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Georgi Linkov
CEO & Co-founder at Studio X Digital
Georgi is the Co-founder and Creative director of Studio X, one of Bulgaria's leading digital studios. With a career spanning over 20 years, he has honed his expertise in graphic design, UX, and UI, gaining experience in top advertising agencies and web companies.
His work has earned him numerous prestigious awards in the digital sphere, both locally and internationally. Georgi has also authored over 30 articles exploring the challenges of interactive design and user experience.
Throughout his career, he has contributed to the development of visual and online projects for some of the biggest companies in Bulgaria and abroad. In addition, Georgi has shared his knowledge by teaching web design at several universities and serving as a guest lecturer in specialized courses focused on the aesthetic and functional aspects of digital products.
Behind the Scenes – What Georgi Shared Before SERP Conf. Sofia 2025
Digital design is holistic — it's about users, not our creative egos
Have you ever had to "break the rules" of UX design to achieve SEO goals?
UX/UI principles in interactive design are not static. They evolve over time and often depend on the specific project and its business goals. Of course, there are best practices that have been established and validated, and deviating from them should only happen with a very strong reason. In our work, we have occasionally had to bend—or rather, reinterpret—certain UX/UI rules in favor of SEO objectives. This usually happens in projects with a unique business logic or when pursuing a very specific communication and business outcome. It’s crucial that such decisions are well thought out and analyzed in collaboration with the client and the SEO agency. Only then can they be effective and beneficial for both the business and the end users.
How do you balance SEO requirements with creating innovative web designs?
Innovation in UX/UI should never be an end in itself. Some projects greatly benefit from bold and innovative design and functionality, making them highly effective from a business and user perspective. However, in other cases, such an approach can be inefficient. It is crucial that, from the very beginning, the entire team has a clear understanding of the project’s goals and how they be achieved. This requires alignment between all stakeholders—business, design, marketing, SEO, and development. At the same time, we must always remember that as designers, we create products for users, not to satisfy our creative egos. When these two principles are in place, finding the right balance between innovation, functionality, and SEO happens naturally. Otherwise, conflicts within the team become inevitable.
Do you think UX and SEO go hand in hand, or do they sometimes contradict each other?
Ideally, they should go hand in hand. In fact, all aspects of a digital product should align—UX, SEO, marketing, development, and more. However, in practice, misalignments sometimes occur. The key is to assess whether these discrepancies are fundamental and how well-prepared the UX designer, SEO specialist, marketer, developer, and project manager are to resolve them in favour of the entire project rather than favouring one specific aspect. I support a healthy level of competition between different roles within a project team. A bit of "friendly rivalry" can be productive—as long as it is managed well. If this process is handled correctly, the final result is better for both the business and the users, as it goes through a deeper internal analysis and justification process.
If you could give just one piece of advice to aspiring web designers, what would it be?
It’s hard to give just one piece of advice, but if I had to choose, I would strongly recommend that aspiring web designers broaden their knowledge beyond colour theory, composition, typography, contrast, usability, and form. They should also explore SEO, SEM, CRO, marketing, business, finance, IT, behavioural psychology, music, and visual arts. Modern digital design is a holistic discipline that requires mastering its professional tools. However, these tools are only meaningful when applied within a broader social, business, and cultural context.
What is the most common mistake you see online stores making?
This may sound surprising, but one of the biggest mistakes I see lately in online stores is offering too many features to end users. The era of "Christmas tree" digital products—overloaded with every possible functionality just because the designer or developer thought it would be useful—is over. Even with the best UX/UI design, an overly sophisticated and feature-heavy interface can overwhelm users, leading to poorer usability. Ultimately, it distracts from the true star of an online store—the product itself.