Online marketing leaders believe understanding buyer behaviour is important if you want to achieve optimum results. A key part of this involves considering the different stages of the buyer’s journey to help drive more of the right traffic to your website. This means knowing what to put in front of your target market at each stage to capture your audience’s attention.
The new role of Metadata in your SEO strategy
Search Engine Optimisation for your website includes the use of targeted key phrases in your content: not only in the main body of the text but in other strategic places like headings, links and the metadata.
Metadata is the content that appears as headings and paragraphs on the search engine results pages (SERPS). Although not actually read by the search engines, metadata that includes the key search phrases helps give continuity for those making online searches using these phrases. Their presence in the meta-description plays a significant role in influencing the audience to click on the result and navigate to the website.
Whilst SEO techniques are used to capture search results, it is the words you use in the page title and description which bear most of the responsibility in taking your target audience to the next stage in the buyer journey: visiting your website.
Sending the right message to your audience starts with the metadata
It is at this crucial stage that decisions are made about your website. You may have covered all the bases on your landing page, presenting a clear message to your customers about what you have to offer, why you are a good choice and how to advance. None of this is going to help if you lose your audience at the SERPs stage of the buyer journey.
You need to think about how to capture your audience’s attention with the information displayed on the Search Engine Result Pages. Construct your metadata so that they choose to click on your page link over the other search results displayed on the page.
For this you need to consider:
- Is it obvious that the link leads to a provider of the desired product, service or information sought by the target customer?
This might seem like a basic requirement, but if the text, heading or URL is ambiguous or does not look like it leads to a landing page, then this could be enough to send your audience elsewhere. - Does the metadata content clearly state the key business message?
Sending the right message starts with the content in the SERPs, as you need to connect withyour audience to gain their interest enough to click through to your website. - Is the language appealing to the target audience?
If the wording is all about getting the key search phrases into the content, you are telling potential customers that they don’t matter enough to be considered. Ignoring the needs of your audience at this crucial decision-making stage is a mistake that will cost you dearly in visitor numbers. - Does it offer a solution or convey the ability to meet the customers’ needs?
Time is short for many and people don’t like wasting it on visiting a dozen websites that don’t have what they are looking for. Your SERPs link is more likely to attract visitors to your site if the content in the description conveys a high probability of meeting their needs.
Craig Cochrane is an experienced web designer and online marketing specialist. For more information you can read more about Search Engine Optimisation under Web Tonic’s Web Marketing Services, or contact us to discuss how we can help you build an advanced SEO campaign.