How does your target audience think about your brand and products or services? Here’s an easy way to get an objective, third-party view: take a look at search results.
Google search is really good at giving users the types and depth of information they want to see. And it is really different for all the various things people search for.
The type of content displayed is not an accident. Google tracks what people click on when they search. It knows that people searching for yoga mat want to see products, not YouTube videos. It knows they’ll click to website articles, but only specific types of articles.
As a marketer, you can use this information to understand how your target audience thinks about your brand, products and services. Are they looking for definitions or comparisons? Videos or articles? What topics do they want to drill down into? It’s the ultimate in cheap and easy market research.
Before you start: Because your past search history influences what appears on the SERP, open a New Incognito Window or private window to do the search.
First, select:
Then, search in Google for each phrase, and review these six things:
How to analyze a SERP
Look at: If your business’s website, video, listing, etc. shows up, look at how it’s presented
What this tells you: Is the listing accurate and the best presentation of your brand?
What to do with the information: If you don’t like what you see, work with your ads and SEO team to improve the results. Unfortunately, we can’t 100% control what Google shows, but we can probably improve it.
Look at: What type of results are shown–webpages, videos, shopping ads, local listings? Are the types of content different from previous years?
What this tells you: First, what content medium people are most interested in for this query. Second, what types of content you’ll need to build or optimize to rank well for this term.
What to do with the information: Compare the type of content ranking well to the type of content you produce. There is a lot more dynamic content in SERPs than a few years ago, particularly video. Are there opportunities to fill out your content plan with more video?
Look at: The type of content that ranks well. Is it long form or short form? Is it FAQ-style, a comprehensive guide, a podcast discussion, a Q&A forum? Is it recent and newsy, or of evergreen value?
What this tells you: Google knows exactly what content people want based on analyzing billions of searches. When Google shows buying guides for a keyword, you’ll need to write a buying guide to compete. If the webpages featured are listicle pages, your single-product page won’t have much of a chance.
What to do with the information: Build this insight into your new content development plan, or review your existing content and identify ways to revise or expand it.
Look at: What other businesses are appearing in results?
What this tells you: Which websites Google thinks have valuable content for searchers. How similar is your business to the businesses featured? If they are very tenured, very respected, very large, it may be difficult to get your business to appear on this results page.
What to do about it: Visit some competitive sites to see how they’re covering this topic. What do they do well that you might borrow for your website? Or alternatively, maybe this isn’t a good keyword to compete for. Think about other ways your prospects search for information and build that content instead.
Look at: The “People also ask” section (note: it doesn’t show on all searches)
What this tells you: the types of questions people have related to your topics.
What to do about it: This is a treasure trove of information about what’s in searchers’ heads. Click on one question to show the answer, and show a few more questions, too. These are great questions to address on your website. Direct and specific answers to commonly asked questions may even be quoted as the source for one of these answers.
Look at: How many ads are shown?
What this tells you: How commercial Google thinks this search is. Google only shows ads if they think the user is likely to click on an ad (making them money).
What to do with the information: Learn about how much commercial intent users have for terms important to you. (In SEO, “commercial intent” means, are searchers actively researching something they’ll buy?) If you don’t see ads, users are probably just looking for information. Unfortunately no ads is not an opportunity for you to buy ads; just bidding on a keyword doesn’t make Google show an ad.
These steps will show you what your prospects see in Google SERPs when they’re researching your business. It’s not unusual to find something that surprises you. The layout of the SERPs changes a lot over time. Google is always evolving its SERP to keep users engaged.
A SERP review is a valuable tool in developing SEO strategies and staying ahead of competition. Give it a try, and see what you can learn about the information people want when they search for your keywords.
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