The digital revolution has completely changed the way we do business. Nowadays, even the smallest businesses can market their services and products to a worldwide audience, and some of our favorite high-street stores now trade solely online.
There are many advantages to migrating online, such as the reduced overheads of not requiring a large office and the ability to sell internationally. However, unless you optimize your website for the web, you’ll merely be a drop in the ocean. Most people go straight to their mobile devices to search for products, and some of them are searching for you.
Keywords alone were previously the biggest driving force behind SEO strategies, but high-quality content that engages readers is more crucial than ever. When customers find your website, you need to tell them what they want to hear.
According to Communications for Research, “Research reporting is about understanding the audience that is going to be receiving the information, knowing the research goals, and doing the diligent work to draw high quality, accurate conclusions (insights) from the data collected to help communicate meaningful outcomes.” With that in mind, here’s how professional market researchers can boost your SEO efforts.
Find More Relevant Keywords
If your website is going to make an impact, you need to rank in the top 20 results for keywords related to your particular business. People simply don’t bother looking further than the first two pages because there’s rarely any need.
While we’ve mentioned that keywords alone aren’t enough to propel you to the top results, you need to have a clear understanding of what your target audience is looking for and how they’re looking for it.
Additionally, you won’t stand much chance of beating the giant websites for too generalized keywords, meaning it’s important to target keywords specific to your business. Thorough market research will tell you what keywords need targeting to attract new visitors to your site.
Learn What Your Competitors Are Doing
When it comes down to it, SEO strategies are purposed to elevate you above your competition in the search rankings. The market research professionals can study your competitors’ activities to find out which keywords they’re targeting, which phrases they rank highly for, and which keywords they’re not targeting to provide you with a competitive edge. A
s much as SEO is about ranking higher than your direct competitors for keywords related to you both, it’s also about finding gaps where opportunities lie.
Find Out How to Improve Your Content
As aforementioned, utilizing the right keywords in your copy alone isn’t going to catapult you to the top of Google’s search engine results. The major search engines have advanced rapidly over the years, and they’re putting more of their resources into ensuring keyword-stuffed copy doesn’t rank highly.
They’re trying to connect people to useful information that provides a real answer to their query, which means retention rates, backlinks, and social media shares are essential to your SEO efforts. Market research helps you understand the needs of your customers regarding what they’re looking for and what information they want to find when they arrive at your landing page.
Improve Your Website’s Design
Have you ever visited a website that had an offensive color scheme, poorly written copy, and a lack of interactivity? You might not remember because you probably didn’t stay there very long.
Even if you miraculously reach the top of Google’s rankings with a poorly designed website, you need to ensure customers are enticed to stay and read what you have to say. So that you can find out whether visitors enjoy browsing your site, market research can study patterns of behavior regarding which pages are a hit and which pages are closed instantly.
Plus, surveys can be a useful tool to find out how visitors enjoyed the overall browsing experience.
Market research is a fantastic way of gathering both qualitative and quantitative data to help you fine-tune your website and create an effective SEO strategy. Trial and error may be a cheaper method, but it’s wasteful in terms of time and resources and could allow your competitors to storm ahead.
You need to be aware that in the modern world, every business is trying to beat the competition online because modern consumers rely on the Internet to find the products they need. Fortunately, professional market researchers exist to give you an insight into your SEO performance and highlight valuable areas for improvement.