How UX informs on-page SEO best practice - and how to use it
In 30 seconds
If you're in the search engine optimisation game, 'search intent' will be familiar territory. 'User intent' - a familiar buzzword for UX designers - isn't a million miles away.
But how exactly does user experience (UX) design inform SEO? And how can you use it to improve SEO strategies?
From site architecture to user satisfaction signals, we're explaining how to make your website users fall in love with your website, channel them through your sales funnel, and earn you more search traffic (through boosted search engine rankings) in the process.
SEO, UX, UI, IA, CL... we're serving you up all the initialisms in this article. The simple truth is, no execution of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is complete without a view towards how content actually appears and connects for the user - and for your business' bottom line. And as we'll explore in this article, the worlds of user experience (UX) design and SEO are increasingly interconnected, as Google is increasingly demanding and prioritising content that solves for people rather than its bots in the top search results.
In this article, we're explaining how concepts such as cognitive load (CL), information architecture (IA) and user interface (UI) design come together to inform a positive user experience, and in turn boost search engine optimization. Ready? Let's go.
In this article:
What is cognitive load, informational architecture, and UX?
How does UX design relate to SEO?
10 best UX tips for better SEO performance
What is Cognitive load and information architecture in UX?
Cognitive load and working memory explained
Cognitive load (CL) is essentially the amount of mental effort required by a user to process information.
Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) divides human cognition into stored, long-term memory and working memory, and assumes that your working memory - i.e. the memory you use to perform tasks in the present - can only process 5-9 pieces of information at once.
Cognitive load is relevant in website UX design as it guides the principles of web experiences that are easy to understand and use. If a webpage has a cluttered layout, or lack of visual hierarchy, it becomes difficult for users to understand, navigate and complete tasks. Similarly, using unclear language - such as double negatives, or overly wordy phrasing - can make instructions unclear.
If your on-page experience is confusing or clunky and causes excessive cognitive load, you risk losing your user. They'll be frustrated and they'll leave. In fact, 52% of users cite poor aesthetics alone as a reason for not returning to websites, and 88% of users are unlikely to return to a website after a bad experience.
That means: lost custom - and potentially customers lost forever. Boo.
Information architecture (IA) in UX
Information architecture (IA) in UX design is how you organise information so that it's easy to understand and navigate. Great IA lowers the cognitive load, as it makes information digestible, easy to classify, and helps to guide the user towards certain goals.
UX design is the process of creating products (websites or apps, in this case) that are easy, enjoyable and helpful. It considers how the entire experience while utilising your product, including every user interaction. IA is key to web UX design, as it sets the blueprint for an organised site - meaning even as it grows, it’ll still be clear and easy to use.
Web UX designers tend to work in visual formats to create their IA, and will use this design to essentially create a blueprint for the infrastructure and hierarchy of a website or app. The level of detail can be quite top line, but can also get into the nitty-gritty of navigation, written and visual content, including visual hiearchy, and user flows.
Information architecture is a key part of SEO too, partly because of its application in UX. We'll explore this in more detail in a moment.
Applications in web design
Great IA and UX makes using websites and apps easy and enjoyable. It reduces cognitive load as it makes information easy to understand and access. It removes mess or confusion, takes away awkward steps in navigation, and ultimately helps inform an intuitive experience.
When it’s working well, UX design feels seamless, so it's perhaps clearer to explain its applications through examples of poor user experience design instead. Here are some classics:
Deliberately poor UX in pop-ups or spam. Ever encountered a pop-up (often on a low-quality website) where there seemed to be multiple 'close' buttons, or the button seemed impossibly small, so you end up unintentionally clicking on the wrong thing? If you can't perform your intended action, that's poor UX (and poor UI). It's being stung by experiences like this that mean 90% of users cite poor design as a primary reason for not trusting a website.
Poor IA in online shopping. Categories are useful for helping to narrow down the kind of product you're looking for. Occasionally, products get stored under the wrong category (i.e. the information architecture isn't working), so when you're selecting category filters, you won't find the product, even if it does actually exist on the site.
Deliberately poor cognitive load in 'unsubscribe' or 'no not subscribe' user experience design. If you've ever been confused by the awkward wording when you're trying to select how a company messages you, you're the victim of cognitive overload.
Great examples of UX, UI, IA and optimising for low cognitive load, conversely, mean you intuitively know what to do, where to go, how to go there, and even what's going to happen next.
Website owners often don't realise that users are, actually, not that interested in them. They won't click on menu items or navigational elements just to find out what they are. They click on things that will give them a predictable outcome.
The final part of the puzzle is considering how the user accesses your website in the first place - and that's where SEO comes more into the picture.
How does UX design relate to SEO?
UX and SEO solves for your customer
It's easy to think of your website homepage as the shop window of your site: the first thing your customer sees of you online. But that's not the case for SEO.
If your business sells gardening tools, for instance, some customers will google your brand name and land on your homepage. Great. But many will search for the type of gardening tool they need, and (hopefully) discover your product page. Or they'll search a relevant query, such as 'how to plant a tree', and your informational page of advice (with product recommendations) will ideally appear in the search results, ready to be clicked on.
This means your website actually has potentially hundreds of "front pages" for your customer. And how they all join up, to help them discover, experience and buy from you, means creating UX flows for each and every one of them. In fact, UX in SEO begins before users even reach your website - because they'll be assessing your appearance in the search engine results page (SERP) before that first click.
So - does the title and description you see in the SERP (known as the meta title and meta description) line up with expectations? Will it make customers interested to discover more? And when a user enters your page, is it clear what's going on? Will they get the experience they're looking for?
The job of an SEO marketer is to get into the head of a potential customer, to understand and anticipate their search behaviour and create the best web pages to suit their search intent. If they want products, or informational pages, or video, or a tool; the tone of the content, or the audience it's addressing. The job of a UX designer is to - likewise - get inside the head of the website user, and create an experience that anticipates their needs and leads them towards a certain goal.
Hopefully you're starting to see how designing for users on search engines and UX design overlaps. But UX affects SEO in more ways, too.
UX and SEO solves for search engines
It's all very well assuming your customer sees you in the top of the SERP when they're googling things, but how do you make sure you get there?!
That, my friends, is what SEO marketers spend a lot of time puzzling over. Google's search engine algorithm is an incredibly complex, often changeable beast, and the exact workings of it are somewhat shrowded in mystery - partly because whenever insiders at Google have explained parts of the algorithm, black hat SEOs have historically found ways to trick the system. Nowadays, Google spokespeople will talk more about their guiding principles rather than the actual mechanism. But that doesn't mean SEO isn't possible: in fact, it's forced us to create ultimately better content, which is what everyone wants.
A modern SEO marketer is a researcher at heart: they'll perform keyword research and audience research to understand intents behind certain valuable search patterns. And they'll also assess the top performing pages for any given search query to make an informed decision about search engine requirements for that user journey. By optimising content for this, you create the necessary signals for search engine algorithms to land your page higher in the search results. And with increased organic search visibility comes increased organic search traffic.
So, the desired on-page experience is crucial for great SEO. But principles of great UX affect SEO in other ways, too.
Part of this goes back to information architecture and cognitive load. Information architecture doesn't just help your user get around easily: it helps search engine bots crawl and assess your site too. Creating a sitemap and an organised website structure helps the search engine distinguish what your pages are and how they relate to one another. Similarly, effective use of on-page IA elements (such as headings and subheadings) will help bots accurately ‘learn’ what your page is about, and where (and how) to show it in search results. You're essentially labelling your content to anticipate how it might be easily found and understood.
Internal links play an important role in SEO too. Too often, you see anchor text that doesn't clearly tell you where the link is taking you. As humans, we’re less inclined to click if we don't know what the result will be. Search engine algorithms prefer clarity too. Descriptive internal links aid classification.
If you don't believe us, check out Google's Search Advocate John Mueller's response to this LinkedIn post, where he explained to an SEO marketer that links, both internal and external, should be included when they enhance the user's experience or provide additional relevant information.
Then there's technical SEO considerations. Did you know that 47% of website vistors expect a web page to load in 2 seconds or less, and 40% abandon a site that takes over 3 seconds to load? Well, Google knows (and cares about) this too. So, page load speed is a key ranking factor. Likewise, Core Web Vitals, which are metrics that measure loading performance, interactivity and visual stability of your page, are search ranking factors. It's annoying when your page jumps around because images are taking forever to load, or a button is too slow to respond to your click, so Google's algorithm takes this into account.
Evidently, thinking about UX will help you achieve SEO success. But recently, even more information has come out that has confirmed SEO experts' long-held suspicions about the interplay between UX and SEO...
User engagement metrics: search engine algorithms' secret ingredient?
In May 2024, an anonymous source shared thousands of leaked Google Search API documents. And yes, Google confirmed they are real. It's important to note that it wasn't the search algorithms themselves that was leaked - it was an API for document storage and retrieval in the cloud. However, it revealed detail about the data Google collects to rank websites. This gives insights into Google's thinking. There were some 14,000 variables, which shows the complexity at play!
The leak confirmed that user engagement metrics, such as click data and Chrome data, are documented, which suggests user satisfaction signals are are contributing to improved search rankings. Some interesting revelations from the leak include:
Poor navigational pentalties. The variable here is pnavClicks (one of the pieces of click data we mentioned). Most SEOs assume this refers to navigational information, and the scoring factor seems to indicate penalties for sites that cause confused clicking behaviour.
Types of clicks referenced included goodClicks, badClicks, lastLongestClicks, unicorn clicks and more. A "good" click likely means a user clicking and spending significant time on a page, whereas a "bad" click is when the user quickly bounces back to the search results. LastLongestClicks relates to exactly how long a user spends on the page. And unicorn clicks? These are clicks that have unique characteristics that indicate high-quality interactions.
Page Titles: Page titles appear to have site-wide implications, affecting overall site rankings rather than just individual pages. The variable here is titlematchScore. This is a sitewide title match score that considers how well your labels match up to what people are googling. So, label your pages, and do it strategically!
Literally loads more. We could harp on all day about what the leak implies, from how it seems to differentiate between linking domains and types of links on them (OnSiteProminence and encodedNewsAnchorData are interesting to us!) to how anchor text in the AnchorsAnchor module seems to measure the relevancy of text surrounding a link, to the importance of entities such as authors, to... well... why not get in touch with us to find out more?
TLDR? The leak confirmed long-held theories that user behaviour, particularly user engagement with on-page elements, affects search rankings. It’s therefore underlined how vital it is that SEOs seek to enhance user experience. That means making user-friendly pages that designs for real people, as well as providing content that’s easily understood by search engine bots.
SEO vs UX, in a nutshell
SEO is, naturally, more focused on how optimisation efforts improve performance in search. It also includes offsite content. Meanwhile, web UX looks at on-site content for all user journeys. Both inform one another, however: Great SEO demands great UX and vice versa.
Best Practices for SEO & UX:
How to use Cognitive Load and Information Architecture to improve SEO in 10 simple steps
We're already pretty far into this topic, but there's a way to go - so I suggest grabbing a cup of something caffeinated before we dive into the next bit. ☕
Successful UX and SEO strategies, as we've explained, are closely interlinked. Making your site user friendly is a sure-fire way to win over your customers, but search engines love it too. So, how can you use this insight and put it into practice?
1. Create a clear architecture based on information relationships
Search engine crawlers have to sift through millions of websites, so make the task easier (think: cognitive load!) to discover key pages - especially if you have a deep website - through information architecture-led prioritisation.
This means:
Keep the number of parent categories to a minimum. Too many options slows down decision-making and can create polyhierarchy problems, contributing to poorly distributed PageRank.
For product pages, ensure hierarchy depth is four levels max. Think Home>Department>Subcategory>Product. This is usually better for UX and SEO. If you need a deeper level, consider faceted navigation, such as filters or sorting, instead, This allows users to specify without interfering with site architecture.
Consider a dedicated, special-purpose category for repeat visitors. Fashion brands can have a "new arrivals" section, for instance. This handles promotions, seasonality or one-off initiatives.
If you've got lots of informational pages, use logic instead of numeric or alphabetic sorting to organise and order them. Pin important articles near the top, and use filters and tags to help users navigate.
2. Simplify Navigation, Menus, and Categories – and add site search
Oh, ho, haven't we just talked about simplifying menus? Well, there's more.
Navigation onsite via menus is surprisingly perplexing, and is a common source of mistakes. It can get especially difficult when you have large websites with more layers of categorisation, or overlap between categories. You'd think that large menu UI, such as drop-downs, would solve the problem, but often this overwhelms users (hello, cognitive overload) - causing decision paralysis and ultimately increasing your bounce rate - which turns into diminished SEO.
Instead, guide your user. Use IA to make your navigation system as simple as possible. By this, we mean:
Make labels for your categories easy to understand, including contextual order. If you host events in the town and the country, for instance, don't make your top nav 'country' and 'town'. There's not enough context. Think: Home>Events>Town>Event Name. Now, your IA has helped to explain.
Allow for user mistakes or back clicks. If you've got large product discovery pages on your site, your user is likely going to scroll before finding a product they like. A great navigation system means they can click on the product page, then return, and the previous page preserves where they previously scrolled to.
Make your website navigation accessible to everyone. Designing for user needs isn't just about intent - it's also about accessibility. Are your interactive elements easy to click? Are they clearly labelled for people who use screen readers? Google loves alt text!
Implement site search to help high intent users. If you're known for a certain area of expertise, or your customer has seen an item of yours previously and wants to purchase it, they may well head to your homepage first, then try to search from there. You'll create a positive UX - and easily guide them to the right product or service - if you have good site search. This rich engagement has positive implications for SEO.
3. Optimise page speed
Google recommends that web pages load in under three seconds. So - aim for fast page load speed. Equally, core web vitals (CWV) measure how long it takes the largest content element to load, how quickly your page reacts to user interactions, and your visual stability.
Here are some tips to help these technical factors:
Use LazyLoad for background images. If your image isn't core to your UX or important for SEO, lazy loading can help deprioritise it. Just don't use lazyloading on your largest contentful paint image.
Compress large files, optimise image sizes, minify heavy CSS and JavaScript files, implement caching, and consider using a content delivery network (CDN) for really heavy traffic, to improve load speeds for your largest elements.
Reduce input delay (this can be done manually in JavaScript) and remove unnecessary event callback to improve interactivity.
Create set widths and heights on images and iFrames, and fixed heights for text elements, to avoid jumping.
4. Focus on simple, intuitive on-page design
Great user interface design is user-friendly. This is vital in landing and commercial pages, as you need to guide them seamlessly through the purchase funnel.
Establish a clear visual hierarchy (think: visual IA), and establish consistency.
Great UI design also very important in informational pages designed for SEO purposes. It's all very well landing top of search results and getting traffic to your page, but what next? Employ user-centric design to make your key CTAs stand out (a contrasting 'contact us' button in your top nav will help), and simple on-page elements like a breadcrumb will help them make use of your information architecture.
Keep buttons big, keep copy on your buttons clear, and surround it with copy cues to explain what's going on. Once they've clicked, give them a visual confirmation.
This button, for instance, is pretty easy to spot, understand and use.
5. Make reader-friendly content
Even the longest, most dense informational pages can become more user-friendly with some handy AI. Take this article, for instance. You probably won't read it all, but the headings and subheadings will help you quickly scroll to the info you need.
With long-form content creation especially, aim to boost user experience through clear signposting. Other tips include:
Use descriptive internal links
Avoid huge paragraphs or very long sentences.
Keep the most important ideas at the beginning of your paragraph
Create visual variety - including bullet points, imagery, and logically varied font sizes.
Make CTAs easy to spot - and always link them!
6. Remember your mobile users
Did you know that 59.5% of global web traffic is on mobile devices? Mobile responsiveness, or responsive web design, is essential to optimise for mobile searches, and it should be a core consideration for any web UX designer.
Luckily, many of the tips for mobile optimisation, or responsive design, are ones you've heard before: making buttons easy to click, optimising images, improved page speed and simple design. Most web platforms have a responsive design view, to help you understand how your page appears for mobile users - so always check this and switch up anything that looks weird or confusing.
Optimising for mobile is a great habit to get into from a user engagement perspective, but it's important for search optimisation as mobile-first indexing becomes more common.
7. Use canonical tags for polyhierarchies
Canonical tags are pretty useful for improved SEO performance. It's good to use these when you anticipate people sharing your webpage on social, for instance - as the canonical tag ensures your URL is seen as the priority over the duplicate UTM ones.
They're also super useful if you're struggling to neatly categorise your products or pages. Creating a canonical URL means this one will be pinpointed, which helps the search engine attribute all the positive UX and content metrics to one page, while keeping multiple navigational pathways open for the user.
For example, your tofu product might be discovered under "vegetarian" or "vegan" user journeys or categorisations accessed via filters, which appear after the core URL structure. Work out which term has the biggest search volume and canonicalise the version of the URl that relates to it.
8. Address Thin, Low-Value web pages
Search engine crawlers have a lot of work to do - so don't waste work on useless pages.
Sometimes seemingly 'thin' pages perform a useful job for your users. But often, they just congest search engines, and aren't helpful for your customers, either.
Run a crawl report, and use Google Search Console and Google Analytics to assess if your page does anything to enhance user experience, or is just wasted calories. If they're just search bloat, use a 'noindex' tag to get rid, and if no one ever goes on them, 404 it.
9. Capture Informational Queries
Only 1 in 6 shoppers are actively prepared to make a purchase the first time they visit a website. So, help build up to that purchase by adding informational pages that help establish your authority and trustworthiness. Expert Q&As, whitepapers and long-form blogs are great for B2B sites, while shopping guides and how-to guides are useful for B2C brands.
This is where your SEO marketer will research search queries to find relevant keywords with informational search intent, from your target audience. Use this to showcase relevant products and provide support for internal linking. This is especially useful if your products are a couple of clicks or categories deep.
If you're seeing your funnel leak at the product page level, include links to these informational pages at the bottom of the page. It improves UX while building trust in your product.
10. Create rich content tailored to the desired user experience
If you take one thing away from this article, it's that SEO and UX is about creating the right content for your user. What exactly a "rich user experience" is depends on that exact user journey. Thorough research and benchmarking will help you reduce cognitive load, while out-competing the other results in search. Whether it's a long-form article or a punchy product page, you should aim to meet and then exceed user needs and expectations.
Google measures the originality of content, and the effort that went into making it (contentEffort and OriginalContentScore). So, don't half-arse it - and where appropriate, add video or interactive elements. There’s also variables called siteFocusScore and siteRadius – these are measuring how well your site sticks to your topic niche. So the whole UX of your site plays a role.
The next step? UX testing. Assessing user behaviour and seeking user feedback will help you understand how other people interpret your website, and help you to perfect a seamless user journey. You would be surprised at the assumptions and actions of many users, but everyone's brain works differently. Testing and learning will help you understand where you're potentially causing confusion. If you can iron out those "bad clicks" that search engines interpret, you'll win on both SEO and UX counts.
Great SEO is about designing for people first and foremost
If you've made it this far, congratulations! 🎉 This article is a certified whopper.
For non SEOs, there were a few technical SEO terms nestled in our recommendations, but with a little clarity and context, their role within a strong, UX-informed SEO strategy becomes clear. It's all about understanding user behaviour and user interaction, and making content experiences that are genuinely rewarding: easy to access and understand, and yet head-and-shoulders better than your competors.
If you want improved search rankings on your own website, to understand more about search data, or you simply want to hear more about our digital marketing prowress, get in touch. We'll set you on a path for customer and SEO success.