Yo, yo, yo website owners! I am here to talk to you again about your website. It should be safe from all the bad robots floating around on the internet, and as a part of that and for other reasons, you need to maintain it. (cue the music… Don’t You Forget About Me.)
But I want to talk to you today about your site’s appearance and function. I know you think it is okay, good enough, and all of that, but it is not about you. Sorry.
If your website is still stuck in the early 2000s in terms of design, it’s time to step up your game. Not just because it’s visually unappealing but because it’s affecting your user experience and, ultimately, your Search Engine Optimization (Here is Google’s Starter Guide).
Let me break it down. User experience (UX) refers to how easy it is for people to use your website and find what they’re looking for. If your website is a hot mess, with slow loading times, confusing navigation, and outdated design, users are going to bounce faster than a kangaroo on steroids.
And that’s where SEO comes in. Search engines like Google care about user experience because they want to provide the best possible results for their users. If your website provides a crummy experience, search engines will bump you down in the rankings. It’s that simple.
So, what can you do to improve your UX and boost your SEO?
Well, first and foremost, make sure your website is fast and responsive. No one has the patience to wait for a website to load, especially when thousands of other options are just a click away. Make sure your navigation is intuitive and easy to use. No one wants to play the “Where’s Waldo?” game to find the contact page. And for the love of all that is good, make sure your website looks modern and easy on the eyes: no more flashing text, neon colors, and tiny fonts.
In short, if you want to improve your SEO (which means more people visiting your site and finding out about your organization, which is the point), start by improving your user experience. And if you don’t, remember: your competition will be more than happy to step in and take advantage of your mistakes.
So, go ahead and make your website the belle of the ball. Your users and search engines will thank you for it.
Until next week… peace out, party people!
