We all know about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) but in recent years, a new acronym has emerged in the natural referencing landscape: Search eXperience Optimization or SXO. Halfway between the optimization of User Experience (UX) and organic referencing, SXO seems to herald a real turning point in the way of referencing a website. For what ? What does that mean ? And why is SXO important for the future of web marketing?

What is SXO?

SXO is an acronym for Search eXperience Optimization, generally translated as Search Experience Optimization. It describes all the techniques for optimizing the SEO of a site, while taking into account the expectations and interests of the Internet user. It is the alliance of techniques specific to SEO (optimization around keywords, optimization of editorial content, work on popularity, etc.) with that of UX design. In SXO, one cannot exist without the other. UX design, or user experience design, consists of promoting Internet user navigation towards conversion. Often reduced to simple graphic questions of a site, UX goes much further, by actually working on the user journey from different very technical levers such as the way in which a site is built, its ergonomics, its compatibility on all platforms. supports, its speed, etc. This is about allowing Internet users to perform actions in a clear and logical manner on a site. The combination of SEO and UX within SXO seems coherent, because both are worked on before, during, and after the launch of a website. The SXO is therefore driven by a single objective which brings together the imperatives of each of the two disciplines, namely generating qualified traffic. In short, SXO is SEO and UX design acting hand in hand and sharing their respective objectives to create natural referencing which responds to internet developments, but also and above all, which responds to the new way in which The history of the web is being written.

SEO and UX: an alliance to respond to Google

In natural referencing in Western countries, Google is king. The search engine is experiencing numerous updates to its algorithm, to which users and web marketing experts must know how to adapt. This is particularly the case with the deployment, for several years now, of Google's User-first policy. This update, which above all defends the interests of the Internet user who browses online, and which highlights a new SEO problem: no longer simply being interested in the good indexing of a site, but also in its good use by the Internet user. Indeed, if SEO has long been aimed at indexing robots, it must now take user experience into account in its field of action. This will concern the relevance of the content, the ergonomics (especially mobile) of the site, or even the loading time of a site. Although the user has already been taken into account in SEO strategies for a long time, this movement is formalized with SXO, also taking into account more technical aspects such as graphic design or even navigation speed. In the age of deep learning, machine learning, mobile indexing and user-centric web, web marketing working methods have no other choice but to adapt and SXO promises to be the response to these changes.

SXO: new objectives for web marketing

It is therefore important today to stay the course, and know how to direct the way of optimizing a site towards the user. Where the objective of SEO has long been limited to positioning itself in first place on a certain number of queries, SXO considers web referencing by taking into account the click rate, the bounce rate and the most important of all: the conversion rate Attracting the user is no longer enough: you must meet their expectations. Because a good UX design will indeed enable good navigation for the Internet user on the site, but only the relevance of the content will make them stay and push them to action. This is why providing rich content, optimizing calls-to-action, and promoting navigation and ergonomics today fall within the scope of natural referencing. In this sense, SEO and UX design complement each other today and come together to become a 360-degree discipline, where the user is at the center of the thinking, as Google wishes. For this reason, we are tending towards a polarization of web marketing professions: web development, graphic design, natural referencing optimization, writing are all disciplines that were previously highly segmented, which today give way to SXO, and make it possible to address the web marketing on all fronts. Search experience optimization is therefore a versatile discipline, in keeping with the times, which responds to the global direction of the web today and towards which the entire profession seems to be moving.