Knowing your customer is a fundamental business principle. How can you keep customers happy if you don’t know them? How can you turn casual customers into loyal customers if you don’t know what makes them tick? Knowing the customer even has benefits in the SEO arena. In fact, knowing your customer is critical to SEO success.
SEO, known more formally as search engine optimization, is a collection of tools and strategies designed to improve the performance of a website in organic searches on Google, Bing, Duck Duck Go, etc. Organic searches are supposed to help bring in new customers by driving traffic. So it stands to reason that SEO efforts should target the types of people most likely to become customers. How can you do that if you don’t know your customers?
Where do they live?
SEO experts recommend collecting and analyzing demographic data on existing customers. For example, where do they live? The information could prove more valuable depending on the type of business an entrepreneur is operating. Let us use the example of a ski shop in Park City, UT.
Salt Lake City’s Webtek Digital Marketing would want to put a high priority on Utah SEO to market that ski shop. Webtek team members would definitely put some effort into marketing to local residents. But a little research would reveal that a ton of out-of-state skiers visit Park City every winter to enjoy some of the best snow-covered mountains in the country.
It would be in Webtek’s best interests to find out where those visitors are coming from. That would allow them to modify their mostly Utah SEO strategies to take advantage of customers in other parts of the country.
What are their interests?
Another valuable piece of information pertains to customer interests. If you are attempting to market a Utah ski shop, you already know that skiing interests potential customers. But what about the offseason? The shop probably offers a variety of products and gear for spring, summer, and fall activities. Those are the things to market during the offseason. So outside of skiing, what interests the shop’s local customer base?
What is their annual income?
Webtek says a lot of companies rely on customer personas to help them understand who they are marketing to. A customer persona is a fictional representation of a typical costumer. And part of a persona is annual income. Why does this matter?
Different types of customers have different spending habits based largely on income level. Knowing a typical customer’s annual income offers a clear understanding of their purchasing tendencies. Knowing such information can help everything from keyword research to content marketing.
How about age, sex, etc.?
Some of the demographic information important to SEO experts is more personal. It includes things like age, sex, etc. The information matters for the simple fact that marketing tactics change based on the type of audience you are attempting to reach. SEO that effectively reaches 20-something females might be completely ineffective in reaching baby boomers. Messages that appeal to millennials may have no appeal to teen boys.
SEO is all about finding ways to get websites to rank well in organic searches. In order to do that, marketers need to understand who it is that is actually searching for the companies they work with. They need to know the types of people who want the products or services. They need to know where those people live, how much money they make, and so on. Knowing the customer is critical to crafting the right messages to reach them through search engines and marketing efforts.
