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3 Ways to Avoid This Common SEO Trend with UX Design

So you want to rank at #1 on Google. 

You’ve identified the right keywords and added appropriate links. 

While you’ve completed the steps to increase your SEO ranking, what happens when a user clicks on your page on Google?

Do they engage with your page, or do they only stay on it for a few seconds? 

Are visitors “pogo-sticking” your site? 

Pogo-sticking? What’s that? 

Pogo-sticking can keep your website from maintaining its high rank on Google. 

Want more details? 

Keep reading to uncover more details about pogo-sticking and how to avoid it. 

What is Pogo-Sticking in SEO? 

Why is Pogo-Sticking a Bad SEO Trend? 

How Can You Avoid Pogo-Sticking with UX Design? 

What UX Design Methods Will Avoid Pogo-Sticking? 

What is Pogo-Sticking in SEO?

Have you ever looked something up on Google and clicked on the first result, only to head back to the search page in seconds because it didn’t answer your question? 

This is what we call pogo-sticking.  

By definition, pogo-sticking is when a user clicks on a search result on Google and then almost immediately goes back to the search page because they didn’t find it helpful.

The user will go to the second result, and then third, and so on. 

Why is Pogo-Sticking a Bad SEO Trend?

Along with these other practices, pogo-sticking can negatively impact your SEO ranking. 

If users aren’t staying on your site, Google will assume your page isn’t helping users find the answers they’re looking for. 

You can think of pogo-sticking as shopping for a pair of shoes. 

You walk into Payless and hope to find a pair of flip-flops. It turns out they don’t have the right pair, so you walk into another store, and then another.  

After a few tries, you finally find a good pair of flip-flops at DSW. 

How likely are you to go directly to DSW again the next time you need a new pair of flip-flops? 

To sum up, pogo-sticking can make or break your credibility as a site. You want users to actively look through your webpages and leave with their questions answered. 

How Can You Avoid Pogo-Sticking with UX Design?

Research shows users will spend 10 seconds deciding whether they find a webpage useful or not. If your page doesn’t answer their question within that window, they’ll most likely leave. 

What does this mean? 

You have 10 seconds to answer your audience’s questions.  

That’s not very long, is it? 

Luckily, there are ways to help tackle this. 

How can you wow your audience in 10 seconds?

User-experience design.

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

User-experience design, or UX, is when you build your website to help your users succeed. You tailor your website to their needs. 

Think of a time when you visited a website and got exactly what you were looking for. 

How did the site look? Was it easy to find the answer to your question? 

Successful UX design is intuitively displaying your audience’s needs and wants so they can: 

  1. Get their questions answered 
  2. Build trust with your business 
  3. Come back for more 

If you have great UX, users will stay on your page. If users stay on your page, pogo-sticking is no longer an issue. 

So, how can you get started?  

What UX Design Methods Will Avoid Pogo-Sticking?

While there are many ways to produce a user-friendly website, the following three methods focus on creating a user-friendly experience to avoid pogo-sticking and improve your SEO.  

So, what are three UX design methods you can use to avoid pogo-sticking and improve your SEO? 

1. Navigation

Think of your site as a road trip. You have a destination in mind but can take multiple routes to get there, and you may want to stop and grab something to eat on the way.  

Your website should lead users to their destination and offer other useful information as they navigate your site. 

You can do this using internal links. 

Internal links are links within your homepage that lead to another page on your site, and then another, and so forth. 

It’s a great opportunity to show what you can offer to your audience. Remember, you want your site to have everything your audience needs to keep them engaged and visiting again.

Are you still wondering how internal links work?

Let’s say you own a travel agency. 

A user wants to know what the best type of luggage to travel with is, so they run a search on Google and land on your page. 

Here’s what your web copy would look like without internal links:

Here’s the same web copy with an internal link:

This internal link lets users know you have information on a variety of luggage and allows them to dig deeper into your website and build trust with your brand. 

How Do Internal Links Get Rid of Pogo-Sticking?

To refresh your memory, pogo-sticking happens when a user doesn’t find the website relevant to their needs. 

Internal links make it easy to navigate through your site while answering a variety of questions your audience may have along the way. 

It keeps users satisfied with the information and engaged with your content. 

2. Great Copy

SEO and content are like peanut butter and jelly. They taste good separately, but are a match made in heaven together. 

Your content is optimized for Google, but is it optimized for your audience? 

Two questions to ask yourself as you post content to your site are as follows: 

Are My Headlines In Line with My Content? 

Is My Content Easy to Read?  

Are My Headlines In Line With My Content?

Noteworthy headlines grab a reader’s attention and contribute to your SEO. The more eye-catching headline you have, the more likely someone will click on your site. 

On that note, you don’t want readers to just click on your page, you want them to stay on your page. 

The longer they stay on your page, the more likely your SEO ranking will improve.  

Going back to the travel agency example, here are two versions of a headline for a blog post on standard travel advice to Europe. 

“15 Things That Will Get You In Trouble in Europe” 

This headline grabs a reader’s attention using a negative connotation. It’s safe to assume nobody wants to get in trouble in Europe, so one might be curious to read this article. 

Keep in mind that this headline may attract an audience who doesn’t plan on traveling to Europe. A reader might be surprised to find standard travel advice within the content instead of shocking news. 

They may lose interest within a few seconds and jump back to Google. 

“Traveling to Europe? Here are 15 Ways to Do it Right ” 

This headline uses keywords most future travelers to Europe would search for. It also gives a better picture of what the blog post is about. 

If a reader clicks on your headline and finds content relevant to it, they’ll most likely stay on your page. 

Is My Content Easy to Read?

A rule of thumb for writing online is to build easy to read content. 

This means your content should:

  1. Use White Space 

Long paragraphs can overwhelm users. Make your content easy to digest and write in small paragraphs. 

  1. Use an Active Voice 

The point of your content is to guide your audience to take action. Keep users actively reading your page and speak directly to them. 

Here is an example of a passive sentence: 

“Traveling to Europe requires you to be cautious about your surroundings, so here are some guidelines.” 

This sentence mentions the user’s situation, but it isn’t direct and it doesn’t give them an action to do. 

Here is the same sentence written in an active voice:

“Be cautious about your safety and read these guidelines about traveling to Europe.” 

This sentence gives your reader a task and speaks directly to their situation. 

  1. Avoid Fancy Vocabulary 

Most readers don’t want to feel like they’re reading a novel. They want information to help them reach their goals. With that in mind, stick to action-oriented vocabulary and avoid “fluff.” 

Your web copy isn’t a novel, but a how-to book. Write your content as if your readers are learning something for the first time. 

How Does a Great Copy Get Rid of Pogo-Sticking? 

There’s a popular saying in digital marketing: Content is king. 

Your content is a huge factor in your SEO strategy, as well as UX design. 

User-friendly content answers the reader’s questions, builds trust with your brand, and leaves them wanting more. 

If your content is relevant, readers will stay active on your site. 

3. Speedy

Photo by Saffu on Unsplash

If a user spends an average of 10 seconds deciding whether your site is useful, imagine if your website is slow. 

With the amount of fast-loading websites on Google, It’s easy to leave a site if it takes over a few seconds to load. 

This goes for your desktop site as well as your mobile site. 

Speaking of mobile sites, how important are they for your SEO? Studies show 42% of internet users search the web using their mobile phones. That’s almost half of online users! 

This statistic shows how important it is to pay attention to your mobile site’s speed. Additionally, most users rely on 4G data, so it’s more likely for your mobile site to load slower than your desktop. 

Now that you know the importance of your desktop and mobile speed, where do you go from here? 

  1. Use Lightweight Code 

As fun as it can be to personalize your site with code, it slows down your site. Using minimal code will help to maintain your site’s speed. You can also look for themes created with lightweight code. 

  1. Optimize Your Images 

Large, high-resolution photos give your webpages a polished look… and slow down your site. This doesn’t mean you have to use low-quality photos, but you should probably avoid large photos. 

Aim to upload image files no more than 500 KB. As for the image file, it’s recommended to use JPEG. 

PNG files can be used as well, but they usually have a larger file size. 

How Does a Speedy Website Get Rid of Pogo-Sticking?

If it takes more than 3 seconds for your content to load, a user will probably leave your site to find another one. This takes away from the user experience. 

The key is to keep users reading your content for as long as possible. 

The faster your website is, the faster your audience can get their questions answered. 

To Wrap Up

Photo by John Schnobrich on Unsplash 

You can upkeep your SEO with optimized keywords and backlinks, but in the end, it’s all about the user. 

The less pogo-sticking there is, the more likely you’re successfully tailoring your site to users. Online users have a large say in how well your website will rank. It’s important to focus on the user experience. 

UX design can lead to amazing results for your SEO if you’re constantly practicing it. Take a look at your site and make notes of how you can improve your user-experience using these 3 methods. 

Meet the needs of your users and watch your Google ranking make its way to #1.

 

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