Too often SEO is thought of in just its simplest terms. Yes, rankings in search engine result pages are incredible important, but it cannot be at the detriment of your websites User Experience (UX). This point becomes more poignant in the light of Google giving more attention to ‘behavioural signals’, such as page load times, button size on mobile devices and content clutter as a rankings factor.
The acronyms are increasingly entwined and it cannot be ignored.
UX designers traditionally rely on wireframes, interactions and storytelling to convey an experience catered towards the user. Meanwhile, SEO experts rely on search data directly from users to inform that same experience. SEO has the data that UX needs. UX has the design framework that SEO needs.
Here are four reasons why aligning the UX of your website and the SEO makes sense.
A website is only usable if a user can find it. This is especially true of a dental practice website. We know that 93% of all online experiences start with a search. Therefore the user’s experience of the website (and brand) starts even before arriving on the site.
SEO experts use Keyword data to identify patterns in how people search and what topics they’re searching for.
REAL LIFE EXAMPLE #1: The SEO professional knows that people search for ‘teeth whitening’, so arms the UX designer with this information, who then ensures the website serves up this message when the user gets to the website and the whitening page. ‘Get your tooth whitening here’, literally means ‘get you’re ONE tooth whitened at this dental practice. Who would do that!?
Ensuring this two-way communication between the two disciplines means right from the get-go the website is positioned to perform it’s best in organic search from day one, rather than having to spend resources applying quick-fixes post launch.
When website issues are both SEO and UX priorities, the user of the website (your potential patients) reap the rewards.
A broken link does nothing to convey confidence in the new dental practice that has just opened up down the road. Your much-anticipated website launch will more likely be successfully seamless if both disciplines are on the look out for potential fails.
A collaborative approach to issues both SEO and UX benefits the website as a whole and can often result in some more impressive, stand out design, that not only wows the user, but makes the user journey that much better. The real benefit of this is an improved conversion rate, higher engagement with the website and a boost to the brand of your dental practice.
REAL LIFE EXAMPLE #2: A primarily private dental practice offers NHS for children ONLY. The initial design did not feature this fact on the website for fear of attracting NHS patients. The SEO professional voiced the known fact that search for ‘children’s dentistry’ was large and was known to attract parents (private paying) to the practice. The design team took this information on board and changed the design to relay this message as a key feature of the homepage. The result was increased private patients; parents who were wanting to pay privately for themselves, but wanted NHS for the kids.
One of the greatest assets in our agency is our team integration. I am typing from my desk in the SEO team and am only a stones throw away from our design team. By regularly reviewing the feedback between our teams and the work we do, we ensure all our website designs benefit from the special relationship between SEO and UX.
Call Dental Design on 01202 677277 to find out more about website design, user experience and SEO.