You will agree that SEO is now one of the most discussed topics in the marketing world. And that’s not without basis since it determines how big the traffic chunk you take from the internet will be.
However, rolling out different zero-intent content or randomly optimizing your website might not be 100% efficient.
For example, that website design might look user-responsive from your point of view while it irritates your visitors in real-life. This experience can chase visitors away from your website, thus leading to an increased bounce rate and reduced dwell time.
That’s why you need surveys to see and understand your potential audience’s POV before implementing it to improve your SEO. But first, what are surveys?
What Are SEO Surveys?
SEO Surveys are preset SEO-centric questions targeted at collecting in-depth and personal answers from your target audience or the general public. For the context of this article, we will focus mainly on online surveys, which involve the use of the internet for disseminating questionnaires or forms to your audience.
The aim of a survey is primarily to collect data that can be used to improve your website’s SEO, but it can also serve as a form of creating awareness among people who have no idea about your company.
Now the next question is, when should you create a survey?
- Before designing your website so that you can collate answers on what features your potential prospects want.
- When redesigning your website for SEO and aesthetic purposes.
- After redesigning your website in order to understand how well it impacts the user experience.
- When you want to assess the quality of your website content.
Notice how each of these purposes is focused on knowing what your users “think” at any point in time. Support the survey results with data from SEO tools like Ninja Reports to implement smarter SEO decisions. With this tool, you can conduct technical website audits, check your positions in SERPs, analyze traffic, and many other activities to evaluate how your website performs now and compare these results after any alterations you make.
Impact Of Surveys On SEO
While surveys don’t directly impact SEO, they can trigger a chain of events that will eventually favor your SEO.
For example, if you survey your newly designed website and ask users how they feel about the design, the results will determine whether you should change the design or let it be. And one thing you must know as a marketer is that search engines favor how users see your website, not how you see your website.
So if your survey result comes back with more bad responses on the user experience provided by your website, you know there’s something wrong already. In most cases, your survey can provide additional options which help your target audience point out what exactly is giving them a bad experience. Here also come in handy the tools mentioned above, which evaluate your page experience metrics, like Core Web Vitals, and provide you with practical tips on improving it.
What About Content Quality?
Website content includes blog posts, infographics, product videos, and more. The quality of these pieces also affects your SEO. Let’s say your website has tons of robotically written and grammatically incorrect articles. The quality rating to readers will be dangerously low, and you can see this from a high bounce rate or low dwell time.
So if you want to know whether your content is giving your readers the right vibe of value, you need to ask them directly. The result of your survey will spell a new direction in which your content should go.
In fact, you can use surveys to collate the type of content your readers want from you. This includes the possible query they want you to address. And when you address the correct queries with your content, your website has more chances of being recommended to more people.
Any Effect On Backlinks?
Remember we talked about the effect of surveys on content quality? When you produce personalized content with more reading value, other website owners or businesses can easily refer to them.
Moreover, you can also use the non-personal statistics of your survey in your website content. Since no one else has the same data as you, others will have to reference your website whenever they use the survey summary.
That’s automatically more backlinks. In turn, you get more ranking and more traffic juice.
How To Create Surveys for SEO Analysis
Creating a survey for SEO Analysis is a no-brainer. Follow the steps below to get started:
1. Define Your Survey Goals
A survey goal typically outlines the rationale behind the information you’re gathering. Before rolling out a block of questions to your audience, you need to know what you want to achieve.
For instance, you might want to comprehend your users’ search habits, intent or content preferences. It might be to find out if people are comfortable with the design or new pop-up ads you’ve put up on your website. Or you may want to understand what actions your customers take on your site before converting. It will help you create an ideal buyer persona and grow conversions based on that data.
Once you have a goal in mind, you can create targeted objectives to streamline your collection process. For example, if you want to know more about the user experience on your website, you need to target a narrow population of existing users or previous page visitors.
And if it’s about the popularity of your brand’s website, you can work with a broader audience. So a goal determines what direction you should go when setting your surveys.
2. Select The Appropriate Survey Tool
While the bulk work of assembling an SEO survey is usually done during the brainstorming session for questions, you may face many difficulties in getting the form out there or analyzing your data.
That’s why you should look for an online survey tool that allows you to create interactive surveys and provides professional support to help you promote and analyze your incoming reports.
The ideal online surveying tool should also provide a simple navigable interface and customer support. Moreso, there should be an option to preview and test-run your forms.
Note that poorly constructed surveys can deter participants from providing honest opinions, reduce the reliability of the data, and render the surveying process ineffective.
Reputable survey tools like Qualtrics and Typeform should do the job.
3. Develop Your Survey Questions
Develop survey questions that will help you gain insights into your audience’s behaviors, pain points, and preferences. Also, remember that the best surveys are brief, easy to read, and arranged logically.
Short-answer and multiple-choice questions help collect specific information from the participant, making them user-friendly.
Conversely, an open-ended survey – where users can type in their answers – is much more preferred for collecting more versatile answers. However, it is time-consuming and usually has a low response rate.
Use neutral question wording and provide a range of answers to take into account the diversity of your survey participants. Make sure to keep your questions concise and clear.
A typical survey for SEO analysis could go like this:
- How do you feel about our website’s new design?
- Rate your experience on a scale of 1-10.
- Are there any changes you’d want us to implement?
- Does our website content fully address your queries?
- We introduced a pop-up newsletter box. Do you want it to stay or go?
- How fast does our website load on your mobile phone?
- Do you get answers to your queries on our website?
- Will you continue visiting our website? If not, why?
- What should we add or remove from the homepage?
4. Distribute Your Survey
Even though today’s sophisticated software and programs make creating and distributing surveys simple, reaching your entire audience can be challenging.
So you should first figure out who your target audience is.
If your goal requires reaching out to existing users, you can easily distribute your surveys through email and on your website.
If it’s for a more general audience, promoting your survey will do. In most cases, a survey company will help you take care of this while you just need to allocate a budget to be spent.
5. Add An Incentive
Encourage participation in your surveys by adding incentives or creating a reward system. It could be a coupon reward or a discount on your products.
Adding incentives might also be another way to promote your survey. For example, you could ask your survey takers to share the survey link with their friends and family for a chance to win.
Make sure you keep to your promises and ensure your reward selection process is fair for every participant.
6. Analyze Your Survey Results And Take Action
Once your survey results are back, analyze them and pick out repeated patterns. Check out the odd statistics, too, and determine what irregularities could affect your website’s SEO.
Afterward, devise an action plan. For example, you may want to optimize your website for certain keywords or create more content around specific queries based on the survey report.
Finally, ensure consistency with your surveys and make it a part of your SEO analysis strategy.
Conclusion
Overall, surveys are helpful tools for SEO analysis because they give you insights into the wants and challenges of your target audience.
Remember that your surveys should be direct and clear for your customers to understand. Don’t also forget to add an incentive in order to boost participation.
Lastly, the primary data you gather from surveys is a priceless resource that can strengthen your on- and off-page SEO efforts. So make sure you integrate surveys as a fixed part of your SEO strategy.
