We would like to invite you to get to know the two other SEO OnPage factors «Technology & User Experience» in more detail in our second part of the SEO article series.  

The topics «Technology» as well as «User Experience» can seem very complex and raise questions in the context of SEO. Therefore, the technical and UX optimizations are best left to your web agency to adjust. 

Please note that the factors «technology» and «user experience» alone are not enough for your website to rank well in organic search results. All of our mentioned factors must be continuously considered and applied for this. This is the only way to increase organic traffic to your website in the long run.  

In our SEO article series, we go into all factors specifically. Here you will find an overview: 

OnPage factors:

1. Keywords: Read our blog article SEO-Series: OnPage factors «Keywords & Content»

2. Content: Read our blog article SEO-Series: OnPage factors «Keywords & Content»

3. Technology: Will be presented in this blog post 

4. User Experience: Will be presented in this blog post 

OffPage Factors:

5. Links: Read our blog article SEO Series: OffPage Factors «Links & Social Signals»

6. Social Signals: Read our blog article SEO Series: OffPage Factors «Links & Social Signals»

7. Branding: Read our blog article SEO Series: OffPage Factors «Branding & specific factors»

8. Specific factors Read our blog article SEO Series: OffPage Factors «Branding & specific factors»

Technology

Technical SEO, like the other factors, is a subarea of search engine optimization. The technical SEO is a prerequisite for the other optimization measures to work.  

In the technical optimization measures, we distinguish between 3 areas:  

1. Technical basis 
2. Performance 
3. Security 

Technical basis

First of all, you should enable Google to index your website in the search database. This creates the basis for you to be found on Google. You achieve this by depositing your website in the Google Search Console. The Search Console also helps us to detect broken pages or other problems on your website. For example, if removed subpages are still linked on your website, neither the user nor Google likes this. Such errors must be eliminated as soon as possible, because otherwise this can lead to a collapse of your Google rankings. 

Semantically correct HTML 5
The Google bot (that's the little robot that analyzes your website) is quite intelligent and now considers your page almost like a real human. That is why an important SEO principle states that your site should be created primarily for the user, i.e. your customers, and not for the search engine. Nevertheless, certain technical conditions must be observed. The main thing is to make it as easy as possible for Google to analyze as many subpages of your website as possible (also called crawling in technical language). For example, we as a web design agency attach great importance to writing semantically correct HTML 5.  

Semantic HTML is about structuring your website in the background so that Google can read it. Translated, semantic HTML means nothing more than "meaningful" source code.  

Performance

In terms of performance, we measure the page speed (loading time), among other things. All data for this is taken from the so-called Google Light House Report. This is a report from Google that our specialists can use for the analysis of performance.

Security

Besides fast loading time and a technically clean website, the topic «security» is also important for your SEO results. After all, Google does not want to redirect your users to insecure pages.  

• Updates 
  Your website should be up to date. As an agency, we regularly point out outdated scripts, plugins or system versions to our clients and update them upon request. 

• Https 
  ​​​​​​​Make sure that your website has a valid SSL certificate. The easiest way to recognize this is that the URL can be accessed via https:// and not http:// without the browser displaying a security message. This ensures encrypted and thus secure data transmission. 

Basically, technical deficiencies do not only lead to poor rankings. Depending on how severe the problem is, Google may penalize your website, which can negatively affect your SEO results for a very long time. 

We hereby conclude the technical part and now turn to the «User Experience». 

User Experience

User Experience (UX) is literally defined as «user experience» or more understandably as «usability». The focus is on people, not on design. How simple and understandable is the user interface of your website? How well do your customers find their way around? All this is clarified under the term «user experience». UX also plays an important role in SEO. We distinguish between the following points:

Architecture

Userflow 
Userflow is about setting up the best possible page architecture so that users can easily find their way around the website. Which paths lead the user to the destination? Navigation and internal links such as CTA (Call to Actions) or buttons are used for this purpose. The user should find his desired destination on your website with as few clicks as possible. You can design the best possible user flow together with your web agency. 
 

Navigation 
As with the userflow, it is also important to create a simple and understandable navigation. If it is understandable and purposeful for the user, it is most likely also right for Google. 
 

Page structure & interactivity 
A good UX also has to do with interaction. Among other things, Google measures the interactivity of users on your website. It is therefore recommended to enrich your most important SEO pages with interactive elements, e.g. with videos. This way, a user stays longer on the page, which has a positive effect on Google's rating. However, do not try to create artificial optimizations. For a product overview page, it makes no sense to place too much content. Always think about your users and not about Google when optimizing your site.  

UX/UI

General UX/UI 

The overall user experience on your website is becoming more and more important. The user interface of your website should be understandable and purposeful for your users.  

Google Core Web Vitals 

Google Core Web Vitals were newly launched by Google and are reported as an evaluation report in Google Search Console.  

• FID First Input Delay: How long is the duration until the first interaction from a user takes place (e.g. click on a button). 
   
• CLS Cumulative Layout Shift: Elements on your web page should not "jump". As users move around your web page, elements (e.g., an image) should not jump over reloading other content on the page so that, for example, text slides up.  
   
• FCP First Contentful Paint: How long does it take for the first element of your page to load? 
   
• LCP Largest Contentful Paint: How long does it take for the largest element of the page to load in the visible area? 

Don't be put off by these very technical terms. We mention these terms only so that you can understand why such indications appear in Search Console. Usually, it's not about a serious problem, but just valuable optimization suggestions to improve the user experience. Of course, our SEO experts will be happy to help you in this case. 

Accessibility

Good accessibility for people with disabilities can improve your SEO rating. This can be created for example with contrast of font sizes, described images and buttons or the set up function of a reader of the page. You can evaluate the accessibility of your site via Google Light House Report.

Conclusion

The technical and UX factors of SEO are a very important part of your SEO performance. We recommend addressing these issues with your web agency due to their complexity.  

Also, keep in mind that SEO is always competitive. You don't have to achieve 100% on all the factors mentioned or have them implemented 100% on all pages. It's just a matter of being better than your competitors in the basic factors. 

What you should consider besides the already presented SEO OnPage factors for OffPage factors, you will learn in the following blog posts in our SEO article series.