At the crossroads of SEO and UX, Search Experience Optimisation (SXO) aims to optimise users’ search experience. How does it work? By offering them not only quality content, but also content that matches their expectations and associates :
- An answer that is relevant to their query on the search engine
- Fluidity, ease and speed of navigation
While SEO helps to improve your position on the SERP and increase your traffic, SXO focuses on the user’s point of view, offering a positive experience from the search results page to the landing page.
The more Google’s algorithm improves, the more it tends to offer users hyper-relevant content based on their queries, taking into account their browsing intentions and practices. In short, SXO is a kind of SEO 2.0: it takes into account the evolution of the algorithm, which knows the user better and better and increasingly considers UX to be a priority.
Is SXO interesting for you? The answer is clearly yes. Whatever your sector of activity, optimising users’ search experience can only be a good thing. It allows you to improve your brand image, build customer loyalty, attract quality traffic and generate more conversions. Let’s take a closer look at what Search Experience Optimisation can do for you, and some tips for implementing a UX-focused strategy.
What benefits can SXO bring you?
1. Maximise your visibility
Google attaches particular importance to user satisfaction. And for users to be satisfied, they need to be able to find what they’re looking for quickly and easily… That’s exactly what the SXO is all about! By incorporating SXO into your SEO strategy, you’re putting all the chances on your side to improve your natural referencing and therefore your visibility.
Since the June 2021 update, Google’s algorithm has taken into account three indicators linked to SXO, known as the “Core Web Vitals“:
- TheLargest Contentful Paint (LCP), which evaluates the speed at which the main content of a page is displayed
- TheFirst Input Delay (FID), which refers to interactivity, i.e. the time between the user’s request for interaction and the interface response.
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), which measures the visual stability of a page
Google’s algorithm also takes into account mobile compatibility, secure browsing and connection and content accessibility to determine SERP ranking.
As Google rewards positive user experiences and values hyper-targeted content that responds precisely to searches, the SXO is therefore a key element in improving your position in the search results.
2. Encourage conversions
Is getting qualified leads and conversions one of your challenges? The SXO can help you by bringing quality traffic to your site right from the start.
In fact, optimising the user experience right from the search results and offering relevant content through a fluid navigation will enable :
- An increase in your click-through rate (CTR)
- Quality traffic from users interested in your content
- A reduction in your bounce rate
- An increase in dwell time
- An increase in the number of pages viewed
- An increase in the number of conversions
As well as increasing visibility in search results, the SXO will encourage visits from interested users and optimise their experience so that they take action on your site (complete a form, make a purchase, download a brochure, etc.). If a user finds the information they want during an optimised search experience, they are more likely to convert and become a customer.
3. Create a relationship of trust
The SXO also allows you to build a relationship of trust with the user. Thanks to the easy search experience you offer them, users will associate your brand with a positive feeling. This helps to build a favourable brand image and user loyalty.
How can you optimise your SXO?
The ultimate aim of SXO is to understand the user’s search intention so that you can offer them a relevant response on your site that will mark the end of their search. In this way, you prevent them from returning to the results page and consulting sites other than yours. To achieve this, let’s look at four important steps.
1. Analyse research intentions
Search intent must be the starting point for your SXO strategy. It is vital to analyse the reason why a user performs a search in order to respond in the best possible way.
There are 4 types of search intent based on the type of query:
- The information request is formulated in the form of a question: the user is looking for information. It is then necessary to provide a relevant answer to the question.
- The navigational query often includes the name of a brand, a product or a domain name: the user knows exactly what they are looking for and wants to access a specific website that they already know.
- The decisional query is often a medium-tail query: the user wants to compare before making a purchase. The ideal response to this type of request is to develop content that will facilitate the user’s decision-making process.
- The transactional query is generally long-tail: the user intends to buy. Setting up Google Shopping ads, for example, is an interesting solution for responding to this type of query quickly and effectively.
There are various tools available to help you identify search intentions, such as Answer the Public or Semrush. Once you have analysed the search intentions, you can start to think about the following question: “How can I provide a relevant answer for each search intention? This will involve optimising your display in the search results and your destination pages.
2. Look after your appearance in search results
Where to start? The starting point for improving your appearance in the search results is to optimise your metadata. Make sure you write engaging and relevant meta-titles and meta-descriptions, without losing sight of users’ search intentions.
To improve your visibility in the search results, don’t hesitate to take advantage of all the possibilities offered by Google :
- Rich snippets, also known as enriched extracts or enriched results, enable additional information to be displayed under your meta-title or meta-description when your page appears in the search results. For example, this could be reviews presented in the form of stars, places and dates for an event, ingredients or cooking times for a recipe, etc. This additional information is communicated to search engines by means of semantic tags implemented in the html code of a web page. The benefits? You improve your appearance, gain visibility and stand out from the competition by providing useful information to users right from the search results page.
- Featured snippets are extracts from your site displayed directly in search results. They can be presented in the form of a paragraph, a list, a graph or a table. To have a chance of appearing as a featured snippet, the key is to optimise your content: analyse user queries and answer them clearly and concisely. Setting up a FAQ that covers the main questions asked by users is an interesting way of developing content that is optimised for featured snippets.
The advantages? Featured snippets benefit from position zero, i.e. they are placed in front of the first natural results. You therefore benefit from a privileged position in the SERP, enabling you to increase your visibility and achieve a high click-through rate.
Google My Business gives you a significant boost to your visibility by creating a business profile. Not only will you appear in Google Maps, but you’ll also have a specific insert in the search results page. Users will be able to find your contact details and useful information about your business at a glance. It’s the ultimate tool for local visibility!
3. Optimising landing pages
Landing pages need to be thought through in depth in order to capture and hold the user’s attention. Throughout the design of your landing page, you must never lose sight of users’ search intentions.
When a user arrives on your landing page, they should be able to find what they’re looking for effortlessly. Your aim? To prevent them from returning to the results page. So you need to answer their question, make them want to spend time on your page and your site and eventually lead them to conversion.
To achieve this, a number of important parameters need to be taken into account, including :
- Define a goal for each landing page
- Work out the structure of the page according to your objective and the user’s intention
- Display clear, reliable, relevant and high-quality content
- Make the page easy to read and highlight the important points with a high-quality design
- Make navigation simple, quick and easy
- Optimise internal linking with relevant CTAs and links
- Use tools to make it easier to get in touch: chatbot, easy-to-complete contact forms or quote requests, etc.
From a more technical point of view, there are also principles to follow when optimising your landing pages. These include
- Optimising page load time (LCP), responsiveness to interaction (FID) and visual stability (CLS), which will be rewarded by Google and provide a better user experience.
- Make your content accessible to all and from all devices (responsive site)
- Offer a secure connection by switching to the HTTPS protocol to reduce your bounce rate (users tend to leave sites with an unsecured connection) and thus optimise your position in search results.
Designing your landing pages is a very important stage in your SXO strategy. Do you need some help? Our UX design and web development experts will be your allies in optimising your landing pages and your website.
4. Test and optimise
As always in web marketing, you should never neglect ongoing testing and optimisation. In the context of SXO, there are four metrics in particular that you should monitor to help you optimise and improve your results: click-through rate, bounce rate, visit time and conversions. Keeping an eye on the evolution of these metrics can help you determine when and at what level optimisation is necessary. A/B testing, eye tracking and user surveys are also good ways of testing and optimising your SXO.
User experience is increasingly at the heart of web marketing and SEO strategies. As such, having a website that is optimised for the search experience is now a must, helping to consolidate your brand image, build user loyalty and increase the quality of your traffic and conversions.
However, technical optimisation, netlinking and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) should not be overlooked. Integrating SXO thinking into your SEO is the winning solution!
Valerie is an expert in copywriting and lends her pen to our team of copywriters to produce quality and engaging content. She is constantly learning and specializing in SEA and Social Media Advertising.
