In SEO we talk more strategically and consider audiences more than we used to. However, there are still some huge gaps in the way we connect different areas of work together. This seminar discusses these areas and explains how we can fill those gaps. Audience research – Why it’s not as effective as it could be and what to do about it. Keyword research – Does it really connect to your audience research? Analytics – Are you measuring any of this?

1. D I S P L AY I N T R O D U C T I O N
AUDIENCE ANALYSIS
SEO Dos and Don’ts.

2. Why should we care about audiences?
Why are we only doing half a job?
What can we do about it?

3. Early SEO
On site
Keyword Keyword Keyword Keyword Keyword Keyword Keyword
Off site
website
Audiences?
Who needs
them.

4. 2015
Website Social Publishers
search queries
desires behavioursintents demographics
preferences
Keyword Keyword Keyword
Progress.
We’re now
considering
audiences but
mainly other
people’s.

5. • Link building is dead/dying
• Algorithmic SEO is dead/dying
• Content strategy is a single entity, not onsite/offsite or site
content/link building
• SEO skills and team structures are adapting
• Integrated campaigns are becoming possible

6. 2015
Website Social
Off siteOn site
Publishers
search queries
desires behavioursintents demographics
preferences
Keyword Keyword Keyword

7. 2015
Website Social
Strategy
Publishers
search queries
desires behavioursintents demographics
preferences
Content
Keyword Keyword Keyword

8. What is audience analysis?
• Marketing has long relied on trying to understand
consumers.
• Techniques such as segmenting the market allow us to
provide better targeted messages to our customers.
• In these days of multi channel marketing it can help
provide a strategic starting point to build integrated
campaigns.

9. Marketing segments
• Traditional demographics (gender, age, income etc.)
• Psychographic segmenting (beliefs, attitudes, opinions
etc.)
• Behavioural demographics (actual behaviours)
• Combinations of the above

10. Display
This was the first ever display ad:
It had a CTR of 44%

11. These days, the average banner ad has a 0.1% clickthrough
rate (CTR), and the standard 468x60 banner has a 0.04%
CTR.
(https://www.doubleclickbygoogle.com/insights/)
Doesn’t seem smart to use display, right?

14. With Display you can target customers using traditional
demographics, psychographics or even straightforward
behavioural demographics (e.g. retargeting).

15. SEO
In SEO, the ways in which we tend to use demographics is
limited.
We use personas to help us with content creation or to
identify influential authors and publishers but unlike
advertising channels, SEO rarely uses demographics to
target specific users.

16. PPC: I want to target men between the
ages of 24 and 35 who search for “car
insurance”
Display: I want to target women over
55 who are interested in gardening.
SEO: I want to target men over 55 who
search for “gold watch”
…maybe

17. business goals > customer segmentation > keyword research > content
why who whoop!
Define/
understand
business goals.
Use available data to
create customer
segments.
what how
Research what
people are searching
for and how they are
searching.
Target the people
you want by
providing the
content they need
and want via
natural search.
Keyword research generally
doesn’t take demographics into
account.

19. 75% men on an online dating site.

20. Business objective:
Get more women to sign up.
Who knew strategy could be this easy?

22. • Keyword demographic data helped us
shape a content strategy which increased
the number of women signing up to the site.
• This increased the level of dating (especially
for the men) and improved retention.

23. 1. Don’t use a photo containing your girlfriend
2. Don’t shout about your previous failed
relationships
3. Don’t say you love “banter”
4. Don’t use the words “Very interested” randomly at
the end of your bio
5. Don’t use a photo with your tongue sticking out
6. Do put something in your bio.
http://www.pof.com/
This is fun, not SEO

24. Where to find demographic data which can inform SEO
content:
1. Bing Ads Intelligence
2. Google Adwords
3. Google Analytics

25. Bing Ads Intelligence
Straightforward interface (Excel plug-in)

26. Google Adwords
Adwords Interface
Run a campaign to get data

27. Google Analytics
Quality of data good
Ease of access good
No keyword level data

28. keyword
research
content
strategy
measure
&
analyse
market segmentation

29. Audience Research
Top Tips:
• Don’t do this work from scratch
• Someone already did it, do use that as a starting point
• Do get hold of or create personas
• Do speak to other channels for their insight and data

30. Keyword Research
What we should be answering:
What is my target audience searching for and how?
What we’re actually answering:
What are people searching for?

31. Keyword Research
Top Tips:
• Do create a good process for keyword research
• Don’t just think about volume
• Do think about intent, difficulty, trends, seasonality and more
• Do add demographic data
• Do match those demographics to your segments
• Do watch Jono Alderton’s Webinar for ideas on how to improve:
http://www.semrush.com/webinars/going-deep-on-keyword-research-in-a-sea-of-data/

32. An insurance company, “SeniorCar” specialises in car
insurance for pensioners

33. Content Strategy
• Keyword research feeds into content strategy
• Content can be created to talk to a demographic
• Demographics in keyword research help targeting
• Similarly your snippet can be tailored to attract clicks from
your target segment

34. Creating content for older people
• Accessibility and user experience is important
• Older people are not mad on cell phones but love tablets
• Don’t make assumptions about prior knowledge
• Keep the audience front of mind
• Consider themes which will resonate; security and credibility
• Content from experts may have more sway
• Older people have a better attention span, persistence and
thoroughness. Long form content might not cause problems
• Video, on the other hand, will require subtitles

35. Improving CTR from your target audience.

36. Measure and Analyse
• Set up audience segments matched
to your target segments
• Define KPIs and supporting metrics
• Benchmark
• Analyse users interaction with content
using these segments
• How are different segments reacting
to your content? Are they engaging /
converting?
http://bit.ly/1NIgqZf
Guide to segments

37. Metrics
• CTR
• Engagement (bounce rates, time on site etc.)
• Traffic, conversions etc.