About Sara
● International SEO Consultant
● From sunny Barcelona
● Polyglot
● Background in Translation & Localization
● Master’s in UX/UI Design
@sarafdez
@sarafdez
/in/internationalseo
sara-fernandez.com

Understanding
User Experience
@sarafdez linkedin.com/in/internationalseo sara-fernandez.com

What is UX?
@sarafdez
“User Experience"
encompasses all aspects of
the end-user's interaction
with the company, its
services, and its products.”
— Don Norman and Jakob
Nielsen, NNgroup

What Is UX?
@sarafdez
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BdtGjoIN4E

Everything Is User-Centered
@sarafdez
“No product is an island. A product is more
than the product. It is a cohesive,
integrated set of experiences.
Think through all of the stages of a product
or service – from initial intentions through
final reflections, from the first usage to
help, service, and maintenance. Make them
all work together seamlessly.” — Don
Norman, inventor of the term “User
Experience.”

Can You Identify UX, UI, and Usability?
@sarafdez
Making a
website or
app easy to
use
Making a website
or app attractive
and effective
according to users'
preferences
Making users
feel positive
about a website
or app

UX vs UI vs Usability
@sarafdez
Making a
website or
app easy to
use
Making a website
or app attractive
and effective
according to users'
preferences
Making users
feel positive
about a website
or app
Usability UI UX

UX-UI Explained
@sarafdez
Incorrect
Correct

5 Usability Factors to Get Right
@sarafdez
Learnability Memorability
Efficiency Errors Satisfaction

Peter Morville's User Experience
Honeycomb
@sarafdez

UX Laws and
Cognitive Biases
@sarafdez linkedin.com/in/internationalseo sara-fernandez.com

Hick’s Law
@sarafdez
The time it takes to make a decision
increases with the number and
complexity of choices.
The more choices you give a user, the
longer it takes for them to make a
decision.

Hick’s Law: Bad Navigation Structure
@sarafdez
https://www.007museum.com/

@sarafdez
https://www.amazon.com/
Hick’s Law: Good Navigation Structure

Fitts’ Law
@sarafdez
The movement time to a target depends
on the size of the target and the distance
to the target.
The smaller your target area is, the longer
it takes the user to perform that action
based on the distance/size ratio.

Fitts’ Law
@sarafdez
In this example, CTAs are large and
eye-catching and easy to see and
navigate to.
https://www.intercom.com/

Miller’s Law
@sarafdez
The average person can only keep 7 (plus
or minus 2) items in their working
memory.
Display information in chunks so that it’s
manageable to users to remember what
they consumed.

Miller’s Law
@sarafdez
When users see a homepage
looking like this, loaded with all
types of information, they just
get scared.
https://www.getthat.com/

Miller’s Law
@sarafdez
This design reduces the
cognitive load by presenting
only the information that’s
important to users.
It’s a simple and clean interface
with little to no distractions.
https://www.harrods.com/

Miller’s Law
@sarafdez
Chunking credit card digits into
groups of four helps users when
they’re entering their card number
and checking they have entered the
correct card details.
https://www.gumroad.com/

Von Restorff Effect
@sarafdez
Also known as the Isolation Effect, it
predicts that when multiple similar
objects are present, the one that
differs from the rest is more likely to
be remembered.

Von Restorff Effect
@sarafdez
Highlight elements like CTAs
to stand out from the rest of
the design, it’s easily
noticeable by the user.

Serial Position Effect
@sarafdez
Users have a propensity to
best remember the first and
last items in a series.

Serial Position Effect
@sarafdez
Highlight key information in
the beginning and the end,
while placing the least
important items in the
middle of your sequence.

Jakob’s Law
@sarafdez
Users spend most of their time
on other sites. This means they
prefer your site to work the
same way as all the other sites
they already know.

Jakob’s Law
@sarafdez
Think how most of the
ecommerce sites behave. They
follow similar patterns and
checkout processes.
This way the user will focus on
their task rather than learning
new models.
https://www.asos.com/

Jakob’s Ten Usability Heuristics
@sarafdez
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/
They’re general rules of thumb
you can follow to help create
more accessible, user-friendly,
and intuitive digital products.

Confirmation Bias
@sarafdez
The tendency to interpret new
evidence as confirmation of
one's existing beliefs or theories.

Anchoring Bias
@sarafdez
It makes us depend too heavily
on a particular piece of initial
information when making
decisions or judgements.

Bandwagon Effect
@sarafdez
The tendency to do (or believe)
things because many other
people do (or believe) the same.

Gestalt Theory
@sarafdez
It’s the theory of visual
perception and how our brain
pieces together reality.
https://uxplanet.org/gestalt-principles-in-ux-design-
2e0f423bfcb5

Pareto Principle
@sarafdez
Also known as the 80/20 rule.
80% of the effects of any
given process come from
20% of the effort put into it.
To illustrate this in a UX
context, it's like saying: 80%
of your users use 20% of your
features.

List of Cognitive Biases
@sarafdez
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biase
s

SEO + UX
@sarafdez linkedin.com/in/internationalseo sara-fernandez.com

How Does UX Affect SEO?
@sarafdez
When users are satisfied… Google is satisfied.
Google rewards sites that care about UX because
it aims to provide the best possible search
experience for the user.
To achieve this goal, Google's algorithms are
designed to evaluate websites based on their UX,
and favor those that care about it.

SXO: Search Experience Optimization
@sarafdez

Optimizing for SXO
@sarafdez
More engaging
and satisfying UX
Higher rankings
and increased
traffic

Ways to Improve
UX and SEO at
the Same Time
@sarafdez linkedin.com/in/internationalseo sara-fernandez.com

Page Speed
@sarafdez
Implement
lazy loading
Compress
and resize
images
Enable
browser
caching
Take
advantage
of a CDN

Mobile-First Indexing
@sarafdez
Make sure that
Google can
access and
render your
content
Create a
mobile-friendly
site
Make sure
that content
is the same
on desktop
and mobile
https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling
-indexing/mobile/mobile-sites-mobile-first-indexing

Easy Navigation & Site Structure
@sarafdez
Keep your site structure
simple.
Make it easy for users to
navigate your site to find
what they’re looking for.

Information Architecture
@sarafdez
Key IA practices that can improve
both SEO and UX include conducting
user research, organizing content
into categories, using clear and
consistent labels for navigation, and
optimizing website navigation.
https://thegray.company/blog/information-
architecture-practices-seo-ux

Accessibility
@sarafdez
Accessibility laws exist to aid people
with disabilities. limited internet
speeds, or different technological
preferences.
Accessible websites provide a more
positive UX and equal access to
information and services for all users.
https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/accessibility

Core Web Vitals
@sarafdez
https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/page-experience

Collaborating
with UX Teams
for Great Results
@sarafdez linkedin.com/in/internationalseo sara-fernandez.com

Stop Working in Silos
@sarafdez
● Each team should keep their
independence, but everybody
should have visibility over what’s
being done
● Make sure teams communicate
any relevant changes that could
affect SEO or UX
● Have touch-point meetings

Ask for User Research Data
@sarafdez
● Have access to UX Research and
usability testing
● Take into account users’ feedback
● Get in touch with customer
service and sales teams as well to
learn users’ pain points and needs

Tips for UX Teams
@sarafdez
● Make sure UX teams use headings
and subheadings accordingly
● Ensure the content is always the
same on mobile and desktop
● Share with UX teams general SEO
best practices

Additional
Resources
@sarafdez linkedin.com/in/internationalseo sara-fernandez.com

Useful Websites
@sarafdez
● Nielsen Norman Group - https://www.nngroup.com/
● Interaction Design Foundation - https://www.interaction-design.org/
● UX Planet - https://uxplanet.org/
● Smashing Magazine - https://www.smashingmagazine.com/
● Usability.gov - https://www.usability.gov/

Books
@sarafdez

Books
@sarafdez

Books
@sarafdez

Thank You!
Any questions? 💡
@sarafdez
@sarafdez
/in/internationalseo
sara-fernandez.com