompatible with web designs. They add to the confusion. What is the source of your most vexing annoyance?

• UX that isn’t meant to convert.
• We limit human experience design by ignoring accessibility.
• Designing without regard for a specific market.

SEO Twenty Years Ago

Twenty years ago, SEO experts recognized that web design practices have an impact on search engine marketing strategies.

Someone new to search engine optimization should start by learning the basics of how search engines rank web pages and deliver search query results.

While the fundamentals of SEO haven’t changed much over the last two decades, the technical aspects have.

Websites can be enormous digital properties with thousands of pages.

There was a time when the homepage of a website included links to every internal page. This made it nearly impossible to find content. It was once thought that if visitors couldn’t see it, it didn’t exist at all.

That included search engines, as there were a plethora of them to submit to and optimize for back then.

Although the glory days of automatic submissions and alphabetical directory sorting are long gone, the problem of finding information on websites has not.

This is why advanced SEO professionals investigate information architecture. This is due to two factors:

• Poorly designed navigation causes user frustration.
• Search engine bots require a well-planned information architecture in order to follow.

Conversion-Oriented UX Design

When planning SEO, the digital user experience should be taken into account.

When problems arise as a result of a lack of understanding of why usability and conversions design is important, clients are dissatisfied. Website owners want their sites to be the first to load and to provide the best possible user experience.

Senior-level search engine marketers with technical SEO experience and an understanding of the value of user experience and SEO are hired by large corporations.

Small and medium-sized businesses may be unaware of how competitive search engines are, as well as how web design influences online marketing.

Budget constraints limit their ability to compete. Less experienced website owners quickly become frustrated because they do not understand all of the puzzle pieces.

One of the most important lessons we’ve learned over the last two decades is that creating a successful website necessitates the collaboration of a skilled team. They must work together.

Usability and overall SEO

In the past, there were two opposing camps.

You were either a web designer with a background in graphic design looking to create visually appealing, creative webpages, or a search engine marketer concerned with optimizing webpages to rank well in search engines.

The missing pieces for both were usability and a focus on user experience.

In an attempt to bridge the gap so that our efforts did not conflict, I began writing about and focusing on what I called Holistic UX and SEO in 2002.

Read Tag Pages & Content Tagging For SEO: A Complete Guide.

Furthermore, a few marketers linked the dots between usability and SEO, writing books that are still regarded as authoritative resources.

Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg’s “Call to Action” was the first piece they wrote about web conversions in 2005.

They presented data and studies demonstrating the benefits of persuasive architecture and web design in assisting users in completing tasks over the next dozen years.

Tim Ash tackled landing pages and became a leading instructor for marketers with his book “Landing Page Optimization: The Definitive Guide to Testing and Tuning for Conversions” (now in its second edition) and the new “Unleashing The Primal Brain: The Essential Field Guide For Modern Marketers.”

Shari Thurow, a well-known educator, and speaker is the author of several books, including “When Search Meets Web Usability.”

SEO professionals eventually discovered the benefits of taking a holistic approach to website design and marketing because they could test and track the results.

Our collaborative approach is now referred to as the human experience requirement for digital marketing and web design.

How Can Holistic SEO & UX Help With Website Marketing?

The holistic approach, by definition, focuses on the cause rather than the symptoms.

Instead of focusing on a single aspect of website management and promotion, the entire process is taken into account. Because this process evolves and changes regularly, SEO skill level is critical.

It can take years to figure out what causes a drop in rank, a drop in traffic, an increase in bounce rates, underperforming pages, and webpage abandonment.

When you analyze your data, you may notice trends that have no explanation.

• Why is the bounce rate so high?
• Why does one page perform better than another?
• What is causing the surge in referral traffic?
• Is it possible to reproduce it?
• Who goes to the website?
• What ranking factors contributed to better search results?
• What kind of computer were they using?

Other Research Factors to Consider

• Is there anything in your data that contradicts your assumptions about your website visitors’ demographics?
• If you pay attention, you will notice that the stories behind the data not only change over time, but also indicate where, when, and how the web design itself should be adjusted.
• What happened once visitors arrived at the website? Why?
• What if your team created a PPC campaign and the results were disappointing?

Connecting the Dots for Higher Conversions

Nothing remains constant in the world of search engines.

With each update to search engine technology and computer devices that allow people to access the internet, human-computer behavior changes.

If you want to delve deeper into neurosciences and human-computer interaction, there are fascinating stories based on their research.

For example, if we are following the gaze of a face in an image, the call to action button will be placed here.

Colors affect us all differently, and if you’re colorblind, you might not see them the same way a designer does.

A landing page has five seconds to persuade users to stay, according to human-computer behavioral studies. Nonetheless, most website designs do everything they can to make us leave as soon as we arrive.

To increase conversions, web pages can be tweaked in a variety of ways. This frustrates experienced SEO professionals.

The more advanced the marketer, the more user interfaces that improve the user experience and allow them to complete desired tasks are demanded.

Marketers are compensated for their contributions to the success of websites. They will not be able to address this with a website that is poorly designed and performs poorly.

Search Engine Optimization, Web Accessibility, and User Experience

A small but growing community of SEO professionals has incorporated accessibility guidelines into every marketing conversation.

When you know who is searching and buying, your marketing efforts are more likely to succeed. Purchases are blocked when a webpage or web app does not render in mobile devices for people using assistive technology.

Because screen reader code also aids search engine bots, advanced-level SEO professionals incorporate basic WCAG2.1 accessibility guidelines.

With each change to search engine algorithms and the display of search engine results, both visually and voice-activated, the need to constantly refine and test SEO practices grows.

Competition for rank, traffic, and brand is fierce on the internet.

Marketers can plan ahead of time by reading Bill Slawski’s alerts on Google’s search engine patents.

Because they are aware of website ADA accessibility lawsuits, astute marketers request accessibility site audits because they understand the risks of a website or brand becoming embroiled in a legal battle.

Top online marketing agencies can tell when a website is not ready for promotion strategies. They either have an in-house usability expert or outsource website usability and conversion audits. Leading digital marketing firms conduct accessibility audits.

These audit recommendations are meant to open up new avenues for increased conversions and revenue.

What practices in web design are incompatible with online marketing strategies?

Certain web design decisions make indexing, usability, readability, accessibility, and findability more difficult.

This makes SEO professionals’ jobs more difficult, especially when you notice the same patterns and design conflicts being repeated by your clients.

The most common web design frustrations are almost always the result of a lack of understanding of how specific target visitors or customers use the web.

Here are some examples of pain points.

Navigation

• Hamburger navigation menus are difficult to use.
• Dropdown navigation elements that do not connect to the main category and instead force you to choose a sub-category.
• Use an accordion to navigate.
• Menus are extensive.
• To create categories, use search rather than filters.
• Manual TAB keyboard navigation has not been tested.

Design

• Oversized images appear at the top of the page.
• Scrolling is limitless.
• Instead of SVG fonts, Font-awesome is used.
• The image alt text descriptions are not included.
• URLs containing Session IDs (dynamic single-use URLs).
• When site redesign decisions are made without consulting analytics. Poor decisions based on opinions or feelings rather than data.
• Sliders that slow down page loading by requiring all of the images in the slider to be loaded first.
• The image’s filename, title, and alt-text will not be displayed in the slider.
• Failure to use an H1 to create a strong page title heading.
• Not testing each page on a variety of mobile devices (or resizing emulators) to see how the pages stack and render.
• Today’s native apps, which are available for download from Google and Apple, can be used for reputation management research and can be added to your stories.

Although optimizing native apps differs from optimizing web apps, comments left by users who download mobile apps should be monitored.

Invest in a Skilled Web Team for a Competitive Advantage

The holistic approach includes everyone involved with the website. The desire for information is driven by the user’s interest.

When considering any web design project, skimping on the holistic approach will not sustain your web project. There are far too many variables to consider, including changing search engine algorithms, ADA compliance updates, improved web page analysis, and expert data interpretation.

Any disagreement or conflict over the website’s development can result in unwelcome symptoms later on. This is why we start with gathering requirements.

SEO professionals are always keeping an eye on marketing data. Web designers are constantly experimenting with new website designs. This is an effort that everyone is working on together.

Because the outcome benefits the website, a team should work together in this way. Skills are important, but knowing when to use them is crucial.

Long-term experience Because previous experience with searchers provides historical evidence, SEO professionals always emphasize the holistic approach.

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Learn more from SEO and read Google’s Guide To User Generated Content (UGC).