SEO must die! It is UXO time

Did You ever heard about UXO - User Experience Optimization.
Check It Out !!!

It's been a while since we first started hearing about "Search Engine Optimization", perhaps 20+ years now, and hopefully soon will be part of the past.

It all started as a cheat

The first search engines used very basic algorithms to store and retrieve web pages. Basically (and simplified) they collected all words contained within a page (removing html) and then use that information to match them against a user entered search word. That simple.
As the results for certain words started get larger and larger, they had to find a way to sort them based on relevancy, or at least whatever their engineers decided that should be considered as relevancy... and that was (at first) word count. Yes, the more a word appeared on a page, the more relevant it was for such a search term.
So, the first "SEO Specialists" were those guys who found out this "algorithm". You now can guess which was the "SEO Strategy", can you? "Repeat the word you want to be relevant for as much as possible" and for that matter, the context or relevancy of the word's usage was not part of the requirement... Just repeat the word a thousand times and you'll hit the top of the search results page. Period.

Cat and mouse game with Search Engines

So, the game started. Search companies improved their engines to deal with those cheats, and SEO Experts found new ways to cheat based on the new "improved" algorithms... and so on.
Search companies started penalizing the cheaters, so the "SEO techniques" became smoother and much more elaborate. Black hats, white hats and grey hats were placed over the SEO Gurus' heads depending on the aggressiveness and effectiveness of their cheats, but at the end all comes to a common place... cheating, fooling the search engines one way or another to favor one page over their competitors.

The long forgotten player: The User!

While that war was taking place all over the internet, the users were like the kids on a hostile divorce... getting the worst of each round. Ugly content or bad search results depending on which part had landed the latest punch.
When search companies noticed that effect, and understood that their original goal was to improve the user's internet navigation experience, and, of course, the technology available allowed, they started creating algorithms to give or take relevance based on the user interaction and satisfaction with a specific page.
This recent change of focus represented the first actual benefit for the user since the start of the SEO war.

UXO: User Experience Optimization

So, let's take this momentum and use in favor of the user.

1. Stop hiring SEO experts and start promoting UX best practices.
2. Stop analyzing SE algorithms and study your user needs, behavior and product usage trends.
3. Stop investing time finding ways to gain first page results, and invest your money on finding ways to obtain happier customers.

It sounds more productive to have a UXO expert team in charge of enriching your customer's experience permanently than having a SEO expert helping you cheat search engines every time the search companies decide to alter their algorithms, doesn't it?

What should a UXO Team do?

This team will be adding value to your company and products through your customers' online satisfaction, but how?

• Study your user's behavior when using your site.
• Perform A/B testing to understand what your users like or dislike.
• Shorten your user's required steps to accomplish their goals in your site.
• Analyze usage trends and statistics to suggest changes or improvements to the site (or even for your products!).
• Design amazing user interfaces so your clients LOVE to browse your site .
• Find better ways to interact with your clients on key moments of that interaction.
• Provide effective means for your clients to get in touch with your customer support team.

The bottom line of this is: If you keep your users happy while using your site, they will spend more time, they will use your product/service, and so your business will benefit from them proportionally. And guess what? Eventually Search Engines will notice that, and will understand that your site is highly relevant for your business type and will rank you much better than your competitors.
I believe a lot of companies are going the UXO way lately, with great results, whatever it is they call it, but for now, I'm going with UXO, just because it sounds really cool, LOL
Source : linkedin
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