The Importance of User Experience for Your Website's SEO

The Importance of User Experience for Your Website's SEO

In today’s constantly evolving digital world, user experience (UX) has become a crucial factor that determines a website’s success or failure. UX should not be seen as a simple aesthetic or functional element. On the contrary, it represents a fundamental pillar for optimising the interaction between users and your site. More than that, it is often the key to a site’s positioning in search engines. Understanding and prioritising UX can therefore offer many advantages, especially in terms of search engine optimisation (SEO).

What is User Experience?

User experience, or UX, refers to the perception a user has of interacting with a product, a service or a website. This covers aspects such as ease of use, perceived value, the effectiveness of features and many others.

Impact of UX on SEO

SEO, also known as Search Engine Optimisation, is the process of optimising a website so that it appears higher in search results. UX plays an essential role in this process for several reasons. For example, an easy-to-navigate site increases the chances that users will stay on your site longer and explore more content. These behaviours signal to search engines that your site is high-quality and relevant to the user’s query, which can improve your ranking in search results.

User Experience as a Ranking Factor

In addition to the previous points mentioned, it is important to note that Google has explicitly recognised UX as a ranking factor. In other words, it is not just a hypothesis put forward by SEO experts, but a truth adopted by the world’s largest search engine. Having strong UX can therefore be the key to outperforming your competitors in search results.

Conclusion

In short, taking user experience into account is essential if you are looking to optimise your SEO. Not only does it contribute to better interaction between users and your site, but it also plays a major role in your ranking on search engines. By improving your site’s UX, you increase your chances of reaching and even surpassing your SEO objectives.

html

User-centred ranking signals: a silent revolution

When Google introduced its first algorithms based on “behavioural signals” around 2011-2012, few SEO professionals truly understood the scale of the disruption. The search engine no longer confined itself to purely textual analyses or popularity measured by links; it began to record the pogo-sticking, the dwell time, the depth of navigation or even the frequency of visitors returning to a given site. In other words, user experience (UX) slipped into the heart of ranking without making much noise. At the time, Yahoo! and Bing were following the same direction, but it was Google which, with the “Panda” and “RankBrain” updates, truly institutionalised taking human behaviour into account.

Let’s take the real example of Pinterest. At the end of 2014, the platform noted a significant drop in mobile visibility. By dissecting the data, the teams observed a load time of more than 6 seconds on certain rich pin pages. After migrating to React server-side rendering and massively compressing images, they dropped below the 2-second mark. Result: a gain of 15 % in organic traffic over the following six months, solely through reducing waiting time and increasing retention rate. No link-building campaign was carried out during the period; behavioural signals were enough.

Perceived speed: beyond the stopwatch, psychology

People often talk about “web performance” in milliseconds, but the notion that really converts is perceived speed. Amazon, in an internal study in 2016, showed that a judiciously animated spinner reduced the feeling of waiting by 20 % even when the real time remained identical. This discovery, directly stemming from cognitive psychology (Zarrouk effect and Weber-Fechner law), proves that user perception influences the SEO metrics measured: a less stressed visitor abandons the session less quickly, improving the dwell time and minimising the bounce rate. For Google, the only “proof of good speed is the way the visitor reacts.

Progressive Web App and SEO: the Flipkart case

Flipkart, a leader in Indian e-commerce, replaced its native app with a PWA at the beginning of 2017. Not only did the web version quadruple the time spent on the site, but pages viewed per session leapt bye 70 %. In response, competitive queries such as “buy cheap smartphone saw Flipkart move from 6th to 2nd position in three months, without a content overhaul or new backlinks. Offline responsiveness and near-instant display convinced the algorithm that the page “deserved to rank higher.

Accessibility, inclusive design and SEO: a winning trio

When the web designer talks about contrasts, font sizes or screen readers, the SEO expert pricks up their ears. In 2020, the jobs platform LinkedIn reviewed its design for colour-blind people and users of NVDA/JAWS readers. At stake: +8 % organic clicks on job offers, mainly thanks to the clarification of ARIA tags and anchor links. Crawlers, just like users, benefit from robust code. Search engines interpret context better, which translates into more relevant rich snippets.

Colour contrast as an implicit signal

A study conducted by the CNRS in 2021 established that contrasts that are too weak increased the number of immediate returns (pogo-sticking) on mobile by 14 %. Because users squint, zoom and end up leaving the page, bounce rises. Google records this dissatisfaction and gradually downgrades the page. Moral: accessibility, long confined to ethics, becomes an SEO factor by knock-on effect.

Information architecture and internal linking: the secret mapping

A site can load in 500 milliseconds, feature short sentences and a flashy design; if you have to click eight times to find a price, the experience collapses. The algorithm follows the same logic. In 2019, Zapier redesigned its structure: removal of 35 % of its zombie pages, merging of redundant tutorials and creation of silo navigation by use case. From a purely SEO point of view, internal links were recalibrated to reduce depth to a maximum of three levels for 95 % of pages. Organic traffic jumped by 26 % over the following three months, without new content.

The parallel with physical libraries is enlightening: a well-indexed library makes it easier to find books and increases the time spent there. The search engine slips into the shoes of a virtual librarian; the more intuitive your tree structure, the less energy it wastes exploring the shelves.

Responsiveness and mobile-first: the eBay case study

Since the official switch to mobile-first indexing in 2018, the top 25 positions on a results page receive on average 86 % of their traffic from smartphones. eBay, aware of the risk, launched the “Helix project to standardise the responsive experience. Interaction time was reduced from 6 to 2.5 seconds on average, and the “buy now area was repositioned above the fold, mindful of thumb constraints (thumb-friendly zone). A/B variations showed a direct correlation between tactile ergonomics and SEO visibility: the most optimised product pages gained an average of 0.3 positions on transactional queries.

The density of clickable elements

Google takes into account “tap targets that are too close together, flagged in Search Console under “Clickable elements too close together. Each user micro-friction becomes a micro-negative signal. Thus, spacing two links by 48 pixels according to the Material Design guidelines reduces erroneous clicks, and therefore backtracking. A detail that seems trivial, but which changes the “Return to SERP metric.

Emotional design and SEO branding: when feelings lead the way

The concept comes from industrial design (Don Norman, 2004): positive emotion increases tolerance of errors and memorability. Applied to a website, it generates branded searches, a factor that Google associates with reputation. Airbnb relied on immersive photography and a warm visual identity; result: queries containing the brand (“Airbnb Paris centre ) increased by 31 % in two years, mechanically strengthening the domain’s SEO visibility. The satisfied user becomes an ambassador, multiplying direct visits, spontaneous backlinks and social signals.

Emotional polarisation and navigation

A study by Stanford University (2022) highlights that emotional interfaces increase scroll depth by 12 %. The more the user scrolls, the more engagement signals rise, the more Google considers the page relevant. Emotional design is therefore a peripheral SEO lever, but powerful.

Micro-interactions and retention: the TikTok approach

On TikTok, the simple vertical swipe is designed to minimise cognitive effort. On your site, the micro-interaction can be hovering over a button revealing a tooltip or the colour change of a visited link. Each feedback reduces uncertainty and prolongs the session. The French extension ManoMano introduced a dynamic basket animation: +9 % organic conversion and a 6-point drop in bounce rate. Micro-interactions, although difficult to crawl, impact human behaviour, and therefore rankings.

Data analytics and journey mapping: when UX fuels the content strategy

You can only improve what you measure. The Hotjar tool showed the company Decathlon that 28 % of users abandoned the purchase funnel when selecting a size. Why? Confusion between EU and US sizes. Adding an interactive guide reduced page exits, mechanically increasing the volume of sales coming from SEO traffic. More interesting: time spent being higher after the change (users read the guide), Google saw a positive engagement signal, improving visibility on generic queries such as “men’s running shoes .

SEO and Product Analytics: the virtuous loop

UX research data identifies navigation bottlenecks; SEO teams fill these gaps with targeted content (FAQs, microcopy, tutorials). This continuous optimisation loop further feeds the algorithm with favourable signals. A virtuous circle is created, where UX informs content, which in turn strengthens UX.

UX Writing: the power of words on the SERPs

Le UX Writing is the art of writing micro-texts that guide the user. Yet some of these texts are also title tags, meta descriptions or internal anchors — all elements scanned by Google. The bank N26 replaced a generic CTA “Learn more with “Open a free account in 8 minutes . For the query “open an online bank account , the page moved from 9th to 4th place, thanks to a better click-through rate (CTR) in the SERP. Improving the wording worked on two levels: first on the perceived promise (UX), then on clicking behaviour (SEO).

Plain language as a vector of trust

Flesch Reading Ease studies show that content understandable by a middle-school pupil gets 36 % more shares on social networks. Social shares are certainly an indirect signal, but they encourage the acquisition of organic backlinks and improve the page’s visibility with Google Discover.

Core Web Vitals: the official common ground between UX and SEO

Since June 2021, Core Web Vitals (LCP, FID, CLS) have formed the explicit bridge between UX and SEO. The British newspaper The Telegraph launched an optimisation initiative for deferred image loading (lazy-loading) and AMP pre-rendering. LCP went from 4.3 s to 1.9 s, CLS from 0.41 to 0.09. In two months, the “Sports” section gained 20 % in organic traffic, reaching up to a 7 % increase in reading time. Google did not necessarily “reward” the site with a declared algorithmic boost, but the combination of better usability and increased session time produced the desired effect.

Task prioritisation: beyond the score

Optimising a CLS that is already “green” will not bring as much as a poor LCP. Prioritise what impacts the user before the algorithm. When the human being is satisfied, the algo follows. That is the underlying philosophy of Core Web Vitals.

Voice search and conversational experience: anticipating the next wave

Voice now accounts for more than 20 % of mobile searches according to ComScore. Here, UX comes down to the clarity of the answers and the conciseness of the content. Domino’s Pizza developed an Alexa skill capable of completing an order in 40 seconds. The repeat order rate jumped by 29 %. But this voice success also relies on optimisation of schema.org “Speakable” markup, promoting selection in assistants’ “position zero” on Google. A smooth voice experience therefore becomes a ranking criterion, even if Google does not (yet) present it as such.

The FAQ format and conversational markup

Provide direct answers, structured in question/answer format, to help voice assistants. You will simultaneously improve UX (immediate understanding) and your chance of appearing in a featured snippet — SEO jackpot.

Gamification, engagement and dwell time: the Duolingo lesson

Duolingo, a language-learning app, has integrated visual rewards, gauges and streaks. On the web, the desktop version uses identical mechanics. According to SimilarWeb, the average session duration is 18 minutes, a figure rare for a mainstream site. These prolonged sessions generate powerful engagement signals that strengthen visibility on queries such as “learn Spanish”. Thus, gamification, often seen as a gimmick, is an SEO driver. It reduces attrition, increases the likelihood of in-app purchases and generates a buzz social that attracts backlinks.

Badges and micro-rewards on a blog

Even a blog can benefit from this strategy: a “keen reader” badge after three articles viewed, an interactive quiz at the end of reading… All elements that extend the visit and signal to Google that your content holds attention.

Forward-looking conclusion: towards human-centred SEO

The examples examined — from Pinterest to Flipkart, from LinkedIn to The Telegraph — illustrate an irreversible trend: any meaningful UX metric eventually becomes an SEO factor, explicit or implicit. As the search engine’s artificial intelligence advances, the algorithm increasingly mirrors human judgement. Companies that prioritise user satisfaction reap a double dividend: a loyal audience and better rankings.

In the future, search engine optimisation will no longer boil down to “convincing the search engine with technical signals, but to “earning the user’s trust. The boundaries between UX designer, product owner and SEO specialist therefore continue to blur. To thrive, your teams will need to cultivate cross-disciplinary skills: data analysis, emotional design, web performance, accessibility and storytelling. UX is no longer a decorative option; it is the backbone of your online visibility.

You may also be interested in these articles:

Multilingual SEO: Tips for optimising a website in several languages SEO and WordPress: Best Practices for WordPress Sites How to Use Google Analytics to Improve Your Search Engine Optimisation Strategy The Impact of Quality Backlinks on Your Website's SEO Optimising page titles: How to write catchy, SEO-friendly titles