The relationship of UX and optimization: how to do it correctly

This text again reveals the problem of user expectations, directly related to the metrics of behavioral factors that we discussed with you in our previous posts and offers a number of tools to control user behavior. As translators, we’ll add that the tools listed in this article will help you to detect problems in user behavior and improve behavioral factors based on the collected data. At the same time, we recommend using SERPClick to control behavioral factors and directly improve site rankings due to these factors. In this post the first part of the original text is published.



Author's posts are completely his or her own (with the exception of unlikely cases of hypnosis) opinion and may not coincide with the opinion of the Moz team.
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Like any person who frequently uses the Internet, you already have a certain personal opinion about UX (user experience) while navigating online. The problem is that the user experience will be different for everyone, depending on the expectations. Therefore, although you, as a Moz blog reader and, possibly, an Internet expert, have certain ideas on how to make a company’s or client’s site more convenient for most users, it’s likely that your manager or customer will have to disagree with you.

If, like me, you are not a specialist in the field of UX, then in this case it will be difficult for you to find convincing arguments in support of your point of view. As a rule, we discuss all this among ourselves, but I recommend taking time to look for irrefutable arguments:

1. Prove that you have discovered a problem. This is a good idea even if you and your manager (or customer) completely agree that the site can and should be optimized. Collect feedback from visitors who are not working on the creation of the site and see if your opinion confirms their opinion.

2. Suggest a solution. Based on feedback from users, suggest a solution to the problem found. It’s best to visualize this with a page layout.

3. Test your solution. See if the behavioral factors on the new design have improved compared to what they were in against the background of the old design.

Using this algorithm as the basis of your actions, you can implement your recommendations reasonably and thoroughly.

How to find evidence of a problem

First you need to really justify that there is a certain problem in user experience. If you are lucky and have the time and money, it is best to collect user feedback through your customers and people in your target market by working with them personally. But in most cases we have no such opportunity. If you, like me, have to manage a strict SEO budget, you can choose one of the online tools:

My favorite:

Qualaroo

Qualaroo is a simple but effective way to collect feedback data. Just add a small piece of JavaScript code to your site, allow Qualaroo to download the question in the lower right (if you look at the monitor) corner of the page. You can:

Put the question on a page or group of pages.

Post your own questions or use your existing library of questions.

Set the time when the question is displayed (for example, load it with the page or after 15 seconds, or when the user translates courses to the URL line in his browser, which may mean that the user is about to leave the page).

Usage example:

One of my clients conducts seminars. They spend them in different places, but if the seminar is held in the main building of the company, they do not mention the venue of the seminar. I suggested that because of this, visitors are confused and that if you just add the address to the seminar page, it will be easier for visitors to decide whether they will go or not.

I did not want to ask a question on the forehead, so I added on the question to each page of the seminar: “Is there any other information on the seminar that will help you make a decision and visit it today?”

I managed to collect several hundred answers, I exported reviews to an Excel file and sorted the answers. I was right: many visitors asked the question of where the seminar will be held. This work also taught me that many visitors would like to see a rough outline of the program of the seminar.

Pros: Easy to use, quick to collect reviews, very flexible program.

Cons: Reviews only from users who have visited your site.

Cost: $ 79 per month (and less if you pay immediately for 1-2 years of use).

Inexpensive way to collect reviews without adding a line of code to the site:

Feedback Army / Mechanical Turk

Although I personally recommend Qualaroo myself, I understand that many of our readers may encounter a situation where persuading your client or manager to add a line of code to the site may be impossible, since this introduction could potentially distract users from the actual use of the site. In this case, you can use Mechanical Turk or the Feedback Army - the latter will use a mechanical Turk for you, since the mTurck interface is rather cumbersome.

Mechanical Turk allows you to ask a question to millions of online workers from around the world (approximately 30% of whom are in America). Therefore, you can ask the same question as through Qualaroo. You invite users to a specific page that you would like them to test. Make sure they make it easy.

Pros: An inexpensive way to find testers users.

Cons: Mechanical Turk pays its employee quite a bit, so the answers will be quick and short. In addition, visitors will not come from your target audience or customer base.

Cost: $ 40 for 10 replies.

The end of the article, read in Russian tomorrow in our hub ALTWeb Group .