How To Use SEO To Improve Customer Experience: 8 Best Practices

With the insatiable hunger of ever-demanding customers on the rise, it has become more important to improve your customer experience than ever before. Understand that a customer of today has a lot of options and plenty more alternatives than were available in the past, and it would not cost them more than a second to switch to your competitor if met with a, shall we say, “less than comfortable” experience. When it comes to customer experience (CX), search engine optimization (SEO) holds a lot of weight.

It may come as a surprise to learn that effective SEO can change the face of your customer experience almost entirely. Using it as a primary CX tool can boost your rankings and compel your customers to convert or stick around for a little longer. Wondering how this happens? This blog is for you.

Here Are 8 Battle-Tested Ideas to Get You Thinking About the Relationship Between CX and SEO

1. Create Right and Relevant Content 

The content that you post on your website is a huge indicator of how an organization ranks. Google carries out a special algorithm where it determines industry experts based on the content that a site produces. And, for Google to recognize you, your content should do all the talking. One way to leverage this is via enriching blogs that are specific to your niche. You can simultaneously augment the customer experience and build your SEO.

Ensure that you regularly update your site with fresh content – this is a stellar strategy that will keep Google happy. Remember: Posting content that addresses your target audience’s queries not only enhances your SEO but also meets the unfulfilled requests of a potential client, making them more likely to land on your site. 

2. Use Interlinking To Increase Searchability 

Adding internal links is a cornerstone of excellent on-page SEO. You can simply build links that direct to other related pages on your site. This will help search engines understand your site structure, zero in on your pages and rank them better when keywords relevant to you are searched.

Google’s algorithm is slightly more inclined towards pages that have a good internal linking structure. For less engaging blog posts, you can use interlinking to increase the chances of it being discovered. 

3. Increase the Speed of Your Website 

Yes, your site’s speed matters a lot. As a matter of fact, Google considers site speed to be one of the most crucial ranking factors. You will see that a site with faster speed not only triggers SEO benefits but also has a major impact on customer engagement and customer experience. 

A delay as minute as one second can lead to a five percent drop in your overall readership percentage. And why shouldn’t that be the case? After all, there is nothing more frustrating to a user than landing on a site that does not stop buffering!

To reduce your loading time, you can try to compress the size of the images you’ve uploaded and also decrease the number of plugins on a dedicated server. You will find many tools online to check your site’s current load time.

4. Know What Your Customers Want 

If a customer of yours faces an issue with your product, they will most likely take to the internet to find a solution. Fortunately, finding content that satisfies their queries will encourage them to come back and do more business with you. This, in turn, can also turn SEO into a vital customer service strategy. Also, when a piece of content has strong SEO, the chances of it getting ranked higher and being highlighted in the featured snippet increase.

Once you do this, map out a customer journey and identify some of the most immediate concerns of a customer during each stage of the buying cycle. While you may want to begin by highlighting the product features and benefits, you would then want to zero in on guides and how-tos. This can be followed by highlighting frequently asked questions (FAQs), and slowly you will work your way towards a better CX score. 

5. Shift Towards Mobile

It’s no surprise that the customer of today is migrating from being a desktop internet user to a mobile user. According to a report by Search Engine Land, approximately 60 percent of searches come from mobile devices alone. If you have a mobile-friendly site, it will load quickly and require minimal scrolling. These factors, although seemingly insignificant, are crucial in rendering an exceptional mobile experience to users. Customers are less keen to endlessly scroll on for a really long time in search of an answer – instead, they’ll bounce off your site.

Also, remember to use responsive designs that adapt to any screen size no matter what device is being used.

6. Engage With Your Prospects on Social Media 

You can instantly double your engagement if you take to social media. Social media platforms provide the perfect environment for personally interacting with your customers. Further, it is a great way to thank a customer who has applauded your product or service in one of their posts. Responding to customer feedback shows that you are watching and that you truly care.

The same goes if you respond to an agitated customer who has had a negative experience with your service. Grab that opportunity and see what you and your team can do to fix that issue. This way, you not only prevent a precious client from turning to your competition but also set a precedent for taking your business and customers seriously.

Social media also offers many ways to incorporate SEO, for example, with hashtags. Using your keywords here will make your post easy to find. 

7. Include All Your Contact Details 

The best website must contain all your contact details. This includes your name, address (preferably with GPS coordinates), phone number and email address if required. It will cut a sorry image if a customer does not find this right away on the homepage. Think of it from a customer’s perspective – you may have all the requisite merchandise but your contact information is not where it is supposed to be. 

Including your contact details is a simple and effective way to better serve your clients. This is also a vital factor for local SEO. Being easily findable raises your chances for more clicks and can eventually help you hit more sales too. Keeping this data consistent across platforms is a strategy that has been used by several businesses to rank more prominently on Google Maps. 

8. Get More Good Reviews

You may think that reviews have little role in boosting your rankings but this is not the case. Reviews often determine whether a customer will associate with your company or not. According to a report by Review Push, about 90 percent of customers say online reviews have influenced a recent purchase decision. They trust an online review as much as they do a personal recommendation from a friend or relative. 

Further, reviews increase your brand recognition. And how can you guarantee good reviews? By making sure you create an excellent customer experience, of course! 

That’s a Wrap 

It goes without saying that SEO and customer experience have a direct correlation. SEO is not all about building backlinks and stuffing keywords – the concept goes a lot deeper. When you look at SEO holistically, you will have the ability to completely convert a new prospect into a loyal, raving brand advocate. 

For now, your goal should be to put your most relevant and worthwhile information in front of customers and provide them with an amazing experience. If this is what you strive to do, the SEO game is yours to win, and you’ll have the potential to reach “industry expert” status in your field. When this happens, don’t forget to thank us!