SEO Versus User Engagement
Finding the Right Balance
A large part of marketing is a balancing act between what you want to achieve and the time and resources available to accomplish it. While big corporations have dedicated marketing teams working full-time, most SMEs have more limited resources, making it difficult to strike the right mix between various marketing activities. One challenge many businesses face is finding the right balance between search engine optimisation (SEO) and user engagement—that crucial factor which turns a website visitor into a paying customer.
In this article, we explore the balancing act between SEO and user engagement and whether it’s possible to optimise your site for both, without having to sacrifice one for the other.
SEO Versus User Engagement: Striking the Right Balance
If your website is well optimised for search engines, you will likely drive significant traffic to your site. However, there’s a risk that many of those visitors won’t engage with your content. They might find your site uninformative or feel that it doesn’t reflect your business well. On the flip side, if you design your website solely for user engagement—using highly appealing visuals but minimal textual content—it may not rank well on search engines, meaning you won’t get the traffic you need in the first place.
SEO and user engagement are like opposite ends of a see-saw: if you focus too much on one, you risk leaving the other out of balance. For example, one of the lowest-ranked sites we’ve seen belonged to a talented graphic designer. The site had been online for 19 years, yet didn’t appear in Google’s search results. Why? Despite its beautiful design, all the text was embedded as images, with no alt tags for search engines to identify or rank the content. In SEO terms, the site was virtually invisible.
Conversely, we’ve seen businesses such as a London cleaning company whose website was overly concerned with keyword stuffing. They had received outdated advice from a marketing consultant who focused purely on SEO tactics that no longer worked. The text was unreadable for users, the design was sparse, and there was little thought given to engaging customers once they arrived. While the site attracted traffic, it saw very few conversions.
Fortunately, Google’s evolving algorithms now steer web developers and SEO specialists towards creating content that appeals to users, which also boosts rankings by default.
SEO Versus User Engagement: Balance in the Online World
As a business with an online presence, your goal should be to strike a sensible balance between SEO and creating a website that engages users. Keywords still matter, but so do well-crafted meta descriptions, which encourage users to click through to your site. Appropriately tagged images, inbound links from reputable sources and regularly updated content all contribute to both user engagement and SEO.
While these technical elements are important, they won’t achieve much without the right engagement strategies. You need to deliver great content that answers your customers’ needs and ensures your website is intuitive and easy to navigate. Well-written content, with a focus on value and relevance, also helps improve your SEO profile, as search engines like Google become more sophisticated at prioritising what the user actually wants.
For SMEs, finding the right balance can be tricky. Many businesses fall into the trap of focusing purely on generating large volumes of traffic, without understanding whether that traffic is relevant. Taking time to step back and review your site design, content and visitor data can help you make the necessary adjustments to maintain that all-important balance between SEO and user engagement.
At The Last Hurdle, we can help you achieve the right balance between SEO and user engagement to get the most from your website. Get in touch today to learn more!
