ShareEver wondered how some businesses consistently dominate SERP results? Well, it turns out the secret lies in truly knowing and understanding their customers.
In this article, go back to basics and explore what customer segmentation really is and find out how it can give your SEO strategy a boost.
What does customer segmentation mean?
Customer segmentation is all about grouping users based on shared traits. Essentially, it means dividing users with similar characteristics, interests, and behaviours into distinct groups, enabling you to create personalised content that speaks directly to each one. This targeted approach is a powerful way to drive conversions.
Types of customer segmentation
When it comes to customer segmentation, there are four main types that businesses commonly use to categorise and understand their audience more effectively. Each type focuses on different aspects of customer identity and behaviour, helping to shape targeted marketing strategies.
1) Demographic segmentation
What is it?
Demographic segmentation is widely used because it relies on easily accessible data, such as gender, age, marital status, and income.
By categorising users according to these attributes, you can effectively target specific and diverse groups that correspond to each category.
For demographic data that isn’t readily available, such as such as education level or occupation, consider gathering it through surveys on your website.
How can demographic segmentation support SEO efforts?
This targeted approach allows you to tailor your content and marketing strategies to the interests and needs of your different user groups, which can increase engagement and conversion rates.
2) Geographic segmentation
What is it?
Geographic segmentation involves collecting data based on location, such as by country, city, or county. This type of grouping is highly effective, as targeting consumers by region has historically proven successful.
How can geographic segmentation support SEO efforts?
By using geographic segmentation to boost SEO performance, you can send your target audience to geo-targeted pages. This approach means that businesses can effectively cater to the needs and preferences of local audiences, ultimately improving search engine visibility and driving higher conversion rates. This strategy allows businesses to capitalise on localised search queries, leading to a more targeted and effective SEO approach.
3) Behavioural segmentation
What is it?
Behavioural segmentation refers to grouping users by their behaviour, which could range from actions taken on the site, shopping habits, triggers, brand loyalty, and more.
Understanding user behaviour matters in determining how users interact with your products or how they engage with your service pages.
How can behavioural segmentation support SEO efforts?
Behavioural segmentation can significantly improve your SEO strategy as it allows you to tailor your content to match how different groups of people behave online.
When you understand factors such as your target audience’s browsing habits, purchase patterns, and how they interact with your site, you gain valuable insights that can be used to create content and experiences that speak directly to them. It’s like giving each visitor their own personalised journey through your site.
By making sure your content resonates with their behaviour, you can boost your site’s visibility, keep visitors engaged, and potentially turn more of those visitors into happy customers or leads.
4) Psychographic segmentation
What is it?
Psychographic segmentation categorises consumers based on their lifestyle, values, beliefs, and interests. While it’s less common because of the challenge of acquiring this data, it provides valuable insights into consumer behaviour.
For examples, individuals who are vegan and passionate about cruelty-free products may be particularly concerned about the materials you use and your manufacturing methods.
How can psychographic segmentation support SEO efforts?
Understanding what motivates user groups and their preferences can help identify reasons for low purchase rates or limited engagement with your content. Tailoring your SEO and marketing strategies to resonate with these specific psychographic segments can be key to capturing their interest and increasing interaction with your brand.
Knowing your customer is crucial to any marketing strategy, as it allows you to understand their needs and offer them potential solutions. Creating segments takes this a step further by ensuring your content reaches the right audience.
Utilising this strategy in particular is linked to the many metrics that SEOers use to measure organic performance.
The impacts of customer segmentation on key SEO metrics
Having explored various customer segmentation methods and how they support SEO efforts, here’s a handy list outlining how user segmentation influences the top three SEO metrics.
Organic traffic
Measuring traffic is crucial in determining whether your website is achieving a good level of visibility on the SERPs. A drastic reduction in this number could indicate that your site is not being served as needed, leading to a decline in traffic.
Keyword research plays a key role in boosting organic traffic, but adding customer segmentation can be game changer. This approach not only drives traffic but also ensures the right type of traffic is being directed to your landing pages.
Engagement
Another key metric in measuring organic performance is analysing the engagement rate across your website’s pages. Google defines engagement rate as a metric based on engaged sessions (a session that lasts longer than 10 seconds), having key events, and at least two page views.
When customer segmentation is applied, it ensures that content already tailored to specific users is appealing and relevant to them, much more than content with no defined target audience. This results in higher engagement on such pages, as they have been optimised for the target audience.
Conversely, bounce rate is reduced when customers are segmented based on their behaviour, interests, and geography, with content tailored to them. This approach encourages users to remain on the page(s) longer, reducing the likelihood of them leaving prematurely.
Conversion
The final step in the funnel and perhaps the metric that many marketers find daunting. Have you ever landed on a page that exactly answers your query or offers the product that you were searching for? It’s almost like an eureka moment. Well, this is partly due to excellent optimisation techniques and effective customer segmentation.
Users are categorised based on their shared attributes, then presented with tailored content or products that spark their interest, leading to them either purchasing the product if it’s e-commerce-led or turning into a potential lead.
Focusing your SEO strategies on the users most likely to be interested in your services helps attract more of the right visitors to your website. This can increase conversion rates, maximise ROI, and lead to steady long-term growth.
We’re here to help
As with any marketing strategy, it’s crucial to measure the effectiveness of customer segmentation. Utilise tools like GA4 to monitor user behaviour, and continuously test and refine your approach to accurately identify and segment your audience based on shared attributes. We can support you with these activities.
For specialised customer segmentation and SEO services that enhance your marketing efforts, reach out to us today.
