Balanced site indicators. Part 5: Usability
This is the final part of the story about the concept of balanced website performance. In previous releases, we gradually analyzed all major aspects of the promotion and determined the relationship between these aspects. In this we consider the last block of indicators and draw final conclusions.
Previous parts:
- The first part: Strategy
- Second part: Technical optimization
- The third part: Content
- The fourth part: External optimization
Now I propose to recall our basic scheme:
')
Let me remind you that the main element that immediately affects all the others is Strategy. And the elements themselves are mutually dependent on each other. Therefore, in fact, in the name of the concept there is the word “balanced”: any serious changes in each aspect of advancement automatically bring the entire system out of balance and require immediate restoration of balance.
If everything is in principle obvious from the technical side of the site, and a little less, but still understandable, with content and link environments, there are often problems with usability. They are connected with the fact that the very concept of “usability” is not perceived by many very correctly, and therefore it is applied incorrectly to SEO and becomes a missing link.
Let's see what it is and why it interests us so much.
In a word, this term cannot be translated into Russian. Literally translated, this is “usability”. A less accurate, but more familiar option is “usability.”
Usability is a conditional value that determines how capable the average user of a tool is to achieve the desired result using this tool under typical conditions. And also how easy he will be able to do, how satisfied he will be with the work process itself.
In the most deplorable cases, the user is not able to use the tool at all, in the most successful cases - he is able to master it right during the work without any basic knowledge, due to his own life experience.
The site on our scheme is no coincidence though it is in the center circle, but it is not a title: it is a tool. And the goal, as we said in the first article, is to perform targeted actions by users (receiving conversions). So in our case, usability will determine at what speed, with what emotions and in how many involved target users will be able to achieve the goal.
Today, search algorithms take user examination very seriously, the very behavioral factors. This is quite logical from the point of view of the logic of search engines: their orientation to the satisfaction of user interests is openly declared by them in their own licensing agreements. Obviously, it’s better to ask the people themselves how much the site is made “for people”.
Therefore, for search promotion, usability is very important: it is an opportunity to give search engines a free and unbiased reason to consider the site better. Of course, for this you will need to work and closely monitor the fate of your project, but as part of a single strategy, this is not as difficult as it may seem.
Understanding that the site has usability problems is not so difficult. This information gives us the metrics. And they are constantly evolving and improving their own usability indicator, so the most popular and necessary reports are already configured out of the box: traffic sources, entry and exit points, time on the page, viewing depth - all this can be viewed and analyzed the next day after installation code. You can even see from the first person how the user scrolls the page and moves the mouse cursor.
And from this point on, you can already draw conclusions about how “usable” the site is. Of course, you will need to customize the chain of events, goals, and if you are engaged in online sales, then e-commerce. But it is not so difficult, and the principles of analysis there are about the same.
Metrics give us the opportunity to look at the site through the eyes of the user. And then all its weaknesses, design errors, incorrectly guessed intents and many other things that can be overlooked at the design stage are identified. Many will be frightened by what he saw, but believe me, where it is more terrible not to understand what you are doing wrong.
Particularly dramatic data is provided by end-to-end analytics systems, which I also mentioned in the second part of our cycle. They allow you to calculate such business indicators as ROI (return on investment) for your investment in the development of the site. So you can see in real numbers how profitable it was, say, the decision to change the page design, how quickly it paid off and whether it paid off at all. Based on this data, you will be able to plan budgets more accurately, understand exactly which solutions allow you, by spending one-time, to reduce regular expenses and payments.
End-to-end analytics make it possible to quickly identify, for example, that you are ordering work using the not the most profitable of the available schemes (for example, subscription fees, rather than buying work hours, or vice versa). For especially large projects, this can save huge amounts.
Metrics reveal errors in various aspects of promotion. We can see the wrong clustering of keywords, because of which the user gets to the wrong page, which is better suited to his specific task. From here we get the need to re-clustering, changing the content of the pages (and sometimes creating new sections and changing the structure), changing the incoming links - in short, the whole system responds immediately to this error.
We may find that the forms incorrectly work on the site and the user cannot perform some simplest action. We are going to study the code, check the server settings, and immerse ourselves in technical optimization.
It also happens that the page is loaded with errors, and the user leaves it immediately after opening, because he sees the impossibility of interacting with it, or simply takes it as an indication of the quality of the site’s performance and decides not to have anything to do with it.
Remember, when we talked about content, I mentioned that it should answer the questions to the user’s questions as much as possible while studying? Now we can find out how well he does it. And if not enough, then make the appropriate changes. Can't do it in the framework of the existing page structure? So, we try to change this structure. Or maybe it will be easier and more promising to change the structure of the site itself?
Content with usability in general is very closely linked, in many aspects it is impossible to distinguish between them: the content is the most important part of the page and one of the main goals of the user. And it's not just about the text: well-placed infographics or other visual content enthralls the visitor, creates a sense of harmony, helps to get what you want. Illiterate visual content interferes with the perception of information, draws attention to the poor quality of performance, adversely affects the perception of the authority of the resource and prompts it to leave.
Of course, usability is not limited to content. This is a combination of all the factors that translate into the final picture: the logical structure of the site and pages, the correctness and relevance of the forms, ease of navigation, the presence of full interaction scenarios, designed for different groups of users, and much more.
It is no coincidence that all large and popular projects are constantly refining the interface: the Internet is constantly evolving, so the user’s perception of certain decisions is changing. Habitual tools become obsolete, new ones become more familiar.
Trends in the design and design of the pages live according to the general laws of fashion: if everyone makes the “Buy” button green and with rounded edges in the lower right corner, then the user will search for it there, and just that.
Therefore, the ideal option would be to conduct A / B testing, when different versions of pages are shown to different users. As a result of this testing, the most successful solutions remain, and those that did not show themselves in the best way are changed or removed. Unfortunately, this is quite a costly method and requires a representative sample. Therefore, large sites with high traffic usually resort to such testing.
There are no trifles: if you have a large percentage of failures, then this is bad not only in terms of conversions, but also in terms of promotion. Users come from the search and leave right away - what should this tell the search engine? That's right: that the site is in the Top 10 undeservedly.
But in fact, the assessment of your site by the user begins even before he made the link. Let's talk about the snippet, a small announcement that the search engine demonstrates on the results page.
User behavior on the search is analyzed by search engines no less detailed than his actions on the site. These data allow the search engine to once again check the quality of the issue, exploring the experience of living people.
The fact is that the algorithms are far from ideal, they make mistakes. And it happens that the sites get the results that are not there. Therefore, data on clicks on links is also an indicator of the relevance of the page to the request.
If you are in the Top 3, and no one clicks on you (and on your two competitors with whom you share this Top, yes), then this is a sign that your site is not suitable for some reason as an answer to asked in the search line question. Even if this is not the case, you have every chance of getting a fall.
And you need to understand that there are no “ideal values”: otherwise, in unpopular subjects no site would correspond to them (too high requirements), or vice versa, everything (too low) would correspond to popular ones. That is, several types of data are analyzed at once, a certain “corridor” is calculated within which the site’s indicators should be based on its position.
Therefore, it is imperative that the snippet prompt you to click on the link. And this is possible only if the user sees in it the most complete answer that is close to the question asked. The inclusion of query keywords in the title, their mentioning and thematically related words in the text of the snippet, additional links, a relatively recent online chat directly from the search - this all works for you. And with all these factors, it is necessary to work and monitor them.
Behavior on the search and on the site - two factors that are intertwined with each other. If the user goes to the site, but then returns to the search and presses to the next result, then this is also a signal to the search engine. If the site collects more clicks from the fourth place than the first three, then it has reason to claim the top lines. User actions are considered as some kind of communicative act between a machine and a person, in which a person consistently looks for an answer to his question, and the machine offers options and tries to learn. And your site in this chain is both the target and the source of statistics.
Working with a snippet is search engines for the webmaster, and reference books, and content, and internal optimization, working with title and meta tags.
We found that formal factors are not exhaustive for search engines when ranking. Special attention is paid to the analysis of user behavior.
We also found out that behavioral factors do not exist separately from the process of advancement, on the contrary, they are organically incorporated into the system. This is not surprising, because the user's behavior directly depends on what the search engine offers him and then the site itself. The search for the necessary content or service is a single and indivisible process into which we must integrate and which we must subordinate to the scenario we have thought out beforehand.
And work on this scenario begins already when we define the main goals of the promotion and develop a strategy. No further actions to achieve the first lines in the results are made without taking into account these basic provisions.
On the other hand, the strategy can and should be changed if you see its fallacy. Miscalculations can be at various levels, including at the level of business planning. Under any set of circumstances, it is cheaper to stop the obviously unprofitable measures and to adjust the plan cheaper than to continue without changes.
BUT! Changes at any level automatically entail the need to revise all related indicators. The system must be in constant balance, so you can not change the semantics and not change the content, and therefore usability. Somewhere you have to redo everything, somewhere there will be enough cosmetic changes, and somewhere, by a happy coincidence, it will be completely unchanged.
In addition to the obvious consequences, such as “changed the structure and did not change the links” or “did not set up redirects”, there are also those that do not immediately show themselves. They are the most dangerous, because if you didn’t immediately identify them, it means that you have a poorly constructed analyst, and it means that at a later stage it will be even more difficult to identify them. This is especially true of behavioral factors.
A systematic approach to promotion means that there are no trifles in it: any little thing will somehow affect the balance of the system. Moreover, minor issues should be considered more dangerous than large ones: they are harder to track and harder to fix when there are a lot of them.
For the same reason, it is important to track the source data (if you already have a website, and especially if it already has a promotion history). Even if you set goals and objectives, it does not mean that the site is suitable for solving them. It makes no sense to buy links and write texts if the user cannot find the “Buy” button, or leaves without waiting for the page to load. First, you still will not be able to reach the right positions, and secondly, the promotion will not give conversions.
Described in this series of articles may seem trivial to someone: a systematic approach is good in any business. All this is logical and, it seems, must be intuitive. The problem is always in execution. We know “as it should,” but we don’t always do that. There are a thousand and one reasons why it does not work out under the “maximum” program. No budget, limited time, not like the customer and so on, the list is endless.
But even if it is impossible to perform one hundred percent, this does not mean that ten is enough. On the contrary, the system needs to be balanced as much as physically possible. Because a stable system with any outcome has a better chance of success. If you know that you have a clear “imbalance” in some place, then its elimination should be kept in the plans, if not for the next month.
Previous parts:
- The first part: Strategy
- Second part: Technical optimization
- The third part: Content
- The fourth part: External optimization
Now I propose to recall our basic scheme:
')
Let me remind you that the main element that immediately affects all the others is Strategy. And the elements themselves are mutually dependent on each other. Therefore, in fact, in the name of the concept there is the word “balanced”: any serious changes in each aspect of advancement automatically bring the entire system out of balance and require immediate restoration of balance.
If everything is in principle obvious from the technical side of the site, and a little less, but still understandable, with content and link environments, there are often problems with usability. They are connected with the fact that the very concept of “usability” is not perceived by many very correctly, and therefore it is applied incorrectly to SEO and becomes a missing link.
Let's see what it is and why it interests us so much.
Usability
In a word, this term cannot be translated into Russian. Literally translated, this is “usability”. A less accurate, but more familiar option is “usability.”
Usability is a conditional value that determines how capable the average user of a tool is to achieve the desired result using this tool under typical conditions. And also how easy he will be able to do, how satisfied he will be with the work process itself.
In the most deplorable cases, the user is not able to use the tool at all, in the most successful cases - he is able to master it right during the work without any basic knowledge, due to his own life experience.
The site on our scheme is no coincidence though it is in the center circle, but it is not a title: it is a tool. And the goal, as we said in the first article, is to perform targeted actions by users (receiving conversions). So in our case, usability will determine at what speed, with what emotions and in how many involved target users will be able to achieve the goal.
What is useful for SEO
Today, search algorithms take user examination very seriously, the very behavioral factors. This is quite logical from the point of view of the logic of search engines: their orientation to the satisfaction of user interests is openly declared by them in their own licensing agreements. Obviously, it’s better to ask the people themselves how much the site is made “for people”.
Therefore, for search promotion, usability is very important: it is an opportunity to give search engines a free and unbiased reason to consider the site better. Of course, for this you will need to work and closely monitor the fate of your project, but as part of a single strategy, this is not as difficult as it may seem.
Analysis
Understanding that the site has usability problems is not so difficult. This information gives us the metrics. And they are constantly evolving and improving their own usability indicator, so the most popular and necessary reports are already configured out of the box: traffic sources, entry and exit points, time on the page, viewing depth - all this can be viewed and analyzed the next day after installation code. You can even see from the first person how the user scrolls the page and moves the mouse cursor.
And from this point on, you can already draw conclusions about how “usable” the site is. Of course, you will need to customize the chain of events, goals, and if you are engaged in online sales, then e-commerce. But it is not so difficult, and the principles of analysis there are about the same.
Metrics give us the opportunity to look at the site through the eyes of the user. And then all its weaknesses, design errors, incorrectly guessed intents and many other things that can be overlooked at the design stage are identified. Many will be frightened by what he saw, but believe me, where it is more terrible not to understand what you are doing wrong.
Particularly dramatic data is provided by end-to-end analytics systems, which I also mentioned in the second part of our cycle. They allow you to calculate such business indicators as ROI (return on investment) for your investment in the development of the site. So you can see in real numbers how profitable it was, say, the decision to change the page design, how quickly it paid off and whether it paid off at all. Based on this data, you will be able to plan budgets more accurately, understand exactly which solutions allow you, by spending one-time, to reduce regular expenses and payments.
End-to-end analytics make it possible to quickly identify, for example, that you are ordering work using the not the most profitable of the available schemes (for example, subscription fees, rather than buying work hours, or vice versa). For especially large projects, this can save huge amounts.
Work with the site
Metrics reveal errors in various aspects of promotion. We can see the wrong clustering of keywords, because of which the user gets to the wrong page, which is better suited to his specific task. From here we get the need to re-clustering, changing the content of the pages (and sometimes creating new sections and changing the structure), changing the incoming links - in short, the whole system responds immediately to this error.
We may find that the forms incorrectly work on the site and the user cannot perform some simplest action. We are going to study the code, check the server settings, and immerse ourselves in technical optimization.
It also happens that the page is loaded with errors, and the user leaves it immediately after opening, because he sees the impossibility of interacting with it, or simply takes it as an indication of the quality of the site’s performance and decides not to have anything to do with it.
Remember, when we talked about content, I mentioned that it should answer the questions to the user’s questions as much as possible while studying? Now we can find out how well he does it. And if not enough, then make the appropriate changes. Can't do it in the framework of the existing page structure? So, we try to change this structure. Or maybe it will be easier and more promising to change the structure of the site itself?
Content with usability in general is very closely linked, in many aspects it is impossible to distinguish between them: the content is the most important part of the page and one of the main goals of the user. And it's not just about the text: well-placed infographics or other visual content enthralls the visitor, creates a sense of harmony, helps to get what you want. Illiterate visual content interferes with the perception of information, draws attention to the poor quality of performance, adversely affects the perception of the authority of the resource and prompts it to leave.
Of course, usability is not limited to content. This is a combination of all the factors that translate into the final picture: the logical structure of the site and pages, the correctness and relevance of the forms, ease of navigation, the presence of full interaction scenarios, designed for different groups of users, and much more.
It is no coincidence that all large and popular projects are constantly refining the interface: the Internet is constantly evolving, so the user’s perception of certain decisions is changing. Habitual tools become obsolete, new ones become more familiar.
Trends in the design and design of the pages live according to the general laws of fashion: if everyone makes the “Buy” button green and with rounded edges in the lower right corner, then the user will search for it there, and just that.
Therefore, the ideal option would be to conduct A / B testing, when different versions of pages are shown to different users. As a result of this testing, the most successful solutions remain, and those that did not show themselves in the best way are changed or removed. Unfortunately, this is quite a costly method and requires a representative sample. Therefore, large sites with high traffic usually resort to such testing.
There are no trifles: if you have a large percentage of failures, then this is bad not only in terms of conversions, but also in terms of promotion. Users come from the search and leave right away - what should this tell the search engine? That's right: that the site is in the Top 10 undeservedly.
Work with snippet
But in fact, the assessment of your site by the user begins even before he made the link. Let's talk about the snippet, a small announcement that the search engine demonstrates on the results page.
User behavior on the search is analyzed by search engines no less detailed than his actions on the site. These data allow the search engine to once again check the quality of the issue, exploring the experience of living people.
The fact is that the algorithms are far from ideal, they make mistakes. And it happens that the sites get the results that are not there. Therefore, data on clicks on links is also an indicator of the relevance of the page to the request.
If you are in the Top 3, and no one clicks on you (and on your two competitors with whom you share this Top, yes), then this is a sign that your site is not suitable for some reason as an answer to asked in the search line question. Even if this is not the case, you have every chance of getting a fall.
And you need to understand that there are no “ideal values”: otherwise, in unpopular subjects no site would correspond to them (too high requirements), or vice versa, everything (too low) would correspond to popular ones. That is, several types of data are analyzed at once, a certain “corridor” is calculated within which the site’s indicators should be based on its position.
Therefore, it is imperative that the snippet prompt you to click on the link. And this is possible only if the user sees in it the most complete answer that is close to the question asked. The inclusion of query keywords in the title, their mentioning and thematically related words in the text of the snippet, additional links, a relatively recent online chat directly from the search - this all works for you. And with all these factors, it is necessary to work and monitor them.
Behavior on the search and on the site - two factors that are intertwined with each other. If the user goes to the site, but then returns to the search and presses to the next result, then this is also a signal to the search engine. If the site collects more clicks from the fourth place than the first three, then it has reason to claim the top lines. User actions are considered as some kind of communicative act between a machine and a person, in which a person consistently looks for an answer to his question, and the machine offers options and tries to learn. And your site in this chain is both the target and the source of statistics.
Working with a snippet is search engines for the webmaster, and reference books, and content, and internal optimization, working with title and meta tags.
Total
We found that formal factors are not exhaustive for search engines when ranking. Special attention is paid to the analysis of user behavior.
We also found out that behavioral factors do not exist separately from the process of advancement, on the contrary, they are organically incorporated into the system. This is not surprising, because the user's behavior directly depends on what the search engine offers him and then the site itself. The search for the necessary content or service is a single and indivisible process into which we must integrate and which we must subordinate to the scenario we have thought out beforehand.
And work on this scenario begins already when we define the main goals of the promotion and develop a strategy. No further actions to achieve the first lines in the results are made without taking into account these basic provisions.
On the other hand, the strategy can and should be changed if you see its fallacy. Miscalculations can be at various levels, including at the level of business planning. Under any set of circumstances, it is cheaper to stop the obviously unprofitable measures and to adjust the plan cheaper than to continue without changes.
BUT! Changes at any level automatically entail the need to revise all related indicators. The system must be in constant balance, so you can not change the semantics and not change the content, and therefore usability. Somewhere you have to redo everything, somewhere there will be enough cosmetic changes, and somewhere, by a happy coincidence, it will be completely unchanged.
In addition to the obvious consequences, such as “changed the structure and did not change the links” or “did not set up redirects”, there are also those that do not immediately show themselves. They are the most dangerous, because if you didn’t immediately identify them, it means that you have a poorly constructed analyst, and it means that at a later stage it will be even more difficult to identify them. This is especially true of behavioral factors.
A systematic approach to promotion means that there are no trifles in it: any little thing will somehow affect the balance of the system. Moreover, minor issues should be considered more dangerous than large ones: they are harder to track and harder to fix when there are a lot of them.
For the same reason, it is important to track the source data (if you already have a website, and especially if it already has a promotion history). Even if you set goals and objectives, it does not mean that the site is suitable for solving them. It makes no sense to buy links and write texts if the user cannot find the “Buy” button, or leaves without waiting for the page to load. First, you still will not be able to reach the right positions, and secondly, the promotion will not give conversions.
Described in this series of articles may seem trivial to someone: a systematic approach is good in any business. All this is logical and, it seems, must be intuitive. The problem is always in execution. We know “as it should,” but we don’t always do that. There are a thousand and one reasons why it does not work out under the “maximum” program. No budget, limited time, not like the customer and so on, the list is endless.
But even if it is impossible to perform one hundred percent, this does not mean that ten is enough. On the contrary, the system needs to be balanced as much as physically possible. Because a stable system with any outcome has a better chance of success. If you know that you have a clear “imbalance” in some place, then its elimination should be kept in the plans, if not for the next month.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/445164/
All Articles