Putting the Search in Market Research: The Vital Importance of SEO to Insights

We all know SEO plays an important role in consumer marketing, driving customers to a brand’s content and website. We also know it’s fundamental in B2B marketing for businesses in a wide range of industries. But what about in market research? Unless we are a SaaS provider or selling a platform, do we really need SEO? Surely if we are in the business of consultancy, as many agencies are, clients are never going to consider us because we popped up on Google?

If this is your view, think again!

We live in a world where everything is connected and if you are not establishing your digital presence in every way possible, other companies are eating your lunch. SEO must be considered as part of your integrated communications strategy, using keywords to create focused content and sharing that in every way possible – on social media, on your website, and through third-party platforms. It’s no longer an option to consider it as an afterthought.

However, there are some very particular differences when thinking about SEO in the insights space. Here are some of our recommendations to help you make SEO work for you.

Understand how Google’s search rankings operate

The starting point is to understand how Google operates. Google makes money from its various free products, which includes search. They use the information collected from these products to learn more about their user base, in order to better target ads to those same users.

With search, Google strikes a delicate balance between showcasing adverts via Google Adwords and delivering what searchers seek, specifically fast and relevant websites. If Google fails to meet these expectations, searchers will move to competitors and Google will no longer have access to that huge vat of data.

So, in short, optimising search is extremely important for search engines. Google decides where to list a site in a search result by way of measuring over 200 factors. Some of these are:

• The quality of the website (how it is built and navigated, as well as its content)
• Speed of loading (must be less than two seconds)
• Whether it is optimised for mobile
• The amount of traffic it attracts
• The type and volume of outbound and inbound links
• Social sharing

All these factors come into play, so when we talk about search it’s not just about getting the right keywords. For example, your ranking on Google will not only depend upon how much traffic the site has, but also on the behaviour of that traffic. If visitors are landing on your site and then leaving immediately, that signals to Google that visitors aren’t getting what they need, so your site’s ranking is slightly reduced.

Build the keywords

That said, you do still need to have a solid list of keywords to drive your content and help with search. And this is where having an expert partner is essential. We have frequently come across keyword lists generated by SEO software that make no sense for people in insights.

So, when thinking about keywords, it is important to get into the heads of your clients. What are the words and phrases that they would use to search for your services or for a company like yours?

In choosing keywords, it’s not always the obvious choice

For a recent project, we were looking at how a keyword search for ‘research design’ might fare during the testing phase. We first plugged ‘research design’ into SEMRush, a well-known SEO analysis tool, and saw that there was lots of traffic. But we wanted to find out more nuanced information about the search term, so we moved on to a qualitative search – a process that is a standard part of our testing at Keen as Mustard. From this, we saw that ‘research design’ got primarily academic and scientific-related results, so the phrase wouldn’t be right for client searches for this agency. Searchers were interested in the design of scientific research, so seeing the results anyone from the insights industry making this search would go back and re-search (if you’ll excuse the pun). This shows that you can’t just go for what SEO software spits out Instead, you need to be careful about your choice of words or phrases, and you should use industry knowledge to hone your phrases.

Use the keywords in stages

In order to link your clients’ searches with your website, build the keywords into your web copy, including your metatags. After all, if their search phrase isn’t on your site, they won’t find you! However, avoid forcing keywords into your copy in a manner that doesn’t read naturally, and don’t add (or list) all your phrases to the same page. Google will recognise these actions and penalise you. Instead, focus on the home page first, using a key phrase that sums up your business. Subsequently, think about how you can build additional pages around other phrases. It is on these pages, known as pillar pages, that you will feature other keywords that link site visitors to other relevant content.

Part of the overall mix

If you don’t include SEO in your marketing mix, you are missing an opportunity. Search is increasingly important in our industry. Bear in mind that the client who remembers you from that great presentation you did at a conference a few years ago still needs to be able to find you when they have a new project to commission – but can’t recall your name.

Header Image: PhotoMIX Company, Pexels