If your website takes time to load or people visit the website and leave immediately, then there are chances that you’re not following UX best practices, which can increase the website engagement and will appear better in search results.
Search engines like Google now measure how people interact with your website, how much time they spend on the website, and whether they can achieve their goals from your website. A poor UX can hurt your ranking, no matter how good your content is.
The good news? A few smart UX improvements can make your website enjoyable for visitors and more attractive to search engines. In this article, I will cover the 10 best UX practices to improve website engagement and SEO in 2025. So you can keep users happy, reduce bounce rates, and climb higher in search results.
1. Prioritize Website Speed and Core Web Vitals
Website speed is an important element of a good website that creates a positive experience and also helps in SEO. Studies show that if a website takes more than 3 seconds to load, over 50% users leave immediately. Google also confirms that a slow-loading website will appear less in search results.
Google has introduced Core Web Vitals, in which they measure the speed by three main factors
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): How fast the main content loads (ideal: under 2.5 seconds).
- First Input Delay (FID): How quickly the page responds when a user interacts (ideal: under 100 ms).
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): How stable the page layout is (ideal: under 0.1)
You can improve the website speed by using a fast hosting provider or upgrade to a cloud or VPS plan. Also, you can hire an expert who can optimize the speed of the website, which will create a positive impact on SEO and eventually lead to better sales.
2- Optimize the Hero Section for Clarity
The hero section is the first visible area that some land on your homepage or landing page. If users can’t immediately understand what your website is about and how it can help them, they’ll leave within seconds.
A clear, compelling hero section improves engagement, reduces bounce rates, and builds trust instantly, which is critical for both UX and SEO.
The hero section should be visually clear, use the right art direction techniques, and place the CTA in the right spot so customers can easily see where to go.
- Clear headline: Deliver your main value proposition in a short, impactful sentence.
- Supporting subheadline: Explain briefly what problem you solve or how you can help.
- Strong CTA placement: Your primary action (e.g., “Get Started”, “Book a Demo”, “Shop Now”) should be visible, placed in the right spot, and not hidden in clutter.
- Right visual direction: Use images, videos, or illustrations that reinforce your brand and message. The best practice is to hire a professional photographer who can create authentic visuals that connect directly with your audience. Avoid generic stock photos whenever possible.
Visual hierarchy: Use contrast, typography size, and spacing to make the headline stand out, then guide the eye to the CTA.
3. Design for Mobile-First Experiences
Nowadays, more than 60% of traffic comes from mobile devices. If your website is not well optimized for mobile devices, then it creates a bad user experience for customers, and Google is less likely to rank the website which is not appear well on mobile.
Google also uses mobile-first indexing, which means it primarily evaluates the mobile version of your website for ranking and indexing. If your site isn’t mobile-friendly, you’ll not only frustrate visitors but also risk lower search visibility.
A tiny text, a hard-to-click button, and slow loading will cause users to leave instantly, which will reduce the bounce rate and hurt both engagement and SEO.
Best practices for mobile-first design:
- Responsive design: Ensure your layout adapts seamlessly to different screen sizes and orientations.
- Simplified navigation: Use hamburger menus, sticky headers, or bottom nav bars for easy access.
- Test across devices: Check your site on iOS, Android, tablets, and even smaller phones to ensure consistency.
Pro tip: Use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test and Search Console Mobile Usability Report to detect issues and fix them quickly.
4. Simplify Navigation & Site Structure
Your website navigation helps visitors quickly find what they’re looking for, keeps them engaged longer, and increases the chance of conversions.
A clean navigation also helps search engines crawl and index your site more effectively. Google rank the websites with internal linking and clear hierarchies, since they’re easier to understand and rank.
Organize menus carefully, limit the number of categories, and provide a search bar for quick access. Consistent and straightforward navigation across all pages improves usability and keeps visitors engaged longer.
Best practices for navigation and structure:
- Add a search function: Especially for content-heavy websites, this improves usability.
- Maintain a logical hierarchy: Organize pages under clear parent categories (e.g., Blog → UX Tips → SEO & UX).
- Reduce clicks to important content: Ideally, users should reach key pages in 3 clicks or fewer.
5. Optimize for Accessibility
If a person with disability interacts with your website and not able to understand due to disability issue then it create a bad user experience for the visitor, which will not reduce the bounce rate but also creates a bad impact on SEO.
An accessible website ensures that everyone, including people with disabilities, can interact with your content. It directly improves user experience, inclusivity, and SEO. Search engines reward websites that are well-structured and usable by all audiences, since accessibility best practices often align with SEO best practices.
Implementing features such as keyboard navigation, screen reader compatibility, and good color contrast enhances usability for everyone.
Best practices for accessibility:
- Use alt text for images: Describe visuals so screen readers (and search engines) can interpret them.
- Ensure proper color contrast: Text should be readable against backgrounds (e.g., dark text on light background).
- Keyboard navigation: Ensure users can navigate your site without a mouse.
- Readable typography: Use good fonts, right line spacing, and avoid so much tiny text.
6. Improve CTAs (Calls-to-Action)
A clear CTA guide visitors towards desired action. It is a bridge between a visitor browsing your site and taking the next step such as purchasing a product or subscribing to a newsletter.
Weak, unclear, or poorly placed CTAs often result in lost conversions, even if the rest of the content is excellent.
For UX, a strong CTA gives clear direction and guide visitors towards a desired action. For SEO, better CTAs keep users engaged, increase click-throughs to deeper pages, and signal to search engines that your site is valuable.
Best practices for effective CTAs:
- Make them clear and action-oriented: Use verbs like “Start Free Trial,” “Shop Now,” “Download Guide”
- Use visual contrast: Buttons should stand out with color, size, and whitespace.
- Limit distractions: Stick to one primary CTA per page to guide users clearly.
7. Friction-Free Forms and Checkout
Complex forms and checkout frustrate your potential customers, which will cause in loss of sale. Forms and checkout pages are where visitors turn into leads or customers.
If a person is going to purchase your product and the checkout process is lengthy, it’s likely that the customer will leave your website and buy from another instead.
Simplifying these improves user satisfaction, conversion rates, and SEO signals, since a smoother experience keeps visitors engaged rather than bouncing away.
Best practices to reduce friction:
- Keep forms short and simple: Only ask for essential information (e.g., name, email, payment details).
- Use progress indicators: For multi-step forms or checkouts, show users how far along they are.
- Enable autofill: Allow users to quickly complete forms by enabling browser or device autofill for fields like name, email, and address.
8. Build Trust with Clear Visual Design
We have heard that “First impression is the last impression.” If your website design is outdated or very confusing, it creates a bad impression on visitors. Studies show that users form an impression of a website’s trustworthiness within just 50 milliseconds.
If your website has inconsistent branding, typography issues, or looks outdated, you should improve it right now because it will enhance both user experience and SEO.
If you don’t have web design knowledge, then you can hire us.
Best practices for trustworthy design:
- Consistent branding: Use a unified color scheme, typography, and logo placement across all pages.
- Whitespace and balance: Avoid clutter; give elements room to breathe so the design feels modern and approachable.
- High-quality visuals: Use sharp, relevant images or graphics that reflect your brand (avoid pixelated or generic stock photos).
- Trust signals: Display SSL certificates, client logos, testimonials, and reviews prominently.
- Readable typography: Stick to clean, easy-to-read fonts and adequate spacing.
9. Personalize the User Experience
If a user feels that the website is according to him, then most likely he will stay on the website and purchase the product or service. Today’s users expect more than a generic browsing experience. They want content, products, and recommendations that feel tailored to their needs. Personalization not only improves engagement but also increases trust, loyalty, and conversions.
From an SEO perspective, personalization increases time on website, which is a strong engagement signals that search engines take into account.
Best practices for personalization:
- Location-based personalization: Adjust language, currency, or offers based on the visitor’s region.
- Content recommendations: Suggest related blog posts, guides, or products based on what the user has already viewed.
10. Monitor User Behavior and Continuously Improve
Improving UX is not a one-time project. Even if your website is performing well today, there are chances that in a short time user expectations will change, and you will need to improve the website according to user needs.
You can continuously monitor how visitors interact with your website, which will help you improve the website and stay ahead of the competition.
Best practices for ongoing improvement:
- Use analytics tools: Track metrics like bounce rate, time on page, and conversion paths with Google Analytics or GA4.
- Leverage heatmaps & session recordings: Tools like Hotjar or Microsoft Clarity show how users scroll, click, and interact with your site.
- Run A/B testing: Compare different versions of pages, CTAs, or layouts to see what works best.
- Collect feedback: Add surveys or feedback forms to learn directly from users.
Conclusion
Improving your website’s UX is not just about making it look good — it’s about creating an experience where visitors feel comfortable, understood, and motivated to take action. By applying these best practices — from faster loading speeds and clear navigation to personalized experiences and ongoing improvements — you can keep users engaged, reduce bounce rates, and boost your SEO rankings in 2025.
Remember, search engines like Google are paying closer attention to how people interact with your site. A smooth, user-friendly experience not only keeps visitors happy but also helps your business stand out in search results.
Start with small changes, test often, and keep refining. Over time, these consistent improvements will build a website that earns trust, drives conversions, and grows your brand online.
If you’re ready to improve your website’s UX and SEO, our team at Pixels Ninja can help you design a high-performing site that engages users and drives growth. Contact us now to get a high-converting and SEO optimized website.