Many people think that SEO is just writing blog content strategically, but it is more complex than that. Search engine positioning increasingly depends on new factors, and one of the most important is user experience.
When we talk about UX we refer to all the techniques that serve to make websites more user-friendly. There’s no point in having amazing content if the information takes a long time to load or doesn’t read properly.
In this article, we will better understand what Search Experience Optimization is and what it is used for.
What is Search Experience Optimization (SXO)?
Search Experience Optimization is the combination of search engine optimization techniques and user experience. SXO = SEO + UX.
This term was coined in 2012 by Ben Potter in one of his articles on SEO, in which he suggested that website optimization should not be focused on search engines, but on people, since they are the ones who buy.
And they are right! In recent years, technical SEO has been focused on the proper use of meta tags, keywords and links, taking into account the work performed by algorithms or “web spiders” to emerge victorious in the process: crawling, indexing and ranking.
However, algorithms are not the only ones that matter. Where does that leave user experience and the value of customer-centric strategies? So now the goal is to create pages that are not only indexed correctly, but are also pleasant for users to visit.
This means moving from optimizing content based on keywords (conventional SEO) to optimizing the components that facilitate navigation and access to information. But…
Why is SXO so important today?
Because now Algorithms that crawl web pages are increasingly taking into account user experience How do they do it? By recording behavioral metrics such as time spent on page, bounce rate, and CTR, among others.
For example, if users enjoy or feel comfortable browsing a website, the time spent on the site will be longer compared to other pages, the bounce rate will be low and the conversion metrics will be positive, because the interaction process is taking place without friction.
All this positive experience translates into people finding what they are looking for and interacting with the elements of the website. Therefore, Search engine artificial intelligence understands that you offer a good user experience and favors your position in the ranking, giving you higher positions.
In addition, SERPs (search engine results pages) have been enriched with features that did not exist before, for example, map results, Google My Business pages, videos, books, among others. All these advances are aimed at providing users with the information they need.
What are the benefits of SXO?
According to SEO specialist Eric Mercier, the benefits of SXO are:
- Attacking keywords with a very competitive search intent
- Gain relevance in your topic
- Differentiate yourself from the competition in the SERPs
- Recovering its positioning after a significant fall
- Have a greater number of positioned keywords
- Achieve faster content indexing
- Have an increase in qualified organic traffic
In addition to these benefits, we add:
- Reduce user friction in the purchasing process
- Increase our chances of appearing in Google Discover results
- Boosting our brand positioning
- Increase the authority of our website.
Ultimately, the purpose of SXO is to ensure that an SEO strategy is successful, making user experience one of the most important criteria to consider. As you may have noticed, SXO offers multiple benefits and will increasingly be the case as algorithms take into account new user behavior metrics.
