Crucial Rules For Using UX On A Company Blog - Semalt Tips



Are you planning to start publishing entries on a company blog regularly? Great - this way you can help with the positioning of your website. It is also a great method to build a specialist position in the industry and attract customers. To achieve this goal, however, it is worth remembering about User Experience.

How to make blogging fit into the idea of UX for modern websites? This is the fundamental question that we want to answer in detail in this guide!

Competitive analysis

If you really want to improve the user experience on your blog, the first thing to do is to look at the user experience of those who are better positioned than you in the search engine and who are in the same sector (as you). This allows you not to invent anything, but to improve what already exists and works very well.

So, how do you do the competitive analysis?

To do a competitive analysis, you need an effective SEO tool. Several tools can help you with such a task. However, not all of them give real information on the competition. However, there is an SEO tool developed by the experts at Semalt called the Dedicated SEO Dashboard. It is currently the only multi-featured SEO tool capable of giving you satisfaction in managing the visibility of your site.

It has a feature called Google SERP Analysis.

By using this feature, you can know who the main competitors of your niche are. In addition, you can have complete information about their traffic-generating keywords and an idea of their promotion strategy.

This way, you won't have to invent anything; you'll just have to rely on their strategy to improve your user experience.

Moreover, the Dedicated SEO Dashboard has other SEO tools built in that are very useful to facilitate your site's SEO.

So, feel free to dive into these data-driven tool features on demo.semalt.com.

After collecting information about your competitors, the next step is to focus on the general appearance of your blog, while keeping an eye on the general appearance of your competitors.

The overall look of your blog: create a good first impression

Imagine that a new user comes to your website. After typing keywords into the search engine, your blog site was offered to him / her. This means that positioning works fine. However, will the visitor read the entire blog post? First impressions have a big influence. What do they consist of? Above all the:
  • page loading speed;
  • graphic appearance (layout, colours, legibility);
  • quality of the proposed content;
  • simplicity of noticing individual elements of the website: menu, categories of entries, etc.;
  • ease of navigation between content;
  • limited number of popups after entering the website.
That's why it's so important to take care of everything from a UX perspective - not just positioning.

Nowadays, the biggest players in the website market create their blogs based on card-based design. In this layout, all entries are in the form of "tiles", on which you can see the title of the article, author, publication date, post category and a short teaser. It is a transparent form of presenting the content published so far. The button under each text fragment allows you to go to the subpage with a given entry and read the whole thing.

Content layout and quality and positioning: get the audience interested

Let's move on to a specific entry. What will make the user want to read it? How to encourage him / her to read the whole thing and make sure that he / she does not close the card after the first two sentences?

Positioning and commitment: a few words about the content

Make sure to publish only high-quality articles related to your business profile. If the blog is hosted by an online store, it may be in the form of a shopping guide. On the other hand, when you are supposed to position a website that offers specific services - it is worth showing yourself as an expert who really knows his / her job. The blog can then reveal some backstage of the activity, present activities carried out so far or advise visitors on the services.

Remember that Google algorithms don't like content with artificially packed keywords. Therefore, the text should not be written only for search engines. Stimulated phrases and pouring water will discourage recipients, so the blog will not be willingly visited or recommended further. You can lose potential customers this way. What's more, it will also harm the positioning...
 
The conclusion is one: the quality of the content is the basis for a meaningful company blog.

UX when reading an entry on the website



Interesting content is not everything - you also need to give it the appropriate form. It can be compared to eating in a restaurant. Even the most delicious dish will not taste the same if, instead of being carefully placed on a nice plate, it was served haphazardly, on chipped and unwashed tableware. Therefore:
  • divide the content into paragraphs preceded by headings in the appropriate hierarchy;
  • give the whole a catchy title that tells the truth about what the reader will find in the content;
  • take care of appropriate margins and spaces between lines of text;
  • set the right font: both in terms of size (minimum 16 PX) and readability;
  • try to diversify the text with thematic graphics, mood boards, and maybe even video material.
All this will also be a plus when it comes to positioning your company's website! However, make sure that the additional graphic or film elements do not slow down the website.

Make it easy to navigate between entries

Once you've caught the attention with valuable, interesting content - it's time to encourage regular visits to your blog. Try to make the recipient want to stay longer on the page and look at the remaining entries. Internal linking will surely be helpful. In the content of your blog entry, include links to other texts related thematically to the one currently being read. Consider which phrases to link on, because it is crucial for website positioning.

Another way to encourage further exploration of your blog is the buttons at the bottom of the post. In CMS WordPress, as you probably know, many themes have this solution built-in. The button on the left leads to the previous text, and the button on the right leads to the next one (if it exists and the current entry is not the last one entered). Then the user does not have to return to the main page of the blog or category to go to the next content.

An interesting solution is also to present a few proposals for similar entries under a given article. This can be done using a dedicated plugin.

Responsiveness and website positioning and UX

Since 2010, a significant increase in visits to websites from mobile devices has been observed. This is due to the development of technology and the popularization of smartphones. Almost everyone today has a device in their pocket from which they can connect to the network and browse their favourite blogs at any time. Today, depending on the region and time, there is a nearly 50% share of mobile devices in website traffic. It looks like this number will continue to grow at the expense of desktop visits.

Therefore, the responsiveness of your website is important for both positioning and the convenience of users (UX). Make sure your corporate blog displays well on both your computer and smartphone screens. Check if navigation on mobile devices is simple and intuitive. The CTA buttons must be large enough. The user should have no problem clicking them to go to the next post. Also, take a look at how the articles appear on the screen of smartphones. Are they legible? Have the margins and gaps been kept? Are the fonts and all characters displayed correctly? When you take care of it, users will be more likely to visit your blog using their phones. Your website traffic will increase and your search engine rankings will be higher.

Interaction with readers: take care of this opportunity!

One final point to think about is ensuring that users can interact. When reading a specific text, a person instinctively wonders what he / she agrees with and with what he / she disagrees with. Sometimes they may also find the post helpful and would like to thank you for the content. Let them do it! Let your website visitors express their opinion. How to do it?

Positioning and the comment system on a company blog

There is a blog on many online shopping sites - but without comment. What if you let the readers speak? After all, a substantive discussion in the comments is valuable content that can help you achieve a better website position. Of course, it is worth making sure that the conversation is on the topic and concerns directly the given entry.

WordPress themes usually have their own comment system built-in. Sometimes you need to personalize it a bit, e.g., add a field to consent to the processing of data by the website (compliance with the GDPR).

Sharing entries in social media (SM)

When you read an interesting article, you probably want to share it with your friends. Ideally, this can be done with just a few clicks. Then you do not have to manually copy the link, you switch between cards or windows and paste it, for example, on a Facebook board. The solution is therefore a plugin dedicated to websites and blogs. Thanks to such a plug, buttons for sharing content will appear under each post - e.g., on Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn or other social networks.

Another interesting option is a popup that will pop up on the screen when you reach the end of the entry. You can choose what the invitation to share the article should sound like and decide which buttons for sharing in SM you want to show to the reader. This possibility is provided by Social Share Icons & Social Share Buttons plugin. Take into account the fact that the content shared and recommended has a chance of more pageviews, which improves the SEO results.

If you need to learn more about the subject of SEO and website promotion, we invite you to visit our Semalt blog.


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