When I describe SEO, I
explain that it is a mix of marketing, technical know-how, and psychology.
From a marketing
perspective, you must have an overall understanding of your product, the
problems it solves, and how to best communicate to your audience.
From a technical
perspective, you must be able to create a foundation for your website that
improves search performance.
Now, from a
psychological perspective… that is where an SEO can really make a difference.
If you can learn how to
not only identify your ideal website visitor but also determine who they are
and what motivates them, your SEO work will really pay off. You’ll have the
traffic numbers and also the ROI to support your efforts.
SEO isn’t just about
the numbers (i.e., keyword ranking positions, number of backlinks, traffic,
etc.). It is also about understanding the audience and building an SEO campaign
around that information.
When SEO is centered
around the right audience, targeted traffic increases, which leads to more
conversions.
There are several
methods that will help you research and analyze your audience for SEO.
As you will see in the
list below, there are tools weaved throughout each method to make things easier
along the way.
1. Use Keywords To Gather Demographics Data
Keyword research is one
of the core tasks of SEO. Keywords should be targeted and relevant to your
products or services, which is something you likely already know.
Once you have a solid
list of keywords, select the top five that represent your brand the best and find
out the demographics associated with those words and phrases.
Google Trends will
provide you with demographic information tied to the location and will show you
how the keyword has trended over time.
Google Trends really
came in handy during the pandemic when people’s online behaviors were quickly
shifting.
Tip: How To Apply This Information
Identifying demographic
information, including age, gender, and location can help you in SEO in many
ways.
You can look for local
link opportunities in the geographic areas where queries occur.
In terms of age and
gender, you can determine topics, interests, and other terminology that is
relevant to those groups.
2. Identify Who Is Visiting Your Website
This method is kind of
like painting the target around the arrow.
However, it is
important to understand who is coming to your website and then you can
determine if that is the correct audience.
One of the easiest ways
to get this information is from Google Analytics.
Tip: How To Apply This Information
This data can give
insight into the audience and will help you as you recommend content topics and
target geographic areas.
On the other hand, you
might look at this information and realize that it does not align with your
organization’s target markets.
In that case, you need
to take a close look at your keywords and content to make sure there is no
misalignment.
Quantcast
Quantcast pulls
together insights on purchase behaviors, occupations, device usage, demographics,
domain affinity, and more. The example below is an analysis of Goodreads.com.
Audiense
According to
Audiense.com, they build the audience using eight different criteria, “which
can be combined together allowing the creation of highly targeted audiences:
Demography, Relationships, Behavior (activity), Conversations, IBM Watson
Personality Insights, Location, Interests, and Twitter profile.”
Tip: How To Apply This Information
Similar to the last
method, this data can give insight into the audience and will help you as you
recommend content topics and target geographic areas.
4. Use Social Insights
Social platforms are
one of the quickest ways to get information about an audience.
You can view
follower/fan information directly on your company’s Facebook page
Tip: How To Apply This Information
Specifically, the word
cloud in Follower wonk can help you identify other keywords you might have
missed and can also present content marketing ideas.
5. Send Out Surveys
This method is the most
straightforward out of all of them on this list. If you want to understand your
audience better, send out a survey.
To get a decent number
of surveys returned, keep it short and sweet. Ask questions about basic
demographics, overall interests, pain points, and needs.
Tip: How To Apply This Information
Use the information you
gather in the survey to identify content opportunities, including images and
videos, keyword targets, etc.
6. Identify Questions
With Google
increasingly showing answers directly in SERPs, identifying common user
questions has become that much more important.
Plus, we want to
anticipate the long-tail queries of our potential audience, so we can get in
front of them at the right time. There are many tools that provide common
questions, including:
- AlsoAsked.
- AnswerThePublic.
- BuzzSumo.
- Semrush.
These tools pull from
various data sources, so it is worthwhile to check out them all. Below is an
example from Answer The Public.
Create content around
common questions to attract long-tail searches among your audience and to
increase your odds of showing up as a direct answer in Google SERPs.
7. Research Secondary Data
Once you know
age/interests/etc. of your audience, you can fill in the blanks through further
research. Look for studies regarding one of the key aspects of your audience.
Tip: How To Apply This Information
Use this additional
research to sketch your personas and get a better view of who it is you are
trying to target via SEO.
Final Thoughts
It might seem like a
lot of extra work to dive into your audience before getting into SEO tasks. However,
it is well worth the time.
You will be able to
drive better traffic to your website and improve your ROI on SEO.
Resource: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/methods-research-analyze-audience/306487
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