SEO vs. UX in Web Design

Abstract

This work addresses a research gap in digital marketing by attempting to compare the effort in achieving the best organic search engine ranking with the effort in providing the best user experience in web navigation. The objective is to validate companies' efforts in the digital world, and the study is focused on the toy sector in Spain, specifically on the Google search engine, measuring the user experience in web browsing through neuromarketing biometrics. The top 30 results for each Google search were collected for the 638 keywords related to toys in Spain. Subsequently, the three best-positioned websites for the Google search results were determined, and their user experience was measured using neuromarketing biometrics, triangulated with qualitative research. This approach allows for contrasting brand authority in the digital world (visibility in a search) with the user experience in navigation (trust and ease of purchase decision-making). Results indicate that the best-positioned websites do not necessarily correspond to the best web navigation experiences.