How to please humans and search engines with SXO

Search Experience Optimisation (SXO) combines SEO techniques with UX best practices to create websites that help you attract visitors, keep them engaged, and convert them into customers.

SXO is ultimately about optimising for both humans and search engines!

Sometimes this can be a joyous union of SEO and UX where the stars align and a beautiful meteor shower rains down.

But…

There are also occasions where these optimisations are not so straightforward. The elbows come out and some jostling must take place to uncover the sweet spot where both UX and SEO prevail.

Some optimisations benefit both search engines and humans:

Clear and Intuitive Navigation

UX benefit: Logical and intuitive navigation helps users find the information they need quickly and effortlessly.

SEO impact: Clear navigation improves crawlability and content understanding, ensuring search engines can easily index your pages, knowing when and where to serve them.

Clear Call-to-Actions (CTAs)

UX benefit: Well-designed CTAs help users understand the next steps, making it easier for them to engage with your site and achieve their goals.

SEO impact: Effective CTAs can increase user engagement and conversions, which signals to search engines that your site provides valuable content, potentially boosting rankings.

Interlinking

UX benefit: By linking related pages internally, users can easily explore relevant content without getting lost. This enhances the user experience by providing a logical content journey.

SEO impact: Interlinking can dramatically boost SEO by distributing page authority throughout your site, helping search engines to find related content and prevent orphan pages.

Breadcrumbs

UX benefit: Breadcrumbs help users understand their location within a site’s hierarchy, allowing them to navigate easily. This visual aid reduces friction by helping users backtrack seamlessly.

SEO impact: Breadcrumbs provide search engines with a clearer understanding of the website’s structure, which can help improve rankings and serve pages as rich results.

Page Load Speed vs. Rich Content

Rich content, such as high-resolution images, videos, and interactive features, can significantly improve UX but often slow down page load times. This is particularly tricky because page speed is crucial for SEO rankings. Solutions like lazy loading and image optimisation can help balance the need for an engaging experience with the need for speed.

Content Length vs. User Attention

Longer pages with comprehensive content can better meet user intent and rank better as a result. However, we know that readers often prefer content that is concise, scannable, and easy to digest. Breaking down long content pages into bullet points, summaries, or collapsible sections can help maintain scannability, and at the same time appeal to search engine’s rich snippets and AI overviews.

Keyword Language vs. Brand Tone of Voice

SEO practice has (thankfully) evolved to not just stuff keywords into headings and navigation labels. Instead, using ‘actual’ search queries in your language will more closely match user intent and aid usability. While this is vital for connecting with your audience, it doesn’t always align with your brand’s personality. If you’re lucky you can strike a balance for both. But oftentimes, this is where compromise is needed, collaborating closely with your stakeholders to ensure you're speaking their audience’s language while staying true to their brand identity.