About a decade ago, I began my career by writing SEO-friendly web content. At the time, this mostly consisted of blog posts and white papers in the health and tech industries. I thought I was well positioned to keep up with changes in the SEO ecosystem. After years of studying, adapting, and faithfully implementing best practices in response to every Google algorithmic update, I finally reached a point where I felt I had mastered SEO. Every aspect of my website content and articles was optimized, from the navigational structure to the alt text. My blog posts delivered actionable, valuable content in a skimmable, reader-friendly format. I included compelling photos and engaging video elements.
And then along came AI and crashed the party by creating a zero-click world. With AI-powered search engines, people can find the answers to even complex questions without ever needing to click through to a website. All of my effort seemed pointless.
The Changing Face of SEO
Once I thought about it more closely, it became apparent that the skills I’d honed over years of SEO marketing were still valuable. I realized that SEO isn’t dead. It just looks different — and is harder to measure. Although traffic may not come directly from clicks now, visibility and authority are still important. Thankfully, that means all the time and energy I’ve invested in SEO isn’t wasted. I just need to pivot a little, which is certainly nothing new for marketers.
Humans Still Take Center Stage
When ChatGPT launched, it set a record for the fastest-growing user base, reaching 100 million active users just two months after its release. Immediately, there were lamentations that marketing, writing, and related fields had effectively been eradicated. However, after the novelty wore off and people began to wade through hundreds of soulless articles beginning, “In the realm of …” it became apparent that human-centered content is still valuable and can’t be replaced.
Google’s E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, trustworthiness) still emphasizes high-value content. AI certainly has a place in marketing, but it’s being trained on human-optimized data. This reinforces the need for clear, engaging experiences that put customers first. Google prioritizes useful content created by humans for humans.
4 Ways CX Strategy Directly Improves SEO
In a new rendition of the more things change, the more they stay the same, the customer experience is still the driving force behind SEO. Here are four ways your CX strategy directly supports your SEO performance:
Content Driven by Intent
If you’ve ever typed “fencing near me” looking for a local epee club and ended up with a list of contractors who could enclose your yard in chain link, you know how frustrating it is when a search engine doesn’t understand your intent. While tricky examples such as “fencing” or “apple” — where there are several very distinct possible intents — can still trip up a search engine, this is much less of a problem than it used to be.
As search engines have incorporated AI and predictive analytics that consider context, location, recent behavior, and other signifiers, they can better understand the intent behind your search. This is a giant improvement over the early days of internet search, where literal keyword matching drove top results. This rigid method frequently returned websites stuffed with keywords but little valuable information — or valuable information that was completely unrelated to what you were looking for.
You can tap into the power of intent-based search by anticipating what your audience is searching for and delivering a targeted, precise answer. Though zero-click search results can deliver quick answers, most people want more. Make a strategic plan to address the deeper intent behind their search and you’ll be able to draw them in and engage them.
Engagement and Dwell Time
How long visitors spend on your site is even more of an indicator of the quality of your content. Now that people can get a distillation of the best content from multiple sites, it means more if they choose to interact with yours. GA4, the latest version of Google Analytics, is calculated based on aggregated engagement metrics, including scroll, depth, session duration, and user interactions.
According to Google, this event-based model gives heavier weight to what users do when they visit your site. Google prioritizes delivering helpful content to users. If a user clicks on your site and stays for over 10 seconds, performs a conversion, or looks at two or more pages, Google considers that an engaged session — a good indication that they found your site helpful.
On the other hand, if a user clicks on your site and then immediately returns to the SERP, they obviously didn’t find what they wanted. That’s a signal that your content isn’t a good match for the underlying intent behind a search phrase. The best way to ensure that your users are engaged is by understanding what they’re looking for and delivering it.
Accessibility and Readability
Few things will make a user click away from your site faster than simply not being able to understand your content. Accessibility standards ensure everyone can engage with your content. Naturally, making your site more accessible will benefit your GA4 metrics, but it’s not just a way to boost your rankings. It’s a legal obligation in many countries. The Americans with Disabilities Act in the U.S. and the European Accessibility Act in the EU, as well as similar legislation in other countries, require website content to be available to people of all abilities.
Fortunately, technology is simplifying accessibility with innovations such as screen readers, voice navigation, adjustable color contrast, and semantic HTML. However, you can’t address accessibility as an add-on after you finish your site or app. Much like security, it needs to be included from the earliest design stages all the way through deployment.
Making your content accessible doesn’t just benefit users with disabilities. Everyone benefits from readable content that gets your message across quickly and clearly. You can do this with measures such as:
- Establishing a clear structure using headings and subheadings
- Using plain language
- Including visual cues such as bullet lists
- Using easy-to-read topography
- Designing with mobile in mind
Brand Consistency Across Touchpoints
Consistency creates your brand. Your touchpoints should align in terms of visual branding, underlying values, and user intent. However, it can be challenging to create consistency across different audience segments. Hyperpersonalization is the latest trend in marketing, but how does this affect brand consistency? At Odyyc, we focus on segmenting the customer journey to create conversations that feel one-on-one. Aligning your content, messaging, and use to a narrow, targeted audience gives you an head start on building trust with your customers and increasing conversions.
Balance is the key to segmentation. Without segmentation, your audience will be far too broad. Extremely granular segments allow you to create more tailored experiences, but they also make your SEO strategy more cumbersome and complex. It may mean creating a dozen landing pages instead of one because you need to map more specific queries and intents to different pages. Your strategy will need to focus on ranking for long-tail keywords with specific intent. This is a powerful strategy, but it can go too far. Oversegmentation can dilute your authority and lead to shallow content.
At Odyyc, we tackle this challenge by building smart segmentation frameworks that align with search behavior, customers’ journeys, and your brand voice. Our frameworks let you create continuity at every touchpoint to drive clicks and engagement.
Prepare for the Future by Prioritizing CX
Just like AI disrupted my content writing, it has and will continue to upend the way we work. However, the customer experience will remain a defining factor, particularly as AI-created content proliferates and saturates the market. By putting the customer at the center of everything you do, you’ll drive better content ideation and hit the right structure and tone to resonate with your audience.
While rapid response metrics may not skyrocket the way you’re accustomed to, the long-term SEO benefits of customer-aligned content will still deliver results. These include stronger signals, better engagement metrics, and more AI mentions.
What I’ve learned is that a unified CX and SEO approach gives me greater depth and clarity to build the brands I work with. The more you include CX in every decision you make, the stronger, more unique, and more recognizable your brand will become. This holds true whether a customer finds you on social media, through ads, or in zero-click search results.
CX Is Your SEO Differentiator
CX has always been important, but AI has catapulted it to the forefront of SEO strategy. It’s your opportunity to differentiate your brand in a sea of generic sameness. At Odyyc, we deliver CX strategy with data-driven insights backed by human emotional intelligence. When you partner with us, we become an extension of your brand. Contact Odyyc today to get started creating powerful and compelling experiences for your customers.
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