Okay, SEO is not completely out of date. Search engines continue to value the basics, i.e. a correct technical code, backlinks and keywords. But search engines also move with the times. In this article we'll give you a hint, for free and for free!

The Google search engine has one major limitation. It is and remains a computer that cannot experience a web page like you and me. But Google is getting smarter and smarter. Their mythical algorithm nowadays complements the results of their searchbot with all kinds of information about user behaviour, to determine which 10 links can proudly appear on the first page. Google is putting more and more effort into this and wants to expose the user experience or user experience (UX) in searches and make it count more and more. The focus is therefore gradually shifting from the classic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to Search Experience Optimization (SXO). Below, we give you the most important SXO factors.

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The visitor asks a question, you give the answer

Search queries have evolved over the years from words to phrases or even complete sentences and questions. No matter how you look at it, every search query contains a question. So when designing a web page, it's best to start by asking yourself what your visitor is looking for. Can't your page answer the question of the poor searcher? Then Google registers a lower user experience and mercilessly moves you backwards in the SERP (search engine results page). But how does Google assess whether your page can meet your visitor's expectations?

Well, a lot of information comes from click behaviour. Google is going to measure the dwell time for this. This is the time you spend on a page before returning to the SERP. A very short dwell time is considered as a negative signal, because the question in the search query was not answered. The click-through rate is also taken into account: how many times was your link clicked compared to the total number of times your page was shown by Google?

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Mobile user-friendliness and pageload are vitally important

Whatever you do, please don't aggravate your visitor: minimize the loading speed of your website. Your visitors are impatient, and don't wait longer than 2 seconds. To meet the search experience on mobile devices, Google launched Accelerated Mobile Pages at the end of 2015. The purpose of AMPs? To enable web developers to create extremely fast and efficient web pages for mobile devices, optimising the user experience. Google is undoubtedly a supporter of the mobile-first principle.

As you have already understood, Google can no longer be appeased with just correct meta tags and correct keywords. From now on, you will be forced to offer your user a flawless user experience. Only then can you be sure that Google rewards you with a high place in its results pages.

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Need an eagle eye for your online findability? Come and visit us at Calibrate. We have the technical and strategic know-how to make your site so user-friendly that every visitor wants to continue living there.