Summary:
Ensure the best landing pages for branded searches to fulfill navigational intent, alongside other steps, which in turn improves SEO.
The Google API leak revealed earlier this week confirms synergy between UX & SEO.
Relevant data here is tracked by Google in far more detailed fashion than many in digital marketing realized, involving advanced click tracking & Google Chrome use.
It reinforces the idea of developing a strong brand through a single website, especially in a niche supported by your experts, that would thrive beyond organic search.
In SEO, we focus on KPIs like non-branded keyword rankings, organic traffic & organic conversions.
However, the whole site experience affects how every page does. For better or worse, customer experience begins in search results.
This is further supported by AI Overviews, which can be optimized similar to featured snippets and will only become more prevalent.
Good SEO therefore should consider better fulfilling navigational intent.
This is typically seen through branded keywords in which a user wants to visit specific content on your site. For many businesses, these are their most popular keywords.
Google Search Console (GSC) & SEO tools can be used to analyze navigational queries alongside their current landing pages & average positions.
Your brand likely appears alongside keywords like Login, Customer Support, Reviews, Careers, Locations, News and so on but this also includes phone numbers, addresses & more.
This can involve Online Reputation Management (ORM) but mostly is about ensuring a smooth transition from search results to your site. You connect each query with proper content, using SEO techniques to do so if necessary.
Here are some ideas for improvement:
- Add & edit information on your knowledge panel by claiming it; monitor Wikipedia references otherwise.
- Crawl your site for improper phone numbers listed in GSC.
- Use ‘data no-snippet’ to improve page & sitelink snippets. Consider titles & meta descriptions even for non-SEO pages.
- Noindex or preferably delete pages with little or no value to users, especially those cannibalizing key pages.
- Ensure proper landing pages at the top of search results for logins & support within search results, considering other domains & subdomains as well.
- Opportunity can blend with better UX. For example, creating a Reviews page on your own site earns organic traffic for *company reviews/testimonials* & similar queries. Creating location pages, often city-specific, have both local & local organic SEO value while more specifically fulfilling this search intent if seen in GSC.
- Organize unique, summarized information above the fold using a reverse pyramid strategy on all pages.
If this all seems like a distraction, remember that the leak confirms that this all matters for SEO itself. Furthermore, it helps your customers.
Don’t ignore addressing navigational search intent through good SEO!