Is User Experience crucial part of SEO?

There has been a lot of discussion going on whether UX or User eXperience is a crucial part of SEO or Search Engine Optimization.

If we consider the definition behind these two terms (Wiki):

User eXperience design, most often abbreviated UX, but sometimes UE, is a term used to describe the overarching experience a person has as a result of their interactions with a particular product or service, it's delivery, and related artifacts, according to their design.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results.

So after the definitions why would one consider User Experience even part of SEO? Lets consider a simple example here about 404 Pages!

404 Pages have been the nemesis of internet users and are probably one of the most overlooked aspects of a website. Personally, it is annoying arriving at a website and being served a page stating, "Page not Found". So the User eXperience is awful and for any SEO a 404 page is a nightmare, since a typical 404 error page has a high likelihood of driving your visitors away. Well the good news is that there is a solution that will improve the user experience and will ensure that your visitors stay on your site. A custom 404 page can do that trick.

Alternatives - Visitors are obviously looking for something on your website before they stumbled upon an error. Give alternatives on the custom 404 page.

I am sure you can figure out alternatives for your website.

There is absolutely no reason to label your page "404 Error". The only thing the users know about a 404 error is nothing nor do they care. Its a technical jargon, and don't use it to scare away your visitors.

Google is intelligent and so are other web crawlers - A missing page (404 error) is obviously going to get your page rankings down.

Some Interesting and creative collection of Error 404 Pages!

Tagging Nicky - Thanks for suggesting the topic!

Design or Usability?

What attracts users to a website? Is this the thrill of experiencing something new or a journey to an unconquered territory? Does this experience account usability? According to Wikipedia usability means "the goal of user interface design is to make the users interaction experience as simple as intuitive e as possible". Does graphics help or is it better to enhance usability?

A recent survey by Forrester for the Best and Worst of Site Design cut across industries to measure customer experience on the web. Of the 20 individual firms evaluated, an amazing 19 failed! The overall user experience scores ranged from fair to poor. The best sites barely touched passable customer satisfaction levels.

Does aesthetic appeal work?

If interfaces are sore points in most usability issue, does it mean we stick to a strictly plain and purely usable site?

Well not necessary! Good aesthetics helps in creating first impression. The visual appeal of a site inevitably lures users; however an appealing interface that is not usable loses its charm and cannot sustain interest.

Following some usability rules would help creating that first impression.

Have a Theme

It is important to identify and implementing an appropriate theme into your website. This helps creating a positive, responsive and receptive state of mind in the user.

Color Scheme

colors should allows you to give a message you wish to communicate to the users. Demography and sites objectives help defining the color scheme.

Target User

Helps you know the users "technical comfort level"

Goal

Identify your goals and make sure you never loose track of it.

Intuitive

It is important to have an educated customer at the end of his/her website experience.

Ensure ease of Navigation

Provide Instant Feedback

Every action should give a response.

All the above usability rules would come with some obstacles. Most of them are because they are not well thought over interface designs.

Heavy Pages - thanks to "extraordinary" graphics designs

Navigational ambiguity - users don't want to solve a maze

Overwhelming interfaces - keep the pages to the point.

Lack of focus - keep your goals in mind and don’t lose track of it

Whatever be the motive on which the site was conceptualized, a visitor to your site is a potential investor of time, money or both.

Hiding mistakes Creatively!

I still remember my days as a developer, I never took care of Error 404, Error 500, etc till the very end, when the UAT came back saying the application is broken. A mere small setting took care of those.

I realize now the importance of informing users, when my blog and my photo stream crashed because of errors and broken link.

Well, its never a great experience to have that page in front of you, users either click the home page back and to a search or just close the browser. Like I do most of the times on MSDN. I just closed the browser and went back to Google to search some other resource.

So what do I do, I go and explore a few websites and I found this very interesting website which lists out Error 404 designs. Now that's creative, and I definitely am not losing my patience when I see one of those.

Pattern Tap - 404 Pages - Collection

Pattern Tap is one great website or say a repository. Check the Categories and I am sure you would feel overwhelmed as I did.

My personal Favorite