There are so many factors affecting one’s Google rank and due to constant improvements to the algorithm, things tend to change. Now, one trend that always seems to hold true is the idea that user-friendly sites tend to be those that the algorithm favors the most. Why? Well, because Google sees providing exceptional service as their main focus, which means that every brand that helps them achieve this is a friend.
This is particularly simple to achieve in e-commerce, due to the fact that customer-friendliness tends to be a lot simpler than a more general term user-friendliness. This is also why more and more Australian e-commerce and retail businesses invest heavily in this field as a part of their marketing efforts. With that in mind, here are several tips on how creating a positive CX (customer experience) may help you boost your Google rank.
1. Quality content
The first factor that comes into this theory is the one regarding the quality of the content. The reason why this is somewhat controversial is the fact that some people doubt the ability of the algorithm (no matter how sophisticated it may be) to properly evaluate the quality of your content. However, if you decide to look at this from a reciprocal standpoint, things get a lot simpler.
Quality content makes your audience stay longer (increased duration of visit), return more frequently (more return visits) and engage more. In other words, the algorithm uses the way in which your customers respond to your content in order to evaluate how good (efficient) it is. Therefore, you get to benefit both directly and indirectly from quality content.
2. Brand inspires loyalty
No matter how strange this may sound, the us-versus-them mentality is probably the cornerstone of brand loyalty as a phenomenon. You see, Coca-Cola fans just love making Pepsi jokes (same goes with iPhone vs. Android); nonetheless, in order for people to start identifying with your brand, you need to identify and differentiate yourself. Here, you need to create a brand on both ideological (ideas, values, objectives, goals, and mission) and visual (logo, colors, slogans, promotional products) levels. Most importantly, for this to give reliable results, you need consistency and you need someone who knows the local market. For instance, a Victoria-based company should look for an agency specializing in brand strategy in Melbourne.
3. Bigger reach
One of the reasons why people share content online is in order to entertain others. The simplest way to do so is to present them with something of value, something that they have discovered and are now altruistically sharing with others. This means that you stand to get a much bigger reach in the most organic way possible. This also means that you stand to gain some brand ambassadors, which have a clear edge over traditional influencers due to the fact that they work for free. Most importantly, due to the fact that they’re sharing content with their friends, family, coworkers and personal acquaintances, their words often resound with a much stronger tone.
4. Boosting customer experience through SEO
Throughout this piece, we’ve addressed the fact that customer experience boosts your Google rank, however, it goes the other way around, as well. What we mean by that is the idea that boosting your SEO may improve your customer experience, once again, benefiting you in a reciprocal manner. This is especially true for the on-site optimization but can also help your audience by helping them discover your (clearly superior) offer in a much easier manner.
5. The effects of negative customer experience
Unfortunately, there’s the other side of the coin, as well, seeing as how a negative customer experience can damage your brand in more than several ways. One-time visitors and bounce rate are a metric that may cause your search engine rank to suddenly drop, seeing as how it will testify about the low quality of your website. Aside from this, a negative customer experience has a particular way of hurting your sales and your prospects of generating return customers, which is probably the worst thing that can happen to a business in the long run.
Conclusion
With all of this in mind, particularly the last part, it’s more than clear that boosting your customer experience is something that you can’t afford to ignore, even if you don’t have your Google rank as the first objective. Furthermore, due to the fact that both of these things benefit you simultaneously, there’s no reason whatsoever for you to separate them in any way.