When I think of search engine optimization, it is easy for me to define it as, essentially, getting your website as close as possible to the top of the search results of Google, Bing, Yahoo!, DuckDuckGo, etc. But the problem with this definition is that it overlooks the actual people who type into the search bar in the effort to acquire popularity and profit. Exploring the motivations and traits of your website’s target user is an absolutely vital part of your website’s success. Optimizing your website without fully understanding your customers or target users is like trying to build a cart without wheels.
Exploring the attributes and online behaviors of target users is fascinating work. In her article, “7 Methods to Research & Analyze Your Audience for SEO,” Mindy Weinstein explored the most-searched-for recipes worldwide during the COVID pandemic. A major trend was banana bread. She used Demographics.io to “tie demographic data to keywords” and found that about 70% of those who searched for “banana bread” were women and most who searched were between 35 and 64 years of age. “You can look for local link opportunities in the geographic areas where queries occur,” she wrote. “In terms of age and gender, you can determine topics, interests, and other terminology that is relevant to those groups.”
Someone who searches for “banana bread” may also search “comfort food”, “easy dessert recipes”, or even “loaf pan”. It’s important to think about need your user is trying to fill, where your user prefers to fill similar needs (e.g. Amazon, Pinterest, Walmart.com, etc.), whether your user has visited similar sites before, to which culture they belong, and many other questions.
One Response
This is a very useful blog post. It is really helpful when trying to understand the connections between keywords and content.