Last week, Mark Scholl, founder and Managing Partner of EnginePoint, visited Marketing Works. EnginePoint is a marketing firm located right here in Columbus that specializes in studying how people interact with search engines. During his visit, he discussed the benefit of understanding the behavior of consumers and how keywords can help your product appear in more searches. “Search engines are the largest focus group in the world,” says Mark Scholl,” so for that reason, it is important to utilize them wisely.” Here are three key points we learned:
1. Do your keyword research. When determining how to optimize your business’ visibility in search engines, it’s important to know what your audience is searching. When beginning to understand your audience you need to gather five pieces of information:
- Figure out what problem your audience is trying to solve. Why are they searching for those keywords?
- Gather information and understand what results your audience is getting when they search those keywords.
- Evaluate the results of the first two steps to guide your own approach.
- Decide what direction you would like your strategy to take.
- Convert that research into an action plan of how you are going to drive your audience to your page.
2. Guide your audience’s search. Understanding how search engines use the keywords to come back with the most relevant information. The same goes for your audience. When you understand what your audience is searching in your industry, you can use those keywords more frequently in order to align with your audience’s inquiries and interests. There are four important steps to determining how to target your audience:
- Determine your own intent by figuring out who your audience is and what is being delivered.
- Initiate your approach by determining what your target audience searches.
- Deliver your message by getting your audience exactly where you want them.
- Respond to your audience by finding ways to lead them through the pages of your website, which will result in action.
3. Search engines demonstrate consumer behavior. Keywords are popular during certain times of year. It is important to time your marketing strategies accordingly in order to get your website noticed when the keywords are frequently being searched. Similarly, keywords can also determine where consumers are in the search process. If they are searching vague attributes of a product, that may mean they are just starting out their research. On the other hand, if consumers are searching for very specific features, they may be further in their research and in the process of comparing products
Understanding where your site stands from an SEO perspective will give you details on how to move forward to be successful on search engines. This will also help you understand how consumers are reaching your site.
Has this blog got you wondering how your site ranks in SEO? Contact us for a free SEO assessment!