SEO+UX: The Success Formula For Your Business In 2022

In the world of make-believe today, where everyone is trying to catch as much attention and view as possible on the digital scape, business entities wish to be readily accessible to the whole wide world at their fingertips. Resultingly there is rapid acceleration in online tools for digital marketing, such as Search Engine Optimization. Over the years, the expectation of users online has changed. Until a few years back, people were unsure what to expect from the internet. Their usage ceased to exist for social media and Google at most. Now the majority of the population uses Google and other search engines for varied purposes, to access information, online purchase, trading, and resolve queries. If the latest statistics are to be put into perspective, then in 1998, Google processed just 10,000 searches per day; however, as per January 2022 reports, it processes over 8.5 billion searches per day.

Now that being said, we believe you must have had an idea why every SEO agency in Dubai takes Google and all its metrics so seriously. It is simply because in times like which we live in when the only way people from across the globe will get to know your business depends on how or where you appear on Google, moreover if you appear on Google at all. All of this brings us to the subject of this blog, SEO or Search Engine Optimization.

Search Engine Optimization

What is Search Engine Optimization? 

Search Engine Optimization or SEO is the means of optimizing a website for better ranking on search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, and more. In addition, SEO makes the website more visible, which means more traffic, more leads, more conversion (of prospects into customers), more brand awareness, building relationships with clients, market capture, etc.

What are the key elements of Search Optimization?

Following are the crucial elements of SEO majorly on which an SEO Company in Dubai works:

(1) Keywords

As the term suggests, keywords are words and phrases used by prospective users to find a particular product, service, or information in question. This is used by brands who deal with that particular product or service to capture the attention of users looking for the same. But this is no random process since keywords are curated after adept research, careful analysis, and strategic inclusion in the content for effectiveness.

(2) Content 

It is a vital part of SEO because only through this an entity can engage the users online. For example, if you are a skincare and personal care brand like 6 Skins, you will publish blogs about skincare regimes, hair care routines, beauty tips, etc. While if you deal with food products in a specific segment like Geohoney, you shall publish blogs about different variants of honey, health and other benefits of honey, various honey products manufactured, etc. Thus, when people want to know about beauty care or honey-based products, the blogs mentioned above will appear on SERP. This will help you build a rapport with the customer since you provide them with the valuable information they seek. Later, when they wish to purchase any cosmetics or honey, the brands mentioned above will be their first preference.

Today, to grab the attention of an audience with a short attention span and abundant options available, your content must be:

• Informative
• Interesting
• Relevant
• Shareable

Content has varied forms like:

• Webpage content
• Videos
• Blogs
• Infographics
• Podcasts
• Social Media Posts
• E-Books
• Local Listings

(3) Off-Page SEO

It involves all the external optimization practices that take place away from the site instead of on it. The foremost technique is backlink building, as quality backlinking to the website from external sites indicates that a particular site is valuable to a search engine.

There are many ways to do backlink building, like guest blogging, infographics, influencer, or third-party marketing in the content.

(4) Local SEO

As the number of people using mobile phones to access information increases, Local SEO becomes critical. Reportedly 60% of all searches done on search engines are done on mobile phones, and half of them have local intent.

So, for example, you provide laundry services like Whytes, then local SEO would make sure that when people in Dubai look for the best laundry and dry cleaning services, they come across their website.

Other than using local keywords, claiming directory listings, creating location-specific pages for the website, creating pages for the business on Google My Business local directories and Google Maps is also very helpful for improving Local SEO status.

(5) Search Engine Marketing

These are paid marketing efforts devised, including native ads, Google AdWords, social media advertisement, Pay-Per-Click campaigning, Google Shopping Ads, Display Ads, and more. It can help you in tapping into a new and highly targeted audience. Some of the best Search Engine Marketing or SEM practices are, paid and targeted campaigning, keyword-based copy specifically related to your business, and performance-based indicators like Click-Through-Rates (CTR) and Cost-Per-Click (CPC).

What is the importance of SEO?

At this point, we can conclusively sum up that SEO is essential for a business entity for the following reasons:

(i) Ranking

This revolves around the center of our discussion for a business establishment today, visibility. The objective of SEO is to accelerate the visibility of your business which in turn contributes to accessibility. People opt for options that are easily within their reach. Thus, it is easy for people to find you when they are looking for something you offer, and the higher you rank on SERP, the more audience you can capture. This increases your organic page ranking. Therefore it is of extreme importance for you to make practical and sincere efforts in SEO, given the fact that a quarter of web users never click past the first result on SERP.

(ii) Authority 

Page Authority is increasingly becoming important for users. Wonder why? It is because an authority makes a particular website trustworthy guarantees quality and relevancy. It is assessed on a scale of 100, so the higher the number one gets, the more authority the website possesses.

User Experience

This brings us to our next subject in this blog, the role of SEO in User Experience. But, before proceeding on that tangent, let us reflect on what user experience is for better understanding.

What do you mean by User Experience? 

User Experience or UX is the appeal your website offers in terms of navigation, use on mobile, interaction with the digital products and services of the company. It is about how a user feels when interacting with any interface, be it a website, web application, mobile application, or more. It is inclusive of aspects like usability, design, and impression.

How does SEO influence User Experience?

To put it in simple terms, since User Experience is about usability, good SEO practices like excellent content generation, On-page optimization, and all other SEO practices improve the usability of your website. Hence, good SEO creates good UX.

For example, when you make your site more responsive, you are making it more usable for both mobile viewers and desktop/laptop viewers. Moreover, when you make efforts to increase the speed of page loading, you are reducing bounce rates and incentivizing users to spend more time on your website. However, remember that the longer the load time, the higher the bounce rate, and the lower your conversions are.

Role of SEO and UX together to accelerate your business:-

This brings us to the final subject of this blog, how SEO and UX together are the ingredients of success for your business in 2022.

(a) Stand out in the crowd

We are very well aware that the digital space is becoming crowded day by day. But, good heavens, it only populates the virtual space! The only way to survive in this overpopulated disdain scape is by adopting the correct practices in terms of SEO and UX. Now the majority of business entities know the importance of SEO; therefore, everyone is in the bid of making their websites SEO friendly. However, a well-optimized UX makes you stand out in the crowd. When your visitors are comfortable and enjoy using your website at first glance, they will only come back to you when the need arises again.

(b) Gain attention from Search Engines

Search engines prefer ranking websites that offer their clients great UX in relevant content, interactive interface, and good navigation. There is this myth among the SEO fraternity that increasing the keyword density of a page is the goal for grabbing the search engine’s attention. But this is far from true. In 2022, search engines are way smarter to get deceived. Search engine giant Google ranks websites based on the quality of the content, loading speed, bounce rate, domain authority, among other criteria. To give their viewers the best experience, Google keeps updating its algorithm.

Best SEO and UX practices in 2022

(1) Understanding the target audience 

When you hire an affordable SEO service in Dubai to help your website rank higher in Google, their primary job is to identify who will be your target audience and who won’t, because based on that understanding, you curate proper keywords that have to be included in the content on the website. Write convincing meta descriptions and meta titles for the website with those specific keywords in a catchy or appealing way to give the user a reason to look into your information. So even if you are ranked lower than your competitor, your meta tags and CTA can work wonders for you.

(2) Content is the key

With the great power of SEO comes the great responsibility of catering quality content. It builds the trust of your users. If the content is engaging, informative, and valuable, they will be loyal to your brand to an extent where they will also recommend you to others. Furthermore, this improves the value of your website in the eyes of the search engine.

(3) Simple Web Page URLs 

A well-specified URL helps both your users and the search engine since it gives an idea to them regarding the subject and relevancy of your content. On the other hand, URLs that have no relation with the intent of a user’s search find it challenging to get clicked since the search engine does not enlist them well.

(4) Optimizing website speed 

Longer loading time annoys every user. They seek information, and they seek it now, at the moment. Moreover, it is a significant contributor to a high bounce rate, which affects your ranking on the search engine. Therefore, you must optimize your website regularly to avoid hampering your user experience and website.

(5) Easy Navigation 

The navigation and site structure are ‘make or break’ factors for your website. Consider an instance where a user has several other options to choose from the homepage itself. Without proper structuring and navigation, they will get confused and might end up exiting the site. A good sitemap that helps them find the content at ease goes a long way in UX. Furthermore, it helps Google provide site links (links to the website’s pages appearing below the home page) for your website.

You need to understand that SEO is essential because search engines are bright but not perfect. If you do not cover up where they fail, your website will pay the price with low visibility. Therefore, give your website a proper link structure so that search engines crawl and index your site correctly and not rank low. Also, avoid coding errors since they block search engines altogether. Other problems that block out search engines are duplicate pages, forms, images, flash audio files, and videos.

SEO and UX complement each other. While SEO drives traffic to your website, UX is all about how you engage that traffic. Merely driving the traffic is vain if you fail to appeal to them and bounce back. Similarly, no matter how attractive your site is, if it is not visible to users, they won’t land on the website to appreciate your hard work.