Customer-Centric SEO: How To Enhance Customer Experiences via @sejournal, @jasonhennessey

We’ve each heard the phrase, “The customer’s ever right.” It’s a communal mantra successful lawsuit work and hospitality – and, I’d argue, should transportation implicit into the satellite of SEO arsenic well!

After all, we SEO pros are successful the concern of not lone pleasing Google but besides appealing to the needs and interests of prospective consumers.

Customers bash the searching, navigate your website, and yet determine whether your marque is worthy buying from.

While galore SEO tactics absorption connected rankings and clicks, customer-centric SEO asserts that the idiosyncratic acquisition on-site should beryllium the apical priority.

So, if you’re looking to heighten lawsuit experiences and build marque loyalty, see these customer-first SEO strategies.

What Is Customer-Centric SEO?

Customer-centric SEO prioritizes the user’s online experience, from navigating your website to the contented that appeals to their needs and interests.

Instead of implementing SEO improvements for the involvement of show metrics oregon rankings, customer-centric SEO combines optimization champion practices with a deeper, purposeful knowing of idiosyncratic behaviour and lawsuit goals.

The value of idiosyncratic acquisition (UX) successful SEO has grown, successful nary tiny part, owed to the rollout of a leafage acquisition study successful Google Search Console analytics (April 2021, now depreciated) and Google’s Page Experience Update successful May 2021.

SEO Improvements To Enhance Customer Experience, Behavior

Designing a large website UX and providing invaluable contented are 2 important aspects of customer-centric SEO, but galore different factors tin impact idiosyncratic behavior, trust, and marque loyalty.

Here are a fewer ways to heighten the idiosyncratic experience, summation conversions, and physique a loyal lawsuit base.

1. Make Information Easy To Find With User-Friendly Navigation

One of the champion ways to facilitate a affable idiosyncratic acquisition is done simple, organized site navigation.

A website’s operation should not beryllium convoluted; rather, it should marque it casual for users to find information, navigate to related pages, larn astir your products oregon services, and proceed with their enquiry oregon purchase.

An illustration of mediocre tract navigation mightiness see a cluttered paper with excessively galore drop-down options, breached links resulting successful 404 pages, a deficiency of wide categories oregon topical hierarchy, oregon the lack of a search bar to assistance users successful uncovering circumstantial information.

On the different hand, user-friendly tract navigation volition person an intuitive paper with wide leafage categories (e.g., Services, Products, About Us, etc.), breadcrumbs that bespeak wherever users are wrong the site, and a hunt relation that helps radical find results quickly.

It volition besides support a shallow leafage depth, keeping the fig of clicks required for users to entree important pages astatine a minimum.

Optimized tract navigation volition not lone assistance alteration faster hunt motor crawling and indexation, but besides trim friction successful website visitors’ way to purchase.

2. Reduce Visual Bloat And Page Speed Issues

It’s nary concealed that page speed is an important origin successful idiosyncratic acquisition and hunt motor rankings.

Today’s consumers expect a accelerated and easy-to-use website, and hunt engines thin to prioritize sites that person a accelerated loading speed.

PageSpeed Insights is the go-to trial to measure a website’s loading velocity and acquisition crossed desktop and mobile devices.

If a website yields a debased people (any little than 60/100), this indicates a dilatory loading time, which tin deter prospective customers.

Some factors that whitethorn lend to dilatory loading speed see unoptimized leafage codification (CSS, unnecessary JavaScript, etc.), ocular bloat done ample images and video files, hosting your website connected a dilatory hosting server, and the beingness of different render-blocking scripts/stylesheets that hold loading of your main leafage content.

That said, determination are galore much elements that whitethorn beryllium hindering your site’s velocity and rendering, truthful beryllium definite to measure your circumstantial tract and reappraisal the items outlined successful the PageSpeed Insights report.

Data from a leafage velocity study reveals that astir 70% of online shoppers origin successful loading clip earlier making a purchase.

Customer-centric SEO prioritizes loading velocity arsenic a substance of idiosyncratic experience, knowing that a dilatory website tin beryllium a immense deterrent to caller tract visitors.

3. Audit Content For Timeliness And Relevance

In the SEO space, there’s a beardown gully toward evergreen content owed to its committedness of long-running integrated traffic.

While evergreen contented has its place, it sometimes does a disservice to caller website visitors if it is not regularly updated and maintained.

For example, a antecedently published “Social Media Marketing Best Practices” leafage mightiness person included applicable statistic from 2023, but caller visitors are apt looking for much timely information, up-to-date examples, and existent sources.

Thus, auditing and updating existing contented should beryllium an ongoing signifier successful customer-centric SEO. This allows 1 to place outdated information, nexus to much caller sources, adhd accusation arsenic relevant, and supply much worth to prospective customers.

Here are a fewer things to look for erstwhile refreshing aged content:

• Is the accusation inactive close and applicable to today’s audience?
• Are determination outdated statistics, articles, oregon references that request updating?
• Do each interior and outer links inactive work? Are they pointing to the champion sources?
• Has hunt intent changed? Does the contented inactive align with idiosyncratic expectations?
• Are determination caller insights, lawsuit studies, oregon examples that could heighten the content?
• Are determination opportunities to amended formatting and readability (e.g., adding images, videos, oregon slug points)?
• Does the contented bespeak the latest manufacture guidelines and/or exertion updates?
• Are determination opportunities to grow oregon consolidate contented for amended clarity?
• Is the metadata inactive optimized to thrust clicks successful the hunt results?

I highly urge moving done these questions similar a checklist, astatine slightest each quarter.

Not lone volition this let you to drawback missed SEO opportunities (in presumption of contented length, metadata updates, etc.), but it besides volition guarantee that your contented is inactive applicable and invaluable to incoming visitors.

4. Implement A Mobile-First Website Design

In 2024, mobile devices generated the bulk (64.54%) of each planetary website traffic.

With truthful galore users searching for accusation via mobile devices (smartphones, tablets, etc.), having a mobile-friendly website is perfectly essential.

In summation to ensuring a accelerated load speed, your website should beryllium responsive (load correctly, beryllium casual to navigate, etc.) connected each types of devices.

Best practices for mobile-friendliness see disabling intrusive pop-ups and show ads, formatting the mobile mentation of your tract to accommodate to assorted surface sizes, and utilizing ample and easy “clickable” buttons truthful users tin navigate your site.

One important constituent that often changes betwixt a site’s desktop and mobile versions is the navigation.

The paper barroom connected the mobile mentation of your tract whitethorn beryllium larger; see a much compressed hamburger menu, and possibly larger text. This makes it easier for users to click connected the paper items adjacent erstwhile utilizing a smaller screen.

Mobile-friendliness is not a “nice to have.” In this fast-paced world, users expect a affirmative acquisition nary substance wherever they search. This makes mobile optimization an indispensable facet of customer-centric SEO.

5. Put Trust Factors At The Forefront

In keeping with the taxable of making accusation casual to find, your site’s lawsuit studies, reviews, and testimonials should besides beryllium astatine the forefront.

Avoid nesting this important info – what I telephone “trust factors” – heavy successful your website (as galore do, astatine the bottommost of a webpage).

Instead, embed testimonials strategically successful your content. Accompany these testimonials with merchandise oregon work examples, lawsuit names, and adjacent videos to adhd to the ocular appeal.

Build retired robust lawsuit studies that explicate however your products/services enactment and the benefits they’ve provided to your customers.

By making this accusation highly visible, you’ll physique spot with prospective customers much quickly, eliminating the request for them to hunt done your tract to find impervious of your credibility.

6. Make Content Skimmable And Well-Organized

When it comes to webpage and blog station content, customer-centric SEO makes the assemblage contented easier to scan and digest.

This means adding strategical headings that found a hierarchy betwixt sections and adding bulleted oregon numbered lists to amended signifier the text.

Few radical privation to work a partition of substance that reads much similar an effort than an informative guide.

Formatting gives readers “breathing room” arsenic they skim the information, contemplate the worth provided, and hunt for references wrong your content.

Ideally, your contented should beryllium formatted successful specified a mode that readers can:

• Immediately cognize what the contented is astir (i.e., a wide title).
• Easily scan the astir important sections, intelligibly labeled with circumstantial headers.
• Readily find sources cited and interior links to related content.

7. CRO Your CTAs

Calls-to-action (CTAs) are often a driving unit successful getting users to instrumentality enactment connected your tract – whether that’s calling your business, signing up for your newsletter, oregon making a purchase.

With customer-centric SEO, you marque definite these CTAs are prominent, concise, and casual to navigate.

First, there’s the plan facet of your CTAs. Are they visually appealing? Is the colour opposition specified that users tin easy find them? Do they basal retired from different parts of your content?

Then, there’s the substance itself. Is the CTA wide successful what enactment you privation users to take? Does the substance connote wherever the idiosyncratic volition beryllium directed next? Does it usage enactment verbs to compel clicks?

Some examples of mediocre CTAs tin include:

• “See here.”
• “More.”
• “Read.”

However, immoderate much compelling CTAs whitethorn include:

• “Browse products.”
• “Book a escaped demo.”
• “Schedule a consultation.”
• “Read related articles.”

Both the ocular plan and the substance are important successful appealing to users and driving the desired action.

8. Break Up Text With Media Elements And Eye-Catching Graphics

Add intrigue to your contented by breaking up walls of substance with customized graphics, videos, downloadables, GIFs, and different types of media.

Many studies person pointed to the worth of images successful content, indicating that engagement rates improve erstwhile high-quality visuals are used.

Media adds to the ocular entreaty of your content, but it tin besides bring SEO benefits arsenic well.

For instance, pre-recorded videos embedded connected your website and uploaded to YouTube tin thrust further postulation via hunt engines, YouTube Search, and akin methods.

There’s an accessibility constituent arsenic well.

Media optimized with descriptive alt text is much readily accessible by e-readers, devices utilized by visually impaired individuals to recognize contented connected the web. This is an SEO champion signifier and a idiosyncratic acquisition champion practice.

A Confident Future In Customer-Centric SEO

Chances are, galore of the SEO champion practices you’ve been implementing to day were designed with idiosyncratic acquisition successful mind.

Search engines person a agelong past of considering the idiosyncratic experience, from algorithm changes to emerging technologies successful analytics tools.

But determination are up-and-coming practices arsenic good – ones that SEO pros would beryllium remiss to neglect successful aboriginal guardant strategies.

Customer-centric SEO is simply a doctrine that puts the lawsuit first.

Outside of optimization, for optimization’s sake, it involves purposeful changes to marque a user’s acquisition much enjoyable.

This tin bring tangible benefits for the marque – successful presumption of postulation and income – and meaningful benefits to the user, successful presumption of easiness of use, accessibility, and trust.

More Resources:

• 12 Essential Steps In Building A Winning SEO Strategy
• 15 Reasons Why Your Business Absolutely Needs SEO
• UX & SEO: Enhancing Online Discoverability And User Experience With A Combined Approach

Featured Image: PeopleImages.com – Yuri A/Shutterstock