4. Who’s Zooming Who: User Experience (UX)

User Experience Signals determine whether a particular page answers a query quickly and sufficiently without a user clicking the back button and adding to your “bounce rate.” Adding is subtracting in this case.

Basically, the algorithm factors in how users interact with a page and calculates a quality score based on this interaction. If someone instantly clicks the back button, Google’s RankBrain assumes this site is no good for that query and will devalue it.

Conversely, if users click through your pages, hang around a while and generally spend some quality time with your site, your credibility factor is increased and so are your search engine results.

In addition to user intent factors previously discussed, the most important key quality indicators are click-through rate and dwell time.

Click Through Rate (CTR)

CTR is the percentage of users who see your site in the search results and actually click through to your site and further, how many pages they browse once within your domain.

To entice someone to click on your website instead of the others, you’ll need to manage the visual and contextual introduction to your website.

You have to capture a users attention in 2 sentences or less! This display is easily managed through meta title and description tags which we are about to discuss in more detail. It is very important these elements are customized on every page of your website. There should be NO duplicate meta tags.

This display is called a “snippet” and shows the title, description, URL and most-likely the date of last update along with a few bits of additional information depending on the topic or location.

Learn more about Featured Snippets in the bonus chapter at the end of this book.

It may show map results and Google My Business listings (Chapter 8) for a local business search or a wiki-list for a knowledge based query.

Optimizing your search listing involves three primary elements which are immediately visible to a Google searcher: title, description and URL.

Optimize all three elements for natural readability and keyword placement.

1. Make sure your keyword is in your URL. If you already have an established website and are simply freshening up an old domain, you won’t necessarily find fast value in starting from scratch with a new URL, though you might want to consider niche domains dedicated to popular topics. However, always include the main keyword in the URL name for each individual page or post, such as: http://yourhomebusinessonline.com/seo .
   
   - If you have a newer domain or just starting to look for one or if your old one has been contaminated or penalized, get a new one! Make sure to include your main keyword(s) in the URL.
   
   - You might also want to consider a creative domain name extension that includes your keyword or geographic identifier. You’re not limited to just using .com anymore. There are over 800 additional options such as .attorney, .art, .nyc, .actor and tons more. Go to Hover to browse the many creative domain extensions and options that may contain your keywords: hover.evyy.net/KbaGn

2. Optimize each page title with a creative, keyword-rich, attention-grabbing headline that clearly describes what your website is all about in 70 characters.
   
   Titles are critical to giving users quick insight into the content and why it’s relevant to their query. Write it like it’s an ad. It’s often THE primary piece of information for a user to decide which website to click on, so it's important to use click-bait type tactics to increase CTR’s. Not in a spammy way of course, just make it sounds enticing.
   
   - Every page should have a unique title specifically geared for the main topic (also known as MC: main content) of that particular page. Do NOT duplicate title or meta description tags on sub-pages.
   
   - Sub-pages should utilize the question-answer format, where appropriate, by including the exact question(s) you chose to target from your keyword research.
   
   - Title tags should include branding (if branding is important to you) along with the specific sub-topic. For instance include your site name or company at the beginning of each title tag, separated from the sub-topic with a hyphen, colon, or pipe.

3. Next, create a unique meta description for each page, which is that bit of text that shows up under the title on a search engine results page.
   - Like your title, it needs to be concise and compelling and should be under 160 characters. It’s a pitch to the viewer to click here, click here!
   
   - Include your primary keywords and factual supporting text in the description so that it’s clear your website contains the information they’re looking for. This is a great place to add the specific details for that page, such as the author, date of publication, byline, etc. Product pages might also include the description and price. Example: <meta name="Description" content=“Simple SEO Success Secrets, Written by Jodi Stout Author, published by Compass New Media , Price $19.99, Length: 184 pages">
   
   - Just so you know, this does not display on your website nor does it directly factor into your search engine rankings. It’s more of a suggestion to Google for how to display your pages in search results.

Dwell Time

Dwell time is how long someone stays on your site. Of course, the longer the better. Longer because they are struck by your riveting content, not longer because the page takes too long to load.

Content that keeps people reading, browsing, entertained or otherwise engaged will lead to extremely valuable quality score increases.

1. Create compelling intros. Do you ever get annoyed with articles that drag out an introduction with unnecessary backstory and unretained statistics?
   
   - It’s much more effective to get straight to the point, especially where search engines are concerned. Though you may think it may add to dwell time to have verbose introductions, there are more entertaining ways to keep someone on your page.
   
   - Keep your words clear, quick and simple. Tell your audience what they’re going to learn and then move on to the supporting details.

2. Longer, more in-depth content tends to perform better than short, thin content. This may seem contradictory to the last point, however, the INTRO should be crisp and concise, while supporting text should provide in-depth answers in short content blocks but with plenty of supporting material. You don’t want anyone to click away without getting everything they need right there.
   
   - Include videos, infographics, charts, or other related graphical documentation which always causes people to pause and linger on the page. Adding multi-media elements such as animations have proven to add to dwell time.
   
   - Try embedding a video, an animation or a whiteboard sketch. Here are some fun, easy to use tools to create interesting visual elements:
   
   - Create graphics, animations and videos easily with Canva . You can even save your “brand board” to quickly come back and use the same colors, fonts, styles, etc. and instantly auto-resize them for all of your social media platforms at once so you can quickly create on-brand graphics, on-demand. Canva: https://bit.ly/2ZEkovl
   
   - Create e-books and flip-books from your existing content in less than 2 minutes with Designrr . Great for offering a free e-book with email or just as an additional, unique way to display and distribute your content. Designrr , https://bit.ly/3hBAM8e (discount link)
   
   - Create tons of visual interest (dwell time) with animated videos and whiteboards: Vyond : http://tracking.goanimate.com/SHDG

3. Use sub-headings in question/answer format (as previously discussed) and bullet points to help break up text into short, scannable bytes.
   
   - Link anchor text, whenever possible, to other relevant pages within your site. This does triple duty. It helps to increase CTR’s, dwell time AND distributes link equity to other pages in your site. Get users to scroll through FAQ’s or linger at an animation for even a few seconds longer than they would have and you’re ahead of the dwell time game.