Cite This Sharon Conwell, (2017, September 28). The Psychology of SEO: Understanding User Behaviour to Increase Google Ranking. Psychreg on General. https://www.psychreg.org/psychology-of-seo/

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Unfortunately, there’s so much more to SEO than just format, keywords and content. The internet has become just a vast and sprawling network that people spend so much time on that psychology has become a vital part of day-to-day life.

In fact, the average adult spends over 27 hours a week online. This is a huge amount of time and full of untapped potential. Let’s explore several ways that you can use psychology to boost your Google ranking.

Get to know your customers

If you have no knowledge of who your customers are or how they think, how are you supposed to give them the service or product that they’re looking for?

One of the best ways to do this is by writing out detailed customer profiles and listing up all the attributes that this person will have. For example, you might be a running website that markets running accessories and clothes to runners.

You could have a teenager who runs every morning. A mum who runs every day after she has dropped her kids off at school. You could have a marathon runner. The possibilities are endless but, by creating these profiles, you’ll be able to narrow down your target market, allowing you to market to them in the best way.

Identify where your customer stops

As your customers navigate your website, there are going to be times where their mind says, ‘OK, I don’t need this product or service’, or words to that effect. However, you need to identify these areas of your website so you can adjust them so this doesn’t happen.

‘As you should already know, SEO content is not about stuffing as many keywords into an article or post as you can, it’s about providing your users with real valuable content that will help them’, says Leona Trotter, a Digital Marketer at Big Assignments. Using the example above, you can’t just use the same content for everybody. You’ll need custom content for customer markets.

Use images and videos

Using multimedia content is vital to the success of your content and, therefore, your business. However, have you ever considered how your images might directly influence your SEO ranking?

The important aspect of this point is that humans are naturally visual people and it’s in their psychology to respond in a certain way to images.

This is why platforms such as Instagram and Pinterest are so successful. According to some studies, humans can process images and videos nearly 60,000 times faster than they can text.

However, you can’t just use any old images. Using your own made photos, maybe of your employees or offices, such as behind the scenes images, will be so much more beneficial to your ranking. When it comes to this a website SEO score checker , you can use this website.

Understand the search engines

You can learn a ton of information about people’s psychology by researching the search queries they use in the search engines. Previously, users would search quite ‘blunt’ terms to find what they’re looking for, such as ‘running shoes for marathons’.

But, with the creation and implementation of voice searching and the sorts, a user is much more likely to search ‘What are the best running shoes for a marathon?’. Google has taken this into account, and it reflects on how web pages are ranked.

‘This means you need to alter your content to match these search terms. For example, you may see that many headlines for content are labelled “What are the best shoes for running a marathon?”, directly influencing its SEO ranking’ – explains Benjamin Bullion, a consumer psychologist at UK Writings.

Optimise your user experience

Search engines will pay a lot of attention to how your website is built and the structure behind it. This will also include your user interface and how easy it is for your users to navigate and use your website.

In short, this means that your website should put your users first, giving them a fluid experience that they’ll enjoy using and won’t find too challenging. This means you’ll need to use a responsive website that can adapt to whatever device the user is using, whether it’s a desktop computer or mobile device.

Sharing your content

Having your readers read through your content and taking away the information is simply not enough in today’s world. You want your users to put their credibility on the line for your business by sharing your content.

Susan Dillard, a CRM Manager at Boomessays states: ‘However, you’ll need to consider the psychology of why people share things online. Surprisingly, only 49 per cent of users will share something because they find it entertaining. On the other hand, 84 per cent of users will share something because it supports a cause or 78 per cent to stay connected with their friends.’

Consider this when creating your content. The more shares you get, the higher your SEO ranking will be.

Provide guidance

As much as we don’t like to admit it, the majority of internet users, both online and offline, are sheep and will look to other people to see where to go. This is why content goes viral. This means you’ll need to use calls to action in your post.

Of course, you don’t need to be so direct with what you’re telling them, but instead, subtly guide them through your site to where you want them to go. Consider that a new user to your website may just be checking you out to see if you’re the right website, but you want to slowly but surely guide them through to being a customer.

Before you start trying to develop an SEO strategy, it’s so important that you get inside the heads of your customers so you can be sure exactly what makes them tick. Not only will this help you to market your website more effectively, but will also help you to become more profitable.

Sharon Conwell has been a content manager and ghost writer at over 20 online projects, now she is a part-time educator and a freelance writer at Essayroo.