This article focuses on a key tip for improving conversion through design for product specialists — designers, product managers, software engineers, SEO experts, and copywriters. “SEO search prompt,” as I like to call it, is something every designer should know or account for when optimizing website design for conversion.
What is SEO?
SEO means Search Engine Optimization. Search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo help people discover your content. SEO is about making your website more visible and relevant to search engines. It helps search engines understand your content and assists users in finding your site and deciding whether to visit it through a search engine.
Search prompts are essentially the queries people use to find information online. These are the keywords and phrases that users type into search engines to find relevant content. For instance, if I had trouble sleeping and decided I needed a new mattress, my search prompts might be:
- “mattresses that help reduce back pain”
- “mattress to improve sleep”
Other examples of SEO search prompts include:
- “best restaurants in California”
- “how to start a blog”
- “buy shoes online Dubai”
Before AI, understanding these search prompts was the most effective way to find websites, products, and practically anything on the internet for users. Understanding these search prompts is still crucial for effective AI use and SEO.
Designing for conversion
Designing for conversion means consciously paying attention to designing and including specific elements on a page to encourage users to complete a desired action. This can be achieved through analyzing data on touchpoints in specific design flows or screens, usability testing, customer feedback, and A/B testing to determine what works best visually.
The goal is to discover what drives users to achieve your product’s North Star metric. For example, Netflix’s North Star metric is “Increase streaming time,” which becomes a primary focus for design optimization.
Websites are pages where users form their first impression of your product, services, and pricing while exploring before deciding to create an account or purchase an item. One effective way to acquire users who eventually convert is to optimize your website traffic through SEO optimization so that your website or product becomes more visible and relevant to search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo, and appears as one of the key or preferred options for explorers.
I’m not sure if there’s an officially recognized term in design called “Conversion UI/UX” but it’s something I’ve been seeing lately, and I think it should stick around.
Accounting for SEO Search Prompts in Website Design
Involves incorporating as many keywords as you can imagine “explorers” (potential buyers) would use to find your product on the website through copywriting. For example, I recently proposed UI design changes for an e-commerce platform that sells mattresses and sleep essentials.
The core focus was the website landing page hero section to ensure that potential buyers find our product as the most valuable option on the market. To achieve this, I proposed the following design changes:
I incorporated specific keywords that users looking for better mattresses or sleep essentials would search for through copywriting in my website design hero section, such as “improve sleep, back support layers, regulates temperature, mattress cool, luxury mattress, cooling feature, sleep enhancing, reduces back pain,” etc. Some of these are popular keywords anyone would consider when looking for anything related to improving sleep, while others are high-volume keywords related to mattress qualities.
By clearly communicating Puffy’s value proposition on the homepage and answering most users’ burning questions about sleep essentials, I believe that users exploring the website will consider choosing Puffy as a preferred choice. I’m confident these design changes will improve conversions. I also included visual calls to action to encourage visitors to learn more about the product.
Start thinking about what users are thinking when they search for products related to your industry. Accounting for these factors in product or web design is particularly helpful in converting explorers into users or buyers.
I hope you’ve learned something from this article and that you’ll incorporate specific keywords or SEO prompts into your visual designs.
Karena Iyakoregha is a product designer with over 6 years of experience skilled in product, strategy, copywriting, and design. Open to new roles.
Accounting for SEO search prompts when designing for conversion. was originally published in UX Planet on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.