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March 4, 2015
Improving the SEO User Experience
Mark Munroe
SEORadar.com, Founder & CEO
@markemunroe
searchmarketingexpo.com
@markemunroe #SMX #23C
• Founder SEORadar.com – Monitoring system to warn about site changes with possible SEO consequences. Monitors robots.txt, noindex, redirects, titles, headings, rel-canonicals, links and much more & creates an archive of your site over time.
• 10 + years in-house SEO, including Trulia, EverydayHealth, UsedCars.com, MerchantCircle, SideStep (Kayak).
Background
searchmarketingexpo.com
@markemunroe #SMX #23C
• “When your visitors are happy with your site, search engines notice.” – Duane Forrester
• “Succeeding in SEO will be the same as it’s
always been if you’re doing it right – give the users a great experience.” - Matt Cutts
Search Engines Notice!
searchmarketingexpo.com
@markemunroe #SMX #23C
• Make Google happy = make Google visitors happy.
• Google want your site to ‘kill the search’ and
have the user go onto the next search. • Don’t sacrifice the broad user experience at the
expense of conversion!
Long Term SEO Success
searchmarketingexpo.com
@markemunroe #SMX #23C
• Conversion initiatives often conflict directly with the Search User Experience.
• Over aggressive attempts at pushing
users into the ‘funnel’ may obscure the user from getting the content they were looking for.
Conversion vs. Search UX
searchmarketingexpo.com
@markemunroe #SMX #23C
What’s the mix? User Breakdown
Customers
Prospects
Drive-by
searchmarketingexpo.com
@markemunroe #SMX #23C
What’s the mix? User Breakdown
Customers
Prospects
Drive-by
Typical Focus
searchmarketingexpo.com
@markemunroe #SMX #23C
What’s the mix? User Breakdown
Customers
Prospects
Drive-by
What about them?
searchmarketingexpo.com
@markemunroe #SMX #23C
• Delivering a great user experience is more critical than ever to succeed with SEO in the post-panda world.
Visitors form Search?
searchmarketingexpo.com
@markemunroe #SMX #23C
• Interstitials are an example where where the focus on conversions satisfies a few at the expense of the many.
• Google – not a fan!
“There are many implementations … that may be too disruptive to the visitor's usage of the site”
Interstitials
searchmarketingexpo.com
@markemunroe #SMX #23C
“Homes for Rent” Search Example
User thinks they
will be landing
on a page full of
home rentals.
Instead they land
on interstitial
obscuring their
intended
destination.
searchmarketingexpo.com
@markemunroe #SMX #23C
• Installs go up (the conversion metric).
• But what about every one else?
• Quick abandonment and bounce back to Google? (And there is nothing worse than an interstitial bounce).
• Ultimately, can be damaging to SEO.
The Result?
searchmarketingexpo.com
@markemunroe #SMX #23C
Good Compromise
User still sees the content
they are looking for.
App still gets the
upsell.
searchmarketingexpo.com
@markemunroe #SMX #23C
Objective: – a process that improves the user experience across the majority of users who come to your site!
Improving the Search User Experience
searchmarketingexpo.com
@markemunroe #SMX #23C
Why are these people coming? User Breakdown
Customers
Prospects
Drive-by
Who are they
anyway?
searchmarketingexpo.com
@markemunroe #SMX #23C
How are we doing?
• Click path
• Bounce rate
• Time on site
• Conversion rate
What users do
• Comments
• Feedback
• Surveys
What users say
searchmarketingexpo.com
@markemunroe #SMX #23C
• One way to find out is to ask!
• Surveys!
How are we doing? Let’s ask!
searchmarketingexpo.com
@markemunroe #SMX #23C
“The Net Promoter Score (NPC) is an index ranging from -
100 to 100 that measures the willingness of customers to
recommend a company's products or services to others.”
Is this a good way to measure Search User Experience?
What about Net Promoter Score?
searchmarketingexpo.com
@markemunroe #SMX #23C
What’s wrong with NPC?
A CEO for a startup told me his site lost 70% of his traffic. Analysis clearly pointed to Panda. “What do you mean we got hit by Panda. Our customers love us. We have a Net Promoter Score (NPC) of
65!”
searchmarketingexpo.com
@markemunroe #SMX #23C
Who did they test?
• They emailed their subscribing customers. • To put it differently, they asked the 2% of users.
who liked the site enough to subscribe. • What about the other 98%?
Your Customer Google Customer
searchmarketingexpo.com
@markemunroe #SMX #23C
• Jakob Nielsen published an article analyzing the data from an IBM study http://goo.gl/L8qUNZ.
• The first 10 seconds are crucial with the highest drop-off rate. The second 10 seconds are nearly as crucial (when the true determination of the site is made),
• Coming from Google, people quickly making this
assessment. - Will this site answer my question? - Should I trust it?
The first 10 seconds are crucial
searchmarketingexpo.com
@markemunroe #SMX #23C
SEO Search Satisfaction Survey (SSSS)
Survey only users from search and quickly after landing.
• You want to catch the users who bounce at that 10 sec window.
Create surveys specific to landing page types.
• Different pages type will get different types of users and need to be addressed distinctly.
• Turn off survey as soon as you hit statistical significance (100-150 results).
Just a single question! (plus comments)
• “Does this site have have what you were looking for on Google”
searchmarketingexpo.com
@markemunroe #SMX #23C
• I worked for a company with an informational site.
• We purchased one of our affiliates which had a near duplicate of our main site.
• They had amazing conversion, but had been hit by Panda. • I ran the satisfaction survey on both sites.
Panda Example
searchmarketingexpo.com
@markemunroe #SMX #23C
“Does this site have have what you were looking for on Google” Panda site 32% Positive (and the comments were brutal) Non-Panda site 58% positive
Search Satisfaction
searchmarketingexpo.com
@markemunroe #SMX #23C
How do we improve?
We use surveys to understand why users came from Google?
We solve their problem/answer their question.
User testing to iterate and perfect.
searchmarketingexpo.com
@markemunroe #SMX #23C
Why do people land on a hotel page? • Intent to book • Info question (directions, parking …) • Planning stage (looking for reviews) • Share an experience (write a
review) • Interested in the hotel restaurant.
Hypothesis for each page type
searchmarketingexpo.com
@markemunroe #SMX #23C
• Create a survey based on your hypothesis.
• Keep one opened question to catch what you missed.
• If missing something important, adjust and
restart the survey.
Create the and run the survey
searchmarketingexpo.com
@markemunroe #SMX #23C
Do this for all the major page type SEO Traffic Breakdown
Hotel Page
Airline Page
Home Page
Vacations Page
City Page
All Other
Blog
Fictional Travel Site
searchmarketingexpo.com
@markemunroe #SMX #23C
What to do if there is a disconnect …
Site Type User Need
Real Estate User lands on home for sale, but they want to
rent
Business
Directory
User wants reviews but you have few
Electronics Users want product manuals
People
directory
Users expect free data but you charge
Flight
booking site
Users want departures times
searchmarketingexpo.com
@markemunroe #SMX #23C
• Fill the need … or
• Send them someplace else to fill there need … (keep pushing the user on their journey).
• Remember “When your visitors are happy with your site, search engines notice!”
If there is a disconnect …