glueglue™ | What is the right optimization of the research experience?

Why should we be interested in optimizing the research experience from Search Engines to conversion?

How many times have you visited a website and left it because the content wasn’t something you were looking for? How often have you found the right content, but the site wasn’t easy to use?

To try to solve this problem, marketing experts suggest to merge together two techniques: SEO + UX and create the SXO strategy.

What is SXO strategy?

SXO stands for Search eXperience Optimization.

SXO is a discipline that combines different techniques in order to optimize the user experience from search engines to conversions on your website.

In other words, the search experience optimization adds the notions of user experience (UX) to search engine optimization (SEO), with the aim of optimizing the conversion rate.

The search experience optimization is therefore a marketing strategy that aims to attract visitors through SEO, convert and retain them through the UX.

It is not easy to understand the interest of the SXO without some details about its two components:

What is SEO?

SEO or Search Engine Optimization groups together a set of practices to increase the amount of visitors towards a website by obtaining a high-ranking placement in the search results page.

These practices are characterized by efforts to increase the visibility of a web page in search engines. The main goal of SEO is to attract as many as possible organic visitors to a web page by optimizing its ranking in Google results (SERPs) or in other search engines (Yahoo, Bing).

What is the UX?

The UX or User eXperience qualifies the feeling of a user who discovers a web interface.

UX design is everything that helps to create for the “surfer” a good experience while navigating.

What are the main issues covered:

– Defining interaction patterns best suited in the context
– Incorporating user needs collected during user research into the designs
– Features and information that are important to the user
– Interface behavior like drag-drop, selections, and mouse-over actions
– Effectively communicating strengths of the system
– Making the interface intuitive by building affordances
– Maintaining consistency throughout the system.

Why should you be interested in SXO?

If you want to capture traffic through search engines in the future, you will need to provide the best response to users’ queries by analyzing their behavior on your website.

Both your content and your products/ services will have to provide clear answers to questions like:

– How to do … ?
– Why … ?
– What is … ?
– What … ?

The SXO adds a layer to the traditional SEO by integrating the analysis of the behavior of the Internet users. The objective of this analysis is to decipher the behaviors and expectations of Internet users and then implement an effective SXO strategy.

The SXO meets both the requirements of search engines and the expectations of Internet users through their behaviors.

Improve your content for retain the user

For successfully complete a SXO strategy, you will need to provide the information the user wants in the right time to keep them on your website. Otherwise, the user would go back to Google.

The content of your website must retain the user on your page.

According to Jakob Nielsen, the outstanding expert of User Experience, the majority of visitor drop-off occurred in the first 10 seconds. This means you have a maximum of 10 seconds to convince visitors that you:
– Have the answer to their question
– Have an answer that they can trust
– Will make it easy to get their answer

The search for relevant keywords to be targeted must be segmented according to the intentions of the users, you will then have to propose adapted contents.
If you’re starting out, the first SXO actions to take are:
– Study the user’s intent and identify their biggest problems;
– Be present at the different stages of the search of the Internet user with the good content;
– Produce only contents corresponding to expectations, uses and user problems;
– The objective with the SXO is to provide solutions by producing and positioning content to meet all the needs of Internet users. Do not hesitate to use Google Analytics to analyze the behavior of your visitors;
– Good to know: the SXO is valid for both natural and paid search.

Conclusion

The times when it was enough to stuff web pages with lots of keywords to acquire backlinks is well over! Today, one of the keys to success of a website is to understand the user behavior to improve their experience, and put them in the heart of your project.

Adopting a SXO strategy is a good approach to satisfy Google and increase your visibility.

Our replies
to your questions

Why choose glueglue?

We are a digital product agency with more than 10 years of experience and highly specialized skills in both design and development.
Over time, we have consolidated an agile and effective method to work best with all types of clients: from the start-up that needs some kind of support to the multinational corporation that wants to integrate a team with design and executive agility, our most appreciated peculiarity.
We are positioned in a medium-high market segment and are able to offer excellent value for money. Direct supervision by glueglue's founding partners of each project ensures the highest quality of service and finished product. We are on the top list of the best User Experience and digital product agencies on Clutch, the most widely used database of digital consulting agencies in the world.

How does glueglue work and what are the areas of expertise?

We always start with a careful analysis of the customer's needs considering not only the product needs but also the medium and long-term business objectives.
As a first step, we often deal with the visual identity, evaluating the positioning by analyzing the competitor and identifying areas for improvement in terms of branding and image.
Then, we move on to the UX/UI area: we study the user experience of your product or service through a UX Review with 3 dedicated professionals to identify the points which it is necessary to act to improve the usability of the site or app examined.
In the following phase, we design the User Journey Map, i.e. the map of all the paths that the user follows, interacting with the product and the brand . Identifying all the contact points is of strategic importance in order to immerse ourselves in situations of real use and understand where value can really be created for the end user and therefore for the product.
We will then move on to the phase of creating the wireframes, with the sharing of an interactive prototype that will define the functionality and structure of each single page and interaction of the product.
Once the wireframes have been consolidated, we will move on to the design phase of the graphic interface, with attention paid to the smallest details in so as to ensure a positive and truly satisfying user experience.
At this point, our developers come into play for the implementation part. We use the most current technologies such as React, Flutter, Gatsby JS, Symfony, Node.JS and others to create products with high standards of quality and stability, working and pixel perfect.

What distinguishes glueglue from other top design or product agencies?

To offer maximum value, the glueglue team works on a limited number of projects. In this way, our professionals can dedicate an uninterrupted focus to always obtain excellent results.
Each project is managed on the basis of precise deadlines and intermediate meetings with the client. We take care of the unique needs and potential of each product and consequently, each solution created is exclusive and highly customized.
Thanks to the experience of 10+ years in the digital sector, we have developed a successful method to achieve the highest goals in the areas that matter: strategy, design and development.

Can you do web design?

We work on all types of digital products, from iOS and Android apps to webapps and complex platforms.
Furthermore, part of the team specializes in creating marketing websites, i.e. websites totally focused on promoting the product or services.

Do you also do branding or should I look for another agency?

Being a full-service agency, we also offer branding services such as naming and logo design. Among the products we create for our customers, the brand guidelines stand out, i.e. the detailed guidelines document for the corporate image. We are totally comfortable working on existing guidelines or in collaboration with a branding agency.

How much does it cost to entrust you with a digital project?

We like to always be as transparent as possible and we believe that talking openly about the budget is important to understand how to get added value from the partnership for both parties. Given this, since each customer has its own peculiarities and presents different challenges, we do not use a price list, but we invest time to understand the customer's reality well and provide a specific approach and an appropriate price.
Indicatively, the price of user experience and graphical interface design projects can vary in a range between €10,000 and €30,000, depending on various factors such as the client's needs and the complexity of the project.
The cost of the projects in area Branding is positioned between €5,000 and €15,000, always taking into account any possible peculiarities.
As regards the more technical part, the cost for the development of iOS and Android web and mobile apps ranges from €20,000 upwards .
Website development starts from a minimum of €10,000. Our average hourly rate for single consultations is €60 per hour.
If you want to get to know us better, you can schedule 30 minutes free by appointment.

Do you also work with early stage startups, therefore with limited resources?

Of course, we love startups! Over time we have met many enlightened and highly talented entrepreneurs.
We have invested in some startups, preferring work for equity. Our experience has always been positive, contributing to the achievement of various rounds of investments for a total value of over 30 million Euros.

What is the right optimization of the research experience?