For Search

@stekenwright | #brightonSEO, 10 April 2015

User signals top Searchmetrics’ 2014 ranking factors

…because user experience is what Google really cares about

So you can add ‘Designer’ to the list of jobs SEOs do now

Think Google doesn’t measure the exact same thing here?

They don’t just measure it…

…and they’re not just doing it

“Return to SERPs” =

We know all about CTR

Source: NetBooster

So when you rank check 125,000 keywords each day…

You can estimate how much keyword traffic you’re getting…

You can start to understand where users go traffic goes…

125,000 keywords = 200,000,000 position changes…

You can understand where traffic frequently changes hands

…and where it doesn’t

But Click Through Rate is easy to scale

Google uses UX to ‘improve’ searches, so SEO = improving UX

Crazy Egg gives us an insight into dwell time

What is the most important factor in the design of a website?

The website makes it easy for me to find what I want

The website offers a cutting edge interactive experience

The website has a beautiful appearance

Other

Better UX = better dwell time

We can test this with

Which is more obvious – the next step or the ‘back’ button?

Mobile SERPs are different, so test mobile users too

‘Instinct is always a great starting point and data is often incredibly

powerful but qualitative research, the beliefs, attitudes and stories of

real people, told directly to the planner is the umbilical cord

between agency and consumer.’Richard Huntington / @adliterate

Econsultancy User Experience Survey Report 2013

Guerrilla testing is cheap, so why is it everyone’s last priority?

‘…low cost method of user testing…

…‘guerrilla’ refers to its ‘out in the wild’ style, in the fact that it can be conducted anywhere…

…output is typically ‘qualitative’ so insight is often rich and detailed.’

GOV.UK

What is guerrilla user testing?

What you need: ~5 participants

Silverback for Mac (2.0 is free) silverbackapp.com

UX Recorder for iOS ($59.99) uxrecorder.com

Camtasia for PC (£236)techsmith.com/camtasia

What you need: cheap software

What you need: a quiet room where you can set up easily

Scenario:

What you need: a task

The UK’s biggest (most visible) breakdown cover providers

…and how much keyword search traffic they get

Expertise

Authority

Trust

What do Google’s search quality raters look for?

Source: BrandAsset Valuator (BAV) 2014

# Brand

1 The AA

2 The Post Office

3 Boots

4 Google

5 Johnson's Baby

6 Fairy

7 RAC

8 Marks & Spencer

9 Dulux

10 Kellogg's Corn Flakes

It doesn’t matter if you are the UK’s most trusted brand

It doesn’t matter if you have more links than anyone else

It doesn’t matter if you have better links than everyone else

If you don’t provide a great user experience…

…and someone else (who might be less qualified) does

Thank you!@stekenwright

stephen.kenwright@branded3.com