When we talk about search engine optimization or SEO, it isn’t just about pleasing Google. You need to understand that Google serves human beings, and you must also aim to satisfy the users more than Google. Also, if you do it correctly, you can make use of your SEO strategy to better serve the customers and the algorithm simultaneously. With nearly 53% of traffic being won from organic searches, many of your customers interact with you via search.
SEO is about getting your website in front of people. However, it needs to be done in a way that aims to help out people looking for any information. This involves delivering searchers relevant, trustworthy, up-to-date information and a solid user experience.
In today’s post, we will discuss what should be your ideal approach toward SEO from the user journey perspective, the various tools you can use to drive SEO predictability, and how you can set up your long-term and short-term SEO strategy.
User Centric Approach to the Site Experience
Google’s mission statement is “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” This is same for any search engine, to always put the customer first. Though the algorithms has changed over the years, its mission statement remains the same.
Today more than ever, having a customer centric approach for your SEO program is highly critical to ensure success. It is all about what’s suitable for the user is also right for your SEO program. Therefore, always ensure to apply a user centric focus, and you can “future-proof” the algorithmic updates.
Here are a few things you need to remember to ensure optimum site experience for your target audience.
Market Landscape
When you look at your customer, you need to understand their personas, the journey they will take, the pivotal decision points, etc. All this combined is the customer first approach that you should follow.
Content and On-page Strategy
The above-mentioned customer-first strategy will guide your content strategy as well. You can find out the assets you already have in the market, the gaps, and how you develop a content marketing strategy to move this forward.
Off-page Authority Plan
The old days of link building are gone. Today, there are multiple ways you can use to build your links. There are paid media and numerous white-hat link-building techniques you can use for link building. A lot of it is done using high-quality content. There is off-page and on-page content that you would also want to look at.
Funnel Connections
Finally, it is about connecting all the above dots. This ensures that the users get a full-funnel connection, so you must build the user journey and site experience as a forward process so that you don’t have to go backward.
How do you integrate a full funnel connection?
Develop website content that allows users to flow up and down the funnel, connecting the content assets with CTA’s.
User centricity should be your primary focus when you plan to build or rebuild your website. In this, data science can be really helpful. You’ll understand the full funnel connection if you do it with SEO in focus, data science, and a customer-centric approach.
The user journey funnel concept is a great idea to ensure success for your SEO program. As per Wayne Cichanski, VP Search & Site Experience for Iquanti, “if SEO is done correctly, then every single page becomes the entry point.” If you see the funnel, you see it is from the awareness stage to the purchase stage, the end goal. Every user is in a different stage of the buyer journey. Therefore, ensuring your SEO is done correctly for all pages acts as the entry point for purchase, not just the home page.
For example, you create a page on the 3 best types of travel credit cards. Now that the user has read your content and has a few more questions, you must make sure that you answer those relevant queries as well as on different pages. Or else, there is a high chance that your user will leave your website and look at a different website for answers. That might be your competitor.
Therefore, when you look at your assets and market, you need focus on the keywords across the funnel so that you can capture your audience’s search demand on every step of the way. Ensure to solve all the user queries with your content. This helps you create new entry points for users to enter your website and complete their purchases. In case you don’t have that, it will result in a loss of the customer.
Remember, keywords are queries, and you should answer all queries by keeping the intent in mind.
Demystifying “SEO Content”
There is no such thing as “SEO Content.” Content is for the site experience, customer journey, and implementing the user’s full-funnel connection.
For example, a blog content only means it is a part of the software platform and a CMS; it doesn’t mean it’s a different content type. The different types of content are for your segregation.
If you or your organization is creating SEO content, you might just need to rethink your content strategy. The idea is not just to create content as much as you like for SEO but to create content that can complete the full funnel journey and answer every question the user has to finalize their buying decision.
Because “What’s Good for Google is What’s Good for the User.”
Tools to Drive SEO
Most of the tools present today have their own isolated purpose. Either it can be for research, reporting, analytics, etc. For that, you need to purchase, follow, and access multiple tools at a time. This can be hectic.
There are very few tools that provide recommendations and provide certainty to your SEO program.
The ALPS Difference
Our enterprise SEO platform known as ALPS is in the convergence of all the necessary tools with the addition of precision & accuracy. The ALPS platform is:
- Driven by Predictive Analytics & Machine Learning
- Allows you to Analyze, Simulate & Take Action
Developing Short & Long-Term SEO Strategies
To create a strong market strategy, you need the following:
Know your Market Landscape- Analyze and be updated with your competitors, keywords, etc. in your niche.
Assets- Be up to date with all your digital SEO assets like content, backlinks, etc. to create a robust strategy for your program.
Gaps- Figure out the key SEO gaps and get ways to close those gaps to ensure your pages are ranking higher on the SERPs.
Creating a Way Forward
Focus on quick wins: You need to identify the key areas that are easiest to win and focus on those areas to ensure quick rank improvements on the SERPs.
Final Thoughts
To see your organization or brand grow over time, you’ll need to use a consistent SEO strategy. You will need to keep an eye on all the moving pieces that impact your SEO.
As search engine optimization (SEO) is an ongoing process, it’ll take careful attention and continuous effort to rank your pages among the top results on Google’s SERP.
If you want to know more about how you can ensure success for your SEO program, sign up for our free demo here.
