Some individuals prioritize perceived ranking factors excessively, often neglecting indirect contributors like a good User Experience (UX), which is essential for a high-quality website. Over time, a strong UX can help websites attract more traffic, increase popularity, and eventually improve their rankings. John Mueller from Google confirms this point.
During a Google hangout, John Mueller was questioned about the influence of the recently leaked UX Playbooks on ranking. He explained that the UX Playbooks were created by the Ads team rather than the search team, suggesting that while the recommendations in these playbooks might not be direct ranking factors, they could still have an indirect impact.
UX Playbook and Ranking
A batch of UX Playbooks, marked as proprietary and confidential, was leaked and became accessible through Google search. These playbooks, first noticed by Search Engine Journal in December 2018, offer best practices aimed at enhancing user experience, which can lead to increased sales according to various studies.
Question:
"Google has this UX Playbook for best practices to delight users for different niches, are these considered part of ranking or can you give insight on that?"
John Mueller minimized the playbook’s significance for ranking purposes:
"As far as I know, those UX playbooks are released by the ads team and they mainly focus on UX best practices and good website practices, rather than being direct ranking factors."
He further added that user experience elements could have an indirect effect on ranking.
“Creating a user-friendly website could indirectly affect rankings, but we don’t consider UX Playbooks as formal ranking criteria.”
Some UX elements function as soft ranking factors, such as page speed and HTTPS. Though they affect ranking, they are less influential than primary ranking factors like links. Soft ranking factors are minor in comparison to well-known factors.
Indirect Effect on Ranking
Mueller highlighted the idea of indirect effects on ranking. For instance, if a web page or product generates excitement, it could lead to more links and rising popularity—two byproducts of a good user experience that could indirectly boost rankings.
An anecdote illustrates this: entering a niche long dominated by a top-ranked site that wasn’t actively promoted. By creating a superior product, a more navigable website, and a streamlined conversion funnel, enthusiasm was generated. Influencers and customers promoted it widely on social media, and word-of-mouth proved to be a powerful promotional tool.
This kind of enthusiasm, an indirect factor, allowed surpassing the existing market leader. By engaging industry influencers, notoriety grew, resulting in increased links and search recognition, eventually earning the top ranking spot organically without any deliberate link building.
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