Remind yourself of the people you are trying to reach

Jake says: “Don’t lose sight of the people that you are actually trying to reach through SEO.

As things like AI become ever-present in our lives and working plans, you should be tapping into the human side of search. It’s going to be even more important that you’re connecting with the users who are searching for your brand or visiting your website.”

How do you identify the people you’re trying to reach through SEO and how do you define those people?

“I’m not saying that you should replace keyword research and data, but it’s really important that you understand the journeys that people are going on when they’re searching for things that are relevant to your brand or product.

Having a good understanding of those journeys, and even what happens before the point of search, allows you to have a deeper, more useful level of content on your website. You can make sure that you’re providing everything a user would need when they’re trying to get to the point of conversion or find the information they’re looking for.

Start speaking with your clients or the people that you work with in-house and make a collective effort, so everyone understands the journeys that your users are on. Why are they on that journey? What has happened to make them want to search? Together, list out the various reasons why people might be searching and the journeys that they’re on, and map out a typical journey for that user.

Then, you leverage things like search volume data. Use search volume categories and map that to different stages of the journey. You will then know how many people are searching at each stage. However, just because a certain point of the journey has a lower search volume, it doesn’t make it less important, if it’s something that users need to get to the next stage.”

Can this identification process be done through data or can it only be done through real-life conversations?

“Speaking to real people would be the dream, but a lot of people might not have the resources, time, or capabilities to do that.

Think about someone searching ‘How to clean pee off a mattress’. You know something has happened so that they need to search something of that nature. They’re probably going to have their hands full, and it’s probably going to be quite time-sensitive. They might have a kid running around. We can assume all of that pre-context from the search query.

That person probably doesn’t want to sit down and read 2,000 words on how to clean a mattress. They need something quick, and they’ll want to get the information efficiently. If you’re trying to satisfy the user and get them to where they need to be on that journey, you might want to use a video they can watch while they’re dealing with the mini-crisis they’re in.

Try to plan out those stages of the different journeys, whether it’s for a particular piece of content or a category as a whole. What are some of the things that might have happened beforehand that have led people to that point?”

Can this also help you identify opportunities to create other content?

“Exactly. That’s where the journeys that people are on come into it.

We think of a typical user journey from top to bottom, but that’s not how people necessarily go on these search journeys. People might be arriving at different points of that journey.

For example, people might be cleaning that bed and then they might need to find out how to stop this happening in the future or learn about the causes of bedwetting.

Having really clear signposting, navigation, and internal links to those different elements might lead people on to part of the journey that they don’t even know they want to be on yet.”

How do you know that you’ve selected the most likely next steps when you create additional content?

“Search volume is obviously going to be one of the key indicators. That’s the data we have available to us, in terms of prioritising different journeys. You can say that a specific area is searched for the most, so that could be something to work on first.

There may be areas that don’t have as much search volume but, if people inside your business or your client’s business have said it can be part of the journey, it should still be something that you factor into your content strategy. It might just have lower priority.

Just because someone hasn’t searched for something, it doesn’t mean it’s not important. They might just not know that they need to know something. If you have the information on your website that stops them from going back to a search engine, you can keep people more engaged and hopefully get them to where they want to be – and where you want them to be in terms of whatever you’re selling or the information you’re providing.”

How do you optimize and structure your website for real people going through real journeys?

“In terms of website structure, layout, and user experience, SEOs typically think about what a search engine wants rather than what a user would want. It’s important that you take that step back and think about what a page or website should look like in order to help someone move along that journey as quickly as possible.

Having a huge story before you get to a recipe is not helping people get to where they need to be in that journey. If someone’s searching for a recipe to make apple pie, they want the recipe. They don’t want the history of apple pie. Set out that content so that, when someone lands, you’re getting them to where they need to be.

When you are workshopping to understand why people are going on those journeys, you can also think about what formats or layouts work best for what that person needs to know.”

Do you use keyword data as a way to assist with journey mapping?

“Once you’ve got a journey mapped out, it may be linear, or it could have arms and legs going off it, depending on what the journey looks like.

Once you’ve got that, then you can start to tag on the keyword data as well. It might be individual keywords, and it might be clusters or categories of keywords. You can start to map out what users are searching at different points of that journey. Then, you can use that to prioritise your workload, or at least know the traffic you expect from different stages of the journey.

As I mentioned, though, just because people aren’t searching for a particular keyword in huge numbers, it doesn’t mean it’s not important within the overall picture of helping users.”

Do you use any software to map out user journeys?

“You could create a mind map with something like FigJam to help you visualise it a bit better.

I’m very much an Excel guy. Although it might not look pretty in Excel, it works for me. You can even use the shapes in PowerPoint to map out a flow chart and add associated data within that.

It helps to visualise it, but we know that people don’t always search in the way that we expect. People might start at one point and then go back up and back down, but it is good to have at least a traditional user journey mapped out from the top to the bottom.”

Is there useful data in GA4 or Search Console for understanding what users are likely to do?

“Within GA4, you could look at things like engaged sessions.

If you want to add in your current performance, you can map out your existing site sections and look at metrics to see at what point in their journey people are entering the website and whether they are really engaged, or whether the bounce rate is really high. Then you would look at what you can do to improve that user journey and move people along.

It’s important to note that a really high bounce rate might be because that person has got what they needed, and the journey has ended. It’s not always a bad thing if someone’s coming to the website, getting the information that they need quickly, and then moving on.”

How do you optimize page layouts and UX for both people and technical SEO?

“Make sure you’re not stuffing a page with content or words simply because you think that’s what a search engine wants. You need to do things because they’re going to help people move along.

You can test that by building a page and putting it live, or you can do some tests before a website goes live, and ask someone to try and find information on the page to get some qualitative data.

From a search engine perspective, you see a lot of jump links at the top of pages now, where you click to go down to a specific section. Do people even use those jump links or are you just putting them in because you think it’s what search engines want or because a lot of the top-performing websites do it?

Take a step back with those elements that you might add and think about whether or not it is actually helpful to what the user is trying to do.”

Can you create content that is human, unique, and relatable, while still utilising some aspects of AI?

“There are massive benefits to using AI, particularly around the ideation phase and for those initial insights – or when you’re trying to think about what people might want to know.

However, when you’re putting the content together, you need to add that human element and expert insight in there. I was recently doing a big keyword research project, which was on a topic that I wasn’t massively familiar with, and I used AI to help map out topics and subcategories that were relevant, based on what I did know.

That helped me uncover a huge number of areas that I wouldn’t have thought of because I’m not the expert on that topic. In terms of that initial idea-gathering phase, AI can be great. You can even use it to start mapping out how content could be structured in terms of what users want to know. Really, though, you should be using real humans from either your business or your client’s business to put that human touch on the content.

Last year, we were talking a lot about how the human experience element was going to be so important with AI, because it can’t have that human experience. That’s just as important now, a year later.

Whatever you can add from real human experience is going to be unique to the individuals that you’re working with. That can help set you above your competition. Show that you’re above them by offering expert advice that others can’t.”

If an SEO is struggling for time, what should they stop doing right now so they can spend more time doing what you suggest in 2025?

“Stop being siloed. If there are other people in your business or your client’s business who know more than you, then leverage them. It can be a direct route to getting that expert info.

It can also speed up your research process. In the keyword research example I just gave, I wish I had quick access to someone who could have helped me map out that keyword research plan.

Beyond that, it promotes healthy collaboration. A brand’s website and those user journeys should be everyone’s concern. It’s not just SEO. The more people that you can speak to and bring into the process, the better the output will be.”

Jake Gauntley is Senior SEO Account Director at KINESSO UK, and you can find him over at JakeGauntley.com.