It’s tempting to believe that keywords/keyphrases have evolved to their highest level. With a focus on user experience, UX and SEO are finally getting the marriage they deserve. Even so, any SEO specialist worth their salt knows that this field is constantly moving and there are bound to be changes down the road. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t bask in this honeymoon period.
This is great time for copywriters. They’re no longer trying to stuff in keywords wherever they can, fighting every literary instinct they have. They can finally go back to being storytellers, writing logically and succinctly to their audience with, of course, a mindful eye on keywords.
The SEO specialist is also enjoying this shift. Legitimate practices are finally being rewarded and they appeal directly to the target audience. User experience (UX) is becoming the holy grail of SEO. This fits right in with quality optimization rather than the black hat method of racing around trying to find the latest cheat.
So, what best practices can you brush up on or implement to bring UX and SEO together on your website?
Keyword Research
If this sounds like something we’ve been preaching all along, it is! Keywords are the foundation of every website’s content. You need to know what words/phrases your audience uses and implement them. Keep in mind that your audience may use different terms than industry insiders and you need to write to the group you want to attract. Also, keyword research needs to be refreshed every once in a while. Trends change, language evolves, you may have new offerings so prepare to do fresh research routinely.
Meta Descriptions
While Google has denied that meta descriptions played into SEO rankings in the past, we’ve consistently encouraged you to write your own meta descriptions. Google does pull page descriptions off your content for you if you don’t write them. The analogy we’ve used all along is that the meta description is your first introduction to a potential customer. This applies more now than ever. You want to be your own voice here and put your website in the most favorable light. First impressions are as important online as they are in person.
Engaging, Optimized Copywriting
Filament prides itself on our ability to provide exactly this. This is where we excel in merging UX and SEO and it’s vital to your success and your user’s satisfaction. Whether you use Filament, another outside agency or go in-house for your copywriting; it’s vital that you use a professional writer who knows how to answer the searcher’s questions in a way that’s appealing.
Where to Next?
Finally, you have to “big picture” your website. Ask yourself where you visitor wants to go next. This may be a multiple-choice answer rather than one simple answer, but no matter what, you need to guide them there. The user wants to be able to check out quickly and easily. Maybe they want to buy or learn about related items without doing a fresh search; you need to anticipate that and take them there quickly. Or maybe they want to go somewhere entirely different. If you want to keep them, you have to take them there or change their mind.
The take away is that to fully enjoy the love affair between UX and SEO you have to be able to think like a user and give them what they want. With teamwork, the user is happy and the website achieves its goals and a lasting relationship is forged.
Contact Filament if you’d like to learn more about having us partner with you to create engaging optimized copy that appeals to users.
