User search behavior may be navigational, informational, and transactional. The search behavior is navigational when the user, for instance, searches Google for social networking sites like LinkedIn or Facebook, and informational search, when the user may ask for information such as the “benefits of SEO.”
The Global Ecommerce forecast study for 2022 states that for the first time in history, eCommerce sales will exceed $5Tr worldwide. So how do the consumers find the product they want to buy? They do a transactional search. User behavior data heavily influences organic search rankings.
This post is an understanding of user behavior effects on Google ranking.
How do Search Engines Rank Web Pages?
When a user types a keyword, Google displays a list that matches it and watches the user’s behavior. In subsequent searches, the search engine will list websites as per user behavior data, i.e., the sites on which the users spend more time.
Google receives user satisfaction metrics like click-through rates prompting them to user behavior, and they would have gotten that from their user intent algorithm. Well, that is how much user behavior affects Google search. Google displays search results based on what it thinks is relevant to its users.
In the past, relevant searches on Google depended on the user’s keyword. However, the algorithm has evolved much from then, and today, the relevant search results on Google mean results that satisfy the user intent. You can use a local seo companyto help you to understand user behavior data to increase your SEO ranking.
Understanding Customer Behavior and its Impact on website Ranking
Web admins build their SEO campaigns on keyword and competitor research. However, today it is also relevant to consider user needs and preferences.
The User Metric that Matters
The click-through rate (CTR), working as a user vote, tells Google that the user has found something of value on the web page, and Google elevates that site by ranking them higher. It is also the deciding factor for paid search, and it provides the quality score that Google uses to push up an ad that works to bring down cost-per-click (CPC).
The Influence of Search Engine Position on Click-through Rates
The position on the search engine result doesn’t work unless there is traffic to the site; that is, users click on your site, which affects conversions. Thus you’re not optimized even if you’re the first SERP result as few people click through. Therefore CTR plays a significant role in SEO.
Know your CTR score
Google Search Console (GSC) is a handy tool for knowing web page performance. It displays the CTR by default. However, that may not serve the purpose because it is an average CTR value for all ranking queries and pages. If you want to know the CTR score of your webpage, you need to state the webpage and the query. You can use the GSC filters to narrow your analysis to display the web pages with a CTR score in a range.
How to Improve the CTR Score?
Users search for helpful content, and search engines work on the user input keyword to give them a list of websites that match. To ensure better CTR scores:
- Include at least one focus keyword in the headlines.
- Follow it up with a compelling copy.
- Visuals, animations, and videos are influencers that work in building the CTR score.
- Hashtag your content.
- Include a call to action (CTA) that entices the user to click on it.
Duration of a Key Metric
The duration or dwell time is a key SEO metric that sends messages to Google whether the content on the web page was engaging to the user. It is the time from when a user clicks to get into a website to when they click out.
Calculate the Time on a Page
The average session duration indicator on Google Analytics (GA) calculates the dwell time by stating the average time the visitor spent on your website. It involves a simple calculation whereby the entire duration of all visits and sessions, right up to a second, is added up and divided by the overall session numbers. It also considers the inactivity cut-off time to give the user’s exact time on the website.
How to Hold your Customer for Longer Periods?
When the content appeals to them, they could spend hours on the website. Improve the content and appearance of the website and highlight your offerings for customer retention.
What happens when the visitor logs into the website?
When users log into your website, you can record their interests and consistently mail them the new content relevant to their interests to entice them to visit your website regularly. If the users find the website helpful enough, your website may soon become their go-to website, and they may bring more traffic, conversions, an increase in dwell time, and a rise in SEO rankings.
Customer Satisfaction Indicator
The satisfied customers keep returning for more and may even propagate your product to help you get new customers without spending on digital marketing strategies. Thus, customer satisfaction indicators become key metrics that can help the business measure its success and predict future growth. Websites can check customer satisfaction scores by sending out a few queries as surveys.
Satisfy Queries
Let visitors keep returning with more queries by providing information that satisfies them. Provide high-quality SEO content that gives them sufficient information to solve their problem or answer their questions.
Visitors Add to the Bounce Rate
These are the visitors who did not affect conversions, and if you can stop them from leaving, it can help your website move a few positions up on the SERPs.
Find Out the Bounce Rate of Your Website
As bounce rates are the percentage of visitors who visit your website but don’t engage, you can calculate the bounce rate by adding up all the single-page visits and dividing it by the overall visits to the site.
How to fix Bounce Rate?
A bounce rate can bring down your website’s SEO ranking for every bounce, indicating that the site did not provide the valuable information the user was looking to find. You can improve it by using user feedback to enhance the design, content, and overall user experience to stop them from leaving.
Wrapping up
Now that we know that user behavior is instrumental in helping your website rank higher, you must consider the key metrics that favor SEO ranking and work on improvising. Give your visitors what they came for by providing keyword-related content that is rare to find elsewhere.
Meanwhile, the post also discusses key metrics that negatively affect your SEO ranking. One such metric is bounce rates. Ensure an increase in dwell time by retaining visitors to your site. That will help improve bounce rate and increase dwell time, and Google will think of your website as valuable and give you a higher SEO ranking.
