UX is important

In order to understand why the bad old days were so bad, it is essential to understand a bit about how Google works and how it determines which pages will rank best when users make a query.

Google uses an algorithm that combines a huge number of factors (at least 200 of them) to decide how relevant a certain page is for a certain search query. From its earliest days, Google was never too forthcoming about what factors play the most important role in order to keep people from artificially boosting search engine positions.

As a result, SEO people have traditionally spent a huge portion of their time using various trial and error tactics to try and figure it out.

In the bad old days, keywords were found to be one of the most important factors. Google’s algorithm was still in its early days and, together with inbound links, keywords were the most straightforward factor that could be easily checked and ranked automatically.

As a result, the SEO community, or at least a significant portion of it, indulged in practices which resulted in churned-out, empty content packed with tons of keywords to start with. Then, spectacularly spammy meta descriptions and titles, URL slugs, and image alt tags were added. The most “resourceful” SEO people even ‘cloaked’ keywords in non-text elements on web pages.

This went beyond just on-page content as SEO people built links on personal network blogs and other article-dumpsters, artificially boosting the values of their pages.

Of course, the UX people and everyone else with half a brain (including some SEO people) saw this as a bad thing. And it really was.

It was a mess of colossal proportions.

UX is important