A decade ago, SEO was about mechanical precision, and all you had to do was make sure your keywords, backlinks and metadata were all on point. Designers and marketing professionals could sit on opposite sides of the same office, one focused on rankings, the other on aesthetics. Fast-forward to today, and UX and SEO are so closely related to one another that the lines become blurred. Google is now fully focused focused on finding helpful content and good page experiences for users when they search. This means how your page functions now directly influences search visibility.
Search engines have become more human (in a sense). Plus, nowadays they're also using AI bots that help direct users to the best sites and information for their search. They’re learning to see what people see, understand what people want, and reward websites that feel genuinely satisfying to use. That’s why UX and SEO are no longer separate – they’re two halves of the same coin. You can't have one without the other. Websites now need to have clarity, be trustworthy and feel like a dream to use.
Designing for user intent
SEO starts with understanding what users want. UX takes it a step further by guiding them to it. In this way, SEO and UX work together to help users find what they're looking for as quickly as possible. When your site’s structure reflects how people actually search and navigate, both your visitors and Google find it easier to connect the dots.
Take, for example, an online home-decor store. If the navigation follows a clear, intuitive hierarchy like: “Shop > Lighting > Table Lamps > Modern Designs”, Google’s crawlers understand those relationships just as easily as your users do. That clean structure signals topical relevance and authority, which improves the store’s visibility for long-tail searches like “modern table lamps for home office.”
When navigation becomes cluttered or inconsistent, both users and crawlers lose their sense of direction. The result? Confusion, higher bounce rates and diluted ranking power. The best information architecture is invisible – it feels like you’re being gently guided, never forced.
Behavioural signals: how Google measures user satisfaction
Google might not feel emotions, but it’s remarkably good at spotting their traces. Every scroll, click, and second spent on a page tells a story about how people experience your site. Metrics like the user time spent on a page, scroll depth and return visits are Google’s way of reading the room, and give subtle clues that reveal whether visitors are engaged or frustrated.
Picture two websites offering marketing advice. The first greets you with walls of dense text, no clear headings, a lack of SEO keywords and little visual breathing room. You skim, get lost and leave. The second breaks its ideas into digestible sections that are easy to navigate and read. The typography feels easy on the eye, and every call to action feels like a natural next step. You stay longer, explore it, and maybe even bookmark it.
That difference isn’t just about keywords – it’s about comfort and confidence. When a site feels effortless to use, people trust it. And when people trust it, Google notices. Great UX doesn’t just please visitors – it quietly convinces search engines that your website deserves to rise to the top.
The psychology of micro-interactions
Micro-interactions are those small, satisfying moments that make digital experiences feel human. They can can be something like a button that changes colour when you hover, or a progress bar that shows you’re nearly done filling in a form.
They may seem cosmetic, but these moments build trust, which keeps users on-site. Let's take an e-commerce checkout. A subtle animation confirming an item was added to the cart reassures the shopper that their click worked. Without it, people double-click, reload, get confused, and sometimes abandon the process altogether out of frustration.
Every one of those micro-moments shapes perception. When a site feels responsive, visitors assume it’s reliable. That reliability, in turn, improves behavioural metrics like dwell time and completion rates – the very signals Google uses to judge quality. Design interactions well, and you’re essentially improving SEO by improving psychology.
Accessibility: the hidden SEO powerhouse
As an agency, we find that accessibility is one of the most commonly overlooked areas of website design and user experience. Accessibility is often seen as a moral or legal checkbox, but it’s also a competitive advantage. A site that’s accessible is more easily read by both people and crawlers.
Descriptive alt text, for example, doesn’t just help screen-reader users – it provides search engines with contextual clues about your images. Structured heading hierarchies clarify relationships between topics. Keyboard-friendly navigation ensures your site can be fully explored without relying on mouse interactions, which means crawlers encounter fewer dead ends.
Imagine two restaurant websites. One uses text embedded in images for its menu; the other uses proper HTML with clear labels and descriptions. Only one of them can be indexed accurately, and only one will appear in voice-search results for “best gluten-free pasta near me.” Accessibility, it turns out, is SEO in disguise.
Structured data and telling Google your story
Structured data makes it easier for search engines to understand your website's content. Adding schema markup for articles, products, events and FAQs provides a formal language that bridges design and algorithm.
Take a blog post about “branding for small businesses.” With the right article schema, Google can display rich snippets, showing your headline, author and publication date directly in results. It feels like a small tweak, but those micro-enhancements improve click-through rates dramatically.
Structured data is like metadata with manners – it introduces your content politely and clearly. When paired with intuitive design, it tells both visitors and algorithms: “This site knows what it’s talking about.”
Site speed matters
Speed has always been an SEO factor, but now it’s measurable in a more human-centric way through Google’s Core Web Vitals. These metrics – Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), Interaction to Next Paint (INP), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) all measure the real experience of loading, interactivity and stability. Speed is vital for a great user experience – no-one has time to wait for a website to load nowadays.
Consider a news website that takes five seconds to load its main image. Even if the text appears quickly, users perceive it as slow. Or worse, imagine a button that jumps just as someone clicks, leading to an accidental ad click. These annoyances don’t just frustrate visitors, but they also send negative engagement signals to Google.
The takeaway
When thinking about how websites perform, SEO and UX have a close relationship. SEO is no longer about optimising content for algorithms. Its now about designing experiences that algorithms and crawlers want to put to the top of search results. With AI-driven results and voice search rising, clarity, speed, and user satisfaction will matter more than inserting keywords.
A well-structured, intuitive and visually coherent website doesn’t just rank higher; it converts better, retains more visitors, and aids your brand authority. SEO isn’t something you do after design – it’s embedded in every design decision. From the first wireframe, to the final CTA. The ultimate goal isn’t to chase algorithms but to earn advocacy – from both your audience and the tools they use to find you.
