Historically, user experience (UX) and SEO have been considered two distinctive disciplines requiring separate approaches - but in the new age of Search, these two disciplines will converge for the good of the user and Google’s value proposition. In 2011, Google introduced the Panda Update to its ranking algorithm, significantly changing the way it judged websites for quality. Initially, it manually rated 1000s of sites, and from this it developed machine learning, an algorithm that mimics the human evaluators. The result was a seismic shift which rearranged over 20% of all of Google's search results, and made every SEO specialist around the world take note – Google’s goal was to appease the user.

1. Search Experience Optimisation
the impact of UX and responsive content on
search engine rankings
linkedin.com/pub/joanne-lumsden
!
Joanne Lumsden

2. " Joanne Lumsden | SEO & UX 2014
What is SEO
The practice of improving and promoting a website to
increase the number of visitors from search engines.
!
2

3. " Joanne Lumsden | SEO & UX 2014 3
The areas which to understand the workings of search engine algorithms.
RANKING FACTORS
01 Indexable Content
02 Crawlable Links
03 Keyword Targeting
04Title/Meta Tags
05URL Structure
06
Canonical/Duplicate
Content

4. 4
# UX is user’s interactions, feelings, and opinions about
your website. Additionally, keeping your user engaged
all depends on why and how they found your site -
source/query?
Poor UX will lead to poor SEO

5. " Joanne Lumsden | SEO & UX 2014 5
AREAS OF UX THAT EFFECT SEO
&
SITE SPEED
%
ENGAGEMENT
$
RESPONSIVE

6. " Joanne Lumsden | SEO & UX 2014
SITESPEED
Page speed or page load time is crucial, not only
is it a factor in rankings, it's now essential.
&
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7. " Joanne Lumsden | SEO & UX 2014 7
Factors that are slowing your site down - effecting UX and ranking
SLOWING YOU DOWN
01 Hosting
02 Media Files
03
CSS, Javascript,
Fonts
04
Platform
theme/plugins
05Site Errors
06SSL

8. " Joanne Lumsden | SEO & UX 2014 8
Page Load speed and how users engagement degrades with time
3
5
8
10
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
EFFECTS OF TIME
ya lost em
Thoughts are straying
Happy User
'
(
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9. " Joanne Lumsden | SEO & UX 2014 9
*
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57%43%
Will abandon a site
after 3 seconds *
!
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45%12%43%
Of these, only those
who will not return *
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22%23%12%43%
will go on to tell others
of their experience

10. " Joanne Lumsden | SEO & UX 2014 10
our client who after technical changes to site, saw improvements
CASE STUDY
✓ Decreased overall site load time - following
googles webmaster tools
✓ Increase in enquiries after site speed increased
✓ Minor keyword improvements seen in ranking
results
✓ Behaviour metrics improved in analytics:
DECREASED LOAD TIME
0
5
10
15
20
April May June July

11. " Joanne Lumsden | SEO & UX 2014 11
to help with your sites performance and ranking
IMPLEMENTATION
✓ webpagetest.org
✓ googleanalytics
✓ google tools
✓ yslow
✓ web browser - devtools
✓ pingdom
Depends on the site, however following guides and best practices is
best in regards to images, cache and scripts. Using the Googles Site
Speed tools as a guideline.
Various plugins and services found online to optimise scripts and
images.
IMPLEMENTATION tips
TOOLS / TIPS #1

12. " Joanne Lumsden | SEO & UX 2014
ENGAGEMENT
How ENGAGEMENT and user behaviour metrics
effect ranking factors and Google SERP results.
%
12

13. " Joanne Lumsden | SEO & UX 2014 13
some simple metrics you can use to understand how google reads quality
SIGNALS OF QUALITY
Engagement Metrics
When a search engine delivers a
page of results to you, they can
measure their success by
observing how you engage with
those results. If you have a
search query, and click through
on a result but immediately hit
the "back" button to try the
another result - the user wasn’t
satisfied with the result.
Machine Learning
Google’s Panda ranking
algorithm, significantly changed
the way it judged websites for
quality. Its computers could now
accurately predict what the
humans would judge as low
quality site. The end result was
a seismic shift which rearranged
over 20% of all of Google's
search results.
Linking Patterns
The engines discovered early on
that the link structure of the web
could serve as a proxy for votes
and popularity - higher quality
sites and information earned
more links than their less useful,
lower quality peers. Nobody
likes to link naturally to a
crummy site.

14. " Joanne Lumsden | SEO & UX 2014 14
Design using principles of Search Engine Optimisation
DESIGN & SEO
Create content for the user and the search engines01
Push for H1 & H2 tags02
Work to improve link equity, menu functionality, and menu names03
Create clear navigation labels04
Use focused product descriptions and names05

15. " Joanne Lumsden | SEO & UX 2014
RESPONSIVE
It’s the same person, regardless of what
device they are on.
$
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16. " Joanne Lumsden | SEO & UX 2014 16
Google supports 3 different configurations for creating mobile websites
GOOGLE’S TAKE
RESPONSIVE
An optimised web design (RWD)
that enables the site across
different screen sizes without
creating multiple websites.
This is Google's recommended
configuration.
DYNAMIC
When a user visits your site, the
web server detects what kind of
device they are one and presents
a custom page/content on the
same url.
Not cloaking, perhaps the best
solution – where a site can have
multiple interpretations and
delivers the best content
SEPARATE
A separate url and site that is
independent from main website,
with different code and content
(eg. m.yoursite.com.au).

17. " Joanne Lumsden | SEO & UX 2014 17
,
!
Because responsive design sites have one URL and the same HTML,
it’s easier and more efficient for search engines to crawl, index, and
organise content.
Easily Found
-
FOUND
SITE CRAWL

18. " Joanne Lumsden | SEO & UX 2014 18
.
77% of mobile searches are
near a PC or when we are at
work.
77%
Sequential screening, 90% use
multiple screens over time to
accomplish a task.
90%
98% of people move between
devices on the same day.
98%

19. " Joanne Lumsden | SEO & UX 2014 19
With the right set up, will cut down on web maintenance and content creation
Content Management
!
If you have a mobile site that has less content or looks significantly different than
your regular site, you’ll frustrate return visitors who are looking for something they
found on the desktop version.
If you don’t have a mobile site at all, 61% of visitors will return to Google to find a
site that is easily readable. Either way, your bounce rate will rise and your rankings
will drop.
Reduce Frustration
CONTENT

20. " Joanne Lumsden | SEO & UX 2014 20
Create
Once
Publish
Everywhere

21. " Joanne Lumsden | SEO & UX 2014 21
/
With a responsive web design, a link to your main site is
a link to your mobile site as well - and visa versa. A
responsively-designed website will have the backlinks of
your original site.
Links & Back Links
-
FOUND
LINK BUILDING

22. " Joanne Lumsden | SEO & UX 2014 22
✓ DevTools – user agent
overrides
✓ CRO and user testing for
mobile
✓ Qualaroo – surveys
✓ CrazyEgg – heat maps
✓ Optimizely – split testing
View the users interaction across all sources/devices more efficiently
in your Google Analytics account with universal analytics, so you can
get a better understanding of how users interact with all of your
online content.
UNIVERSAL ANALYTICS
MEASURE & TEST
TOOLS & IMPLEMENTATION

23. " Joanne Lumsden | SEO & UX 2014
SUMMARY
23
Thank You!
joanne.lumsden@roi.com.au
0
& % $
Start small if your site speed is
not optimised, use the tools to
find incremental changes which
will improve your sites
performance.
SITE SPEED
As Google and other Search
Engines develop more
sophisticated algorithms - user
experience will increase in
importance and factors.
ENGAGEMENT
Think about your user, and how
they want to engage with your
content. Deliver the best result
for their experience.
RESPONSIVE