For Search
@stekenwright | #brightonSEO, 10 April 2015
User signals top Searchmetrics’ 2014 ranking factors
…because user experience is what Google really cares about
So you can add ‘Designer’ to the list of jobs SEOs do now
Think Google doesn’t measure the exact same thing here?
They don’t just measure it…
…and they’re not just doing it
“Return to SERPs” =
We know all about CTR
Source: NetBooster
So when you rank check 125,000 keywords each day…
You can estimate how much keyword traffic you’re getting…
You can start to understand where users go traffic goes…
125,000 keywords = 200,000,000 position changes…
You can understand where traffic frequently changes hands
…and where it doesn’t
But Click Through Rate is easy to scale
Google uses UX to ‘improve’ searches, so SEO = improving UX
Crazy Egg gives us an insight into dwell time
What is the most important factor in the design of a website?
The website makes it easy for me to find what I want
The website offers a cutting edge interactive experience
The website has a beautiful appearance
Other
Better UX = better dwell time
We can test this with
Which is more obvious – the next step or the ‘back’ button?
Mobile SERPs are different, so test mobile users too
‘Instinct is always a great starting point and data is often incredibly
powerful but qualitative research, the beliefs, attitudes and stories of
real people, told directly to the planner is the umbilical cord
between agency and consumer.’Richard Huntington / @adliterate
Econsultancy User Experience Survey Report 2013
Guerrilla testing is cheap, so why is it everyone’s last priority?
‘…low cost method of user testing…
…‘guerrilla’ refers to its ‘out in the wild’ style, in the fact that it can be conducted anywhere…
…output is typically ‘qualitative’ so insight is often rich and detailed.’
GOV.UK
What is guerrilla user testing?
What you need: ~5 participants
Silverback for Mac (2.0 is free) silverbackapp.com
UX Recorder for iOS ($59.99) uxrecorder.com
Camtasia for PC (£236)techsmith.com/camtasia
What you need: cheap software
What you need: a quiet room where you can set up easily
Scenario:
What you need: a task
The UK’s biggest (most visible) breakdown cover providers
…and how much keyword search traffic they get
Expertise
Authority
Trust
What do Google’s search quality raters look for?
Source: BrandAsset Valuator (BAV) 2014
# Brand
1 The AA
2 The Post Office
3 Boots
4 Google
5 Johnson's Baby
6 Fairy
7 RAC
8 Marks & Spencer
9 Dulux
10 Kellogg's Corn Flakes
It doesn’t matter if you are the UK’s most trusted brand
It doesn’t matter if you have more links than anyone else
It doesn’t matter if you have better links than everyone else
If you don’t provide a great user experience…
…and someone else (who might be less qualified) does
