SXO – a combination of two important strategies

The combination of Search Engine Optimization and User Experience has contributed to the creation of a completely new operating strategy. It focuses on both increasing the visibility of a website and improving conversion. Fine-tuning your site for SEO and user experience is the most effective way to get your audience to respond the way you want. Usually, it is the purchase of products, which is why SXO is especially eagerly used by sales platforms.

How does this strategy work? The site ranks high in the search results, and this generates organic traffic. Users who pass to it see that it is intuitive and tailored to their needs. This encourages you to stay longer and even come back frequently. According to SXO, the website must be refined not only in terms of factors important from the perspective of search engine robots. It is also supposed to be useful for recipients, so responsive, fully legible, and it should load as soon as possible.

The SEO elements that make up the SXO strategy are mainly:
– technical optimization (including correctness of the HTML source code),
– key phrases,
– content,
– metadata,
– headers
– internal and external linking.

The user’s experience while using the website plays an equally important role. The UX factors are:
– clear site navigation,
– refined CTA formulas,
– aesthetic and modern look of the site,
– functionality and adaptation to the needs of users,
– loading speed.

When traditional SEO proves to be insufficient

As every SEO agency emphasizes, the strategy aimed at ensuring the website’s good position must be analyzed and modified on an ongoing basis. This is due to the constant changes in search engine algorithms and the need to adapt to them. Traditional SEO focuses on increasing the visibility of your website, this is the main focus of your activities. Although many companies can achieve their business goals in this way, it is not enough for everyone. The mere refinement of key phrases, meta data and similar issues is sometimes not enough to keep users on the site and persuade them, for example, to buy products. That’s why the SXO strategy has emerged.

Search Experience Optimization is the successor to SEO. In recent years, there have been significant changes in Google’s algorithms, as a result of which user experience has started to have a more significant impact on the position of the site. 2021 was the year when the implementation of new ranking factors began, focusing on the convenience of website visitors:

– LCP – Largest Contentful Paint, i.e. the largest rendering of content. It measures the time it takes for the largest (by default the most important) element of your website to be loaded.
– FID – First Input Delay, delay on first operation. It measures the time that must pass until the first interactivity of the website (from the moment of clicking on a specific element to the reaction).
– CLS – Cumulative Layout Shift, or visual stability. This is a reference to the traffic that occurs on the site once it is loaded. LCP, FID, and CLS are indicators that are part of the Core Web Vitals collection.
– Responsiveness – adapting the website to mobile devices.
– Security – Google checks if the website uses the HTTPS protocol.
– Presence of interstitial ads – it is recommended to avoid them as they limit access and make the content inaccessible to users.

This shows that Google wants pages to be adapted not only to robots, but above all to the needs of the recipients. The SXO strategy includes activities in the field of SEO, UX, but also analytics, content marketing, CRO and web development. All this to ensure the highest possible conversion and help the company achieve all the business goals it has set for itself.

Why is SXO needed?

SXO makes users go to a website through organic search results and then perform the desired action. They are effectively encouraged to do so by positive experiences resulting from refining the website in terms of the needs of the recipients. Search Experience Optimization is most often referred to in the context of increasing product sales. However, it is worth remembering that a call to action placed on the website may also persuade you to perform another action, e.g. subscribe to a newsletter, fill out a form, set up an account on the website or watch a video.

The main goal of the SXO strategy is to increase conversion, but implementing it brings the company several other benefits as well. Belong to them:
– increasingly better visibility on Google,
– lasting bond with clients,
– gaining trust and creating the image of an expert,
– standing out from the competition and gaining an advantage.

As you can see, SXO allows you to combine two very important aspects influencing success on the Internet – positioning and adapting to the needs and requirements of customers. The combination of SEO and UX is very effective. Even when the site is perfectly polished in terms of user experience, it will not guarantee the company’s success if it is difficult to find it in the search engine. It also works the other way around. A well-positioned website that is neither readable nor responsive at the same time will not increase profits to such a large extent. According to the SXO assumptions, the website should be clearly visible, but also encourage users to stay there for longer.

SXO not only for e-commerce

Since SXO is used to improve positioning as well as increase the number of page visits and conversions, it is used in particular in the e-commerce industry. This is due to the fact that it is mainly focused on sales. A highly visible platform that provides users with a positive experience is conducive to shopping. For potential customers, every detail is important, from a clear menu through quick product search to the possibility of making an easy transaction via a mobile device.

E-commerce is an industry that is constantly developing, and the businesses operating in it should respond to changes in order to be successful. The implementation of the SXO strategy facilitates the achievement of the intended goals, as it is a response to the constantly growing expectations of customers. Comprehensive, multi-dimensional optimization of an online store ensures results both in the short and much longer term. In the case of platforms that have already been visible on Google, it is not uncommon for a sudden increase in conversion to occur very quickly. A nice looking, fast loading and clear website will gradually generate more and more sales and profits. There is also a high probability that people satisfied with the transaction will return to the store, becoming loyal, regular customers.

However, it should be remembered that SXO can also be successfully implemented in many other industries. This solution is recommended to anyone who wants to stand out from the competition and have higher financial results through good visibility on the Internet and improving user experience. More traffic to the website results in a high conversion rate, which may or may not be in the form of product purchases. Sometimes it is signing up for a subscription, submitting a form, ordering a phone call with the company, downloading an e-book, etc. According to the definition, conversion is a specific activity performed by the user that is desired by the company and brings it closer to achieving its business goal. Therefore, SXO works well not only in e-commerce, but also in service industries. More and more often, bloggers or people running content websites decide on such a strategy.

Important support for business

The combination of SEO and UX strategies is considered to be extremely effective. SXO is a very important support for business, conducive to its development. Thanks to it, users can easily find exactly what they are looking for on the Internet, and then perform actions on the website that meets their expectations. The implementation of Search Experience Optimization allows you to get rid of the doubts whether the website is adapted to Google’s algorithms and at the same time fully valuable for the recipients.

The use of the SXO strategy allows you to refine every important detail. Compared to SEO, it does not only focus on optimizing the website for search engine robots, because they do not increase conversion. It is necessary to realize that the users, their feelings and needs play an important role in this matter. Companies wishing to be successful on the market should show potential customers that their satisfaction is the most important.

Of course, SXO will not make every user visiting the site perform the desired action. Nevertheless, this strategy makes it easier to reach people from a well-defined target group and encourage them to stay on the site for longer. This increases the likelihood that the company’s offer will arouse interest and translate into profit. The implementation of SXO enables adaptation to the new requirements posed not only by Google, but also by internet marketing itself. It is worth remembering that there are still changes in this area that you need to adapt to in order to build your competitive advantage.

Bounce rate – what is it and what does it mean?

Google Analytics calculates the bounce rate using the formula:

sessions where the user has performed only one interaction / whole session

Of course, the rule is that the lower the bounce rate, the better – low bounce rate means that most users interact with the site, which should be important to every website owner. However, it does not have to play a very important role for every website.

High bounce rate – is this a cause for concern?

Certainly, the opinion that a session with a single subpage means that “the user entered the site, threw up and left”, which can sometimes be found on the Internet, should be approached with a great distance. For natural reasons, the bounce rate analysis will not work very well if the website is a so-called onepage, i.e. there are no subpages. Expert blogs are often characterized by a fairly high bounce rate – a user usually comes to such a blog in search of an article containing specific information on a specific topic, and after obtaining it, he leaves the site. A similar “problem” occurs in the case of online dictionaries, culinary websites or websites with research aids, and it does not necessarily mean that the websites are of little value to users – it is simply dictated by the specificity of the content.

Certainly, a high bounce rate should be very alarming for the e-commerce industry, especially when it is accompanied by a low conversion rate. The specific value in most cases can only be interpreted after taking into account the user group and the customs prevailing in a given industry, as well as – if possible – the results of competing parties.

When it comes to traffic sources, sessions obtained from display ads and social media typically generate the highest bounce rates. Users who access the site from these sources often return to the previous site quickly. In the case of display ads, you should definitely take into account “missclicki”, i.e. incidental clicks on the image with the advertisement, especially if the entries were generated by pop-ups that were difficult to close, or other forms of “clever” provoking not entirely intentional interaction.

Is bounce rate a ranking factor in SEO?

As is often the case with the Google algorithm, opinions are divided. Google itself claims that the bounce rate is not a factor that directly affects a website’s position in search results. On the other hand, a large number of positioners believe that the search engine is able to conclude that a given page is optimized for a given phrase, and users do not find information on it, which must have some impact on SEO.

A high bounce rate can also be related to other factors that are included in Google’s official webmaster guidelines. In this case, the bounce rate will be an indicator of other website optimization problems that will definitely affect positioning. A high value may, for example, result from a long loading of a given subpage, which makes an impatient user decide to switch to another site. Another reason may be poorly optimized text, which makes it difficult to absorb the content, the website is not adapted to mobile devices, a large number of annoying ads or the lack of an SSL certificate.

How to reduce your bounce rate?

Improve UX (user experience) on the website
Underdeveloped UX is usually the main reason for a high bounce rate. For some reason (or more often reasons), the site simply does not encourage the user to interact. This may be due to hundreds of factors, from the archaic structure of the website itself, through the choice of an insufficiently fast server, to errors that hinder browsing the content.

UX is a multi-faceted, complex issue – a valuable first step may be to commission a full UX audit to specialists.

Optimize your content
Proper optimization of the content is in many respects a UX element – division into paragraphs, alignment of the text in paragraphs to the left, choosing a font that is pleasing to the eye or adapting the content to different resolutions. However, not only the form, but also the content is of great importance – sometimes redrafting a given text can significantly minimize the bounce rate. Analyze whether there is a lack of appropriate call to action, whether the text is read lightly or rather clumsy. Even seemingly small changes can have a noticeable effect.

If a subpage generates a lot of organic traffic and at the same time its bounce rate is very high, perhaps the keywords used do not correspond to the actual content, collecting low-value inputs from the owner’s perspective.

Link internally and send suggestions to users
If there is an article on your website with a high bounce rate, offer the user other subpages that are related to the topic – you can do it in the form of a link directly in the text, with an appropriate CTA or a panel that will automatically display suggestions for similar subpages in within your website. In online stores, you can suggest other products from a given category that will probably meet the customer’s requirements.

Check the correctness of the Google Analytics implementation
Suspiciously high or low bounce rates can also be the result of incorrectly pasting the Google Analytics code. In this case, the system will misinterpret the given page entry, which will result in falsified data. A related issue will also be the lack or improper setting of events – the session with the launch of the movie on the website should not be included in the rejected sessions – although the user has not visited other subpages, he has performed a specific action on the website.

Effective website

An effective website allows you to achieve the intended goals, and thus – also profits. Creating such a website requires a lot of work, focused not only on the correct coding of the website, but also on adapting it to the user or the requirements of internet search engines. Each of these elements undergoes many changes – in a given period, users will focus their attention on some subpages, and a few months later – on others. The same applies to the rules governing search engines.

Analytics allows you to effectively catch places where traffic is higher or where it drops. By locating these “hot spots” you can improve them and increase the chances of conversion. Correct counting of conversions in Google Analytics also makes it easier to determine the level of fulfillment of a given goal and to mark its measurability.

Goal types in Google Analytics

In internet marketing, “goal” is quite a broad word. Underneath it, however, there are more specific slogans, characteristic of different types of websites. No wonder – in fact, the goals related to the operation of the online store will be different than those on which the blogging activity focuses.

In Google Analytics, the goal is the performance of an action, i.e. conversion. Actions can include going to a specific page, spending a certain amount of time on it, displaying a specific screen or performing the desired action.

Target – The goal is for the user to reach a specific URL, such as “thank you page”. The target related to a given URL facilitates the analysis of data related to free bonuses or trial accounts, filling out a form or subscribing to a mailing list. These types of targets are also used to count transactions.

Duration – amount of time spent on the website. This goal allows you to analyze the involvement of users on the website and is often set on pages such as support or FAQ. The target allows you to study two groups of users – those who stay on the site longer than the time set for the purpose and those who quit faster from being at a given URL.

Pages / screens per session – this goal allows you to check how many subpages the user saw during a single visit to the site.

Events – specific interaction with the website, eg clicking the “download” button, turning on the video. Before setting the goal, it is necessary to define the event.

Are you looking for other solutions? Smart Goals are based on a traffic analysis performed by a machine learning algorithm that finds the events most likely to convert. The algorithm evaluates the session and assigns an intelligent target to those it deems “best”.

Not only one goal

Analytics allows you to set multiple goals for one website. Thanks to this, we can observe user behavior on many subpages, each of which plays a different role.

Each of the goals can have a specific value – expressed in the currency you use. Based on the number of goals achieved and the related transactions, it is possible to determine the value of each conversion. Example: Every 10th contact from the site ends up selling about $ 100. The value of one conversion – contact via the website – can be estimated at about $ 20.

If it is difficult to specify the specific amounts assigned to a given conversion, the value may play a different role – the weight of the given goal. Their value will depend on how important they are for a given business – the more important higher value can be assigned, and the less – lower.

The goals set in Analytics can also be used in Google Ads.

Correct counting of conversions in Google Analytics

Correctly setting goals and using the information they provide allows you to evaluate the effectiveness of the website and marketing activities. Unfortunately, the collected data is not always correct. Errors can have several causes:

A. Incorrect tag configuration – some errors related to data collection result from incorrect tag placement, eg pasting it in the wrong place. The use of an incorrect tag can also cause problems. Some of the problems are due to our inattention or “printing imps”, which sometimes happen when we paste code from a text document. Formatting is implemented in your documents that may cause changes to the code syntax – for example by removing or adding extra spaces – autocorrect has different priorities than keeping the tracking code valid. You can also use the old GA code as a misconfiguration, which is still present on some sites. It is worth using Google’s recommendations and switching to new products suggested by them, which usually bring greater possibilities in the field of website control and analysis.

B. Errors also happen during the configuration of the Tag Manager – Here, the problems are mainly due to incorrect settings of the Exclude / Include filters, the assumption of which is to screen out information about unwanted data in the visit statistics. Too rigorous use of any of the filters can cause problems with proper data collection. Among other common problems with gtag.js, there is no container published (the publishing process is longer, the latest changes may not be available immediately) or problems with handling too large HTTP requests.

C. Using another account – the tracking code is associated with a specific account – in the case of incorrect data, it is worth checking if we are trying to analyze from an account that is not connected to GA.

D. Custom Code Placement – Analytics code should be in the <head> section of the web page. In the case of niche CMSs or less popular plugins for pasting external codes, the final localization may deviate from Google’s guidelines and as a result may not work properly. It is worth taking advantage of the possibility of pasting the code directly into the website template or using proven plugins.

E. Incomplete conversion data may be caused by the lack of code on all subpages within the domain. You can catch missing subpages.

F. Lack of internal filters – clicking on your website or shop may disrupt the statistics – eliminating internal traffic will allow you to obtain information about conversions that will be more reliable.

G. Inaccurate setting of the goal – the conversion is counted at the moment of achieving the goal, however, incorrect setting of the final moment means that it is not valuable, and the intended goal has not been met. Example – the purpose is to send a form, but the code is placed on the “Contact” tab and as a result, the conversion is counted at the moment of entering this subpage. The form is not sent, and the data collected by the tool does not reflect the number of actually sent forms. Putting the code in the right place – for example on the send button, and even better – on the “thank you” page, displaying information about the correct sending of the message, will allow you to collect real data.

Errors that make it difficult to correctly count conversions in Google Analytics can be due to many reasons. Some of them are trivial, and thus – easy to identify and remove. More complicated cases may require changes to the page code – but it is worth investing the extra time and obtaining the correct data.

Objective settings should be checked from time to time and modified if necessary. It is also important to test your settings and proper billing of conversions, especially after making changes to the site, such as modifying URLs that were related to your goals.

Ecommerce Tracking

Tracking movements in online stores may be different to what happens on other types of sites. Analytics allows you to count transactions, their value, and so on. Controlling this data by an external application allows you to fill in “white spots” that may appear in reports from the store engine. In addition, combining this knowledge with other information about the page will allow you to spot the moments when sales are going the best and those where they drop sharply.

Correct conversion counting is the key to analyzing and planning further development of online stores. Google Analytics enables an in-depth analysis of user behavior and the choices they make. It also allows you to evaluate various sales channels and is invaluable when you need to make a decision to develop or eliminate one of them.

Ecommerce tracking should be included in your reports, and code should be placed within your website to collect more detailed data. Due to the more complicated structure of the code, its introduction will require cooperation with a programmer who will take care of its proper implementation. Next, in the Administration tab, in the appropriate data view, there is the E-commerce settings item, which you must enable and save your selection.

The data collected by e-commerce tracking is transaction and product specific.

Information about the transaction consists of a transaction identifier, which allows it to be counted only once per session (the lack of an identifier could result in the same transaction being counted multiple times, e.g. when reloading the thank you page by the user), affiliation – understood as the store where the transaction took place, revenues – transaction amount, delivery – delivery costs and tax.

The product in Google Analytics also has similar values – transaction ID, product name, SKU code (unique product code, assigned in the internal company database), the category in which the product is located, price and its quantity.

In addition to the transaction identifier, and in the case of the Product also its name, the rest of the parameters are collected optionally.

Standard reports can be used to analyze the data collected in e-commerce tracking:
– an overview, which is a general summary of the information collected,
– product effectiveness,
– sales effectiveness,
– transactions,
– time to buy.

E-commerce – data that sells

Extending the sales statistics with data from Google Analytics will allow you to adjust the sales method to the current trends and customer expectations. Detailed analysis of user behavior – incl. analysis of the time that elapses from entering the website for the first time until the moment of making a purchase may initiate the rebuilding of the store and the introduction of improvements that will help him make the final decision.

The online store has much more than just the shopping cart in which the transaction data is collected. Analytics allows you to observe customer behavior across the platform – e.g. checking articles in the blog section – e.g. which ultimately make the customer allow himself to buy a given product. Controlling traffic in the store also allows you to catch problems on the platform – e.g. bugs or places that, for unknown reasons, load slower, causing customer frustration and cart abandonment.

Comprehensive monitoring of activities also facilitates further planning of the strategy and selection of the most effective way to maintain and increase sales in the next period. Using the available tools, their correct implementation and data analysis allow for taking more effective actions that save time and money. Greater knowledge about the movement and steps of customers will allow you to choose more effective solutions, tailored to the needs of customers. Being ahead of the competition and reaching customers effectively also allows you to leave the competition far behind.

Correctly counting conversions in Google Analytics and using all available program options facilitates quick response to trends and changes in the market, which are a natural phenomenon in the case of E-commerce. The knowledge gathered by Analytics allows you to create Google Ads campaigns that sell.