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Uploaded byJordan Frank
Leveraging Psychology To Inform SEO Decisions
This document discusses leveraging principles of psychology to inform SEO decisions. It outlines different systems of thinking - system 1 involves intuition and instinct while system 2 involves rational, logical thinking. It then covers various psychological concepts like the anchoring effect, reciprocity, scarcity, authority, consistency, consensus, and framing effect that can be used to influence behavior. Specific tactics are provided like using different tones of voice, mirroring, visualizing data, and creating checklists to overcome biases and make more informed decisions.
Leveraging Psychology To Inform SEO Decisions
- 1. LEVERAGING PRINCIPLES OFPSYCHOLOGY TO INFORM SEO DECISIONS
- 3. Solve this problem: (47* 58) + 19 = ?
- 4. SYSTEM 2 RATIONAL THINKING SYSTEM1 INTUITION & INSTINCT • UNCONSCIOUS • FAST • AUTOMATIC • INVOLUNTARY • SLOW • LOGICAL • COMPLEX DECISIONS • INDECISIVE
- 5. YOUR SYSTEM 1MIND Orient to the source of a sudden sound Complete the phrase “bread and …” Drive a car on an empty road
- 6. YOUR SYSTEM 2MIND Fill out a tax form Compare two washing machines for overall value Measure the ROI of a marketing strategy (47 * 58) + 19 = ?
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- 8. SYSTEM 2 RATIONAL THINKING SYSTEM1 INTUITION & INSTINCT 2) TACTICS FOR ELIMINATING BIASES 1) HIDDEN PSYCHOLOGY OF COMMUNICATION & TRUST 3) WEAPONS OF INFLUENCE: UTILIZING PSYCHOLOGY TO CHANGE BEHAVIOR
- 9. SYSTEM 2 RATIONAL THINKING SYSTEM1 INTUITION & INSTINCT 1) HIDDEN PSYCHOLOGY OF COMMUNICATION & TRUST
- 10. 7% 38%55% Words Tone of Voice BodyLanguage 7-38-55 RULE OF COMMUNICATION
- 11. THE POWER OFA SMILE “What time will you be in tomorrow?” “What time will you be in tomorrow?”
- 12. MIRRORING: (VERB) THE BEHAVIORIN WHICH ONE PERSON IMITATES THE GESTURE, SPEECH PATTERN, OR ATTITUDES OF ANOTHER
- 13. SEER’S GUIDE TO CLIENTSERVICES: GOO.GL/OANK3O
- 14. 3 TONES OFVOICE Light Night FM DJ Positive/Playful Voice Assertive
- 15. Empathy Trust & Rapport Influence Behavioral Change Time/Relationship development Whereyou should start Where most people start BEHAVIORAL CHANGE STAIRWAY MODEL
- 18. “My wife andI visited New York City for a week last year to see some friends. The [taxi ride] was fine, but the asshole never turned on the meter so he said, "Uhh,
- 19. At Seer, webelieve there is a person behind every search… …and we need to talk to them to be successful SEOs
- 20. BEFORE: #3 FOR PROJECTPL AN AFTER: #1 FOR PROJECT PL AN
- 21. CHANGES WENT LIVE +280% ORGANIC GROWTH (+43,500SESSIONS) PAGE SESSIONS +13% IN PAGE 1 KEYWORD RANKINGS
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- 25. SYSTEM 2 RATIONAL THINKING SYSTEM1 INTUITION & INSTINCT 2) TACTICS FOR ELIMINATING BIASES
- 26.
- 27. AVAILABILITY HEURISTIC People tendto heavily weigh their judgments toward more recent information, making new opinions biased toward that latest news.
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- 29. You have a95% chance of winning $10,000 100% chance of winning $9,449 A B
- 30. You have a95% chance of losing $10,000 100% chance of losing $9,449 A B
- 31. LOSS AVERSION • Peopleare drawn to sure things over probabilities, even when probabilities are a better choice • People will take greater risks to avoid loss than to achieve gains
- 32. SEO • STAT rankingdata • SEMrush • GSC data • Screaming frog crawls PPC • AdWords Search Query report
- 33. 2 keywords: •720 combinedconversions (PPC) •$62,000 in ad spend (PPC) •Ranking on page 3 organically? (SEO) PAID CONVERSIONS ORGANIC RANKINGS
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- 35. We also needto be weary of our OWN biases an heuristics
- 37. BENEFITS OF ACHECKLIST 1. Helps us apply what we already know, correctly 2. Helps us use data to make decisions, rather than relying on intuition or system 1, and what “feels good”
- 38. HOW TO BUILDA CHECKLIST 1. Identify goal of the checklist 2. Identify traits to evaluate that are important for success 3. Create “do” steps 4. Create “talk steps” 5. Test it!
- 39. GOAL: QUALIFYING OUTREACHOPPORTUNITIES
- 40. 1 2 3 TRAITS IMPORTANT TOSUCCESS
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- 43. 1 2 3 4 5 TALK STEPS/FINAL DECISION FinalDecision! LINK TO CHECKLIST: GOO.GL/G85YW1
- 44. 2) STAFFING ATSEER Key Traits of AM Account Manager 1 Account Manager 2 Account Manager 3 SEO strategy 3 5 4 Consultative abilities 2 4 5 Technical SEO 5 2 2 Hustle 5 3 5 Audience first approach 3 5 4
- 45. Key Skills Account Manager 1 Account Manager2 Account Manager 3 New Seer Client SEO strategy 5 5 2 4 Consultative abilities 4 4 5 2 Technical SEO 5 2 2 5 Hustle 2 3 5 3 Audience first approach 3 5 4 2 1 2 3 4 5
- 46. SYSTEM 2 RATIONAL THINKING SYSTEM1 INTUITION & INSTINCT 3) WEAPONS OF INFLUENCE: UTILIZING PSYCHOLOGY TO CHANGE BEHAVIOR
- 47. Is the populationof Finland greater or fewer than 98 million?
- 48. How many peopledo you think live in Finland?
- 49. 1. ANCHORING EFFECT •Describes the tendency to rely too heavily on the first piece of information offered (the "anchor") when making decisions. • Occurs when individuals use an initial piece of information to make subsequent judgments.
- 50. 2. RECIPROCITY • Peopleare obliged to give back to others the form of a behavior, gift, or service that they have received first. • The key is to be the first to give and to ensure that what you give is personalized and unexpected.
- 51. 1 MINT =3.3% TIP INCREASE 2 MINTS = 20% TIP INCREASE
- 52. 3. SCARCITY • Simplyput, people want more of those things they can have less of. • What do your customers stand to lose if they fail to consider your proposal?
- 54. 4. AUTHORITY • Thisis the idea that people follow the lead of credible, knowledgeable experts. • If you want to influence, it’s important to signal to others what makes you a credible, knowledgeable authority.
- 56. 5. CONSISTENCY • Peoplelike to be consistent with the things they have previously said or done, especially when positions are publicly stated and written down.
- 57. Look for voluntary,active, and public commitments and ideally gets those commitments in writing.
- 58. 6. CONSENSUS • Especiallywhen they are uncertain, people will look to the actions and behaviors of others to determine their own.
- 59. 33% increase inreuse!!! 14% increase in reuse!!!
- 60. 7. FRAMING EFFECT •People react to a particular choice in different ways, depending on how it is presented • People tend to avoid risk when a positive frame is presented but seek risks when a negative frame is presented.
- 61. Traffic growth was95% to goal this month Vs. We missed our traffic growth goal by 5% this month
- 62. 9 out of10 times I’ve seen this strategy work Vs. There’s a 10% chance this strategy won’t work
- 63. ANCHORING EFFECT RECIPROCIT Y SCARCITY AUTHORITY CONSISTENC Y CONSENSUS FRAMING EFFECT TALK TO YOUR CUSTOMERS 3 TONES OFVOICE MIRROR USE & VISUALIZE DATA MAKE CHECKLISTS SMILE
Editor's Notes
- #2 Over the next 30 minutes I’m going to discuss what I believe are ways that you can leverage principals of psychology to become better marketers, consultants, and SEO practitioners … and how anyone here can cultivate it. You’ll find clues to why that is in the slide that I’m about to show you.
- #3 What emotion is this guy expressing? How fast could you sense that? You also sensed into the future. Maybe he is ready to yell at you or attack you.
- #4 The answer was 2,745
- #5 Your mind has two modes
- #6 … they occur automatically and require little effort.
- #7 … they require attention and time, and are disrupted when attention is drawn away
- #8 Huge benefits to both systems. The problem arises when we use system 1 to make decisions that we should be using system 2 for. This leads to lots of biases and fallacies that are not optimal. Heuristics and biases While we like to think of ourselves as rational in our decision making, the truth is we are subject to many unseen biases and heristics due to our system 1.
- #9 Over our next 20 minutes together, we’ll talk about how you can: Leverage system 1 to uncover effective methods of communication and build trust Eliminate biases by leveraging system 2 And how to change behavior through influence TRANSITION: Hidden psychology of communication and trust – customers, co-workers, clients, pitches, etc.
- #11 Of any message, this is how it breaks down So how can you use this in your day to day lives
- #12 What’s the first way you can use this rule to your benefit? These feel different, don’t they? Smiling puts people in a positive frame of mind. It’s arguably the easiest way you can easily build trust and rapport with your colleagues, clients, and coworkers.
- #13 Can lead to the individual building rapport with others. Why does this happen? Similarity principle - We trust people who are like us or who are similar to people we like Body language – copying the other person’s gestures Using your client’s jargon/verbiage Using your client’s customer’s language on their site!
- #14 Conversation flow and room energy. In most cases you’ll want whomever is presenting to sit closest to the screen and have the clients in the middle/back. This way they can maintain a forward gaze for the majority of the meeting, while easily maintaining eye contact with presenters and other team members. Vs watching a tennis match. Make it easy for your client to engage in conversation at the same time as following the presentation. This also allows the presenter to keep an eye on the client’s body language vs. watching the slides that he or she is presenting.
- #15 Late Night FM DJ Voice Used selectively to make a point Inflect your voice downward, making it calm and slow The Positive/Playful Voice Should be your default The voice of an easy going, good natured person Relax and smile The Assertive Voice Used rarely. Will cause problems and create pushback
- #16 That’s all good, but dude I do marketing…so that’s great, let’s talk about marketing The model’s intention is to outline a process for developing a relationship between a negotiator and his or her counterpart, which culminates with the negotiator influencing the decisions of the counterpart. Though marketing might be a little less high stakes, the idea is the same. Many of the problems that marketers in the internet age may find themselves in result [insert animations] BUILDING TRUST AND RAPPORT THROUGH EMPATHY HAPPENS IN OUR SYSTEM 1. WHEN WE TRUST SOMEONE, IT FEELS MORE LIKE COMPLETING THE PHRASE BREAD AND BUTTER THAN IT DOES LIKE SOLVING A MATH PROBLEM… MOST TIMES ANYWAY. What happens when we don’t start with empathy? Well you see this all the time
- #17 In the ad, Jenner is seen posing in a blond wig at a photo shoot, while a peace protest marches by. She then ditches the wig, grabs a can of Pepsi and joins the protest. Jenner gets to the front and hands the can to a police officer, who drinks as the crowd cheers.
- #19 This was posted to Reddit on March 14th and got 14k upvotes. The most upvoted comment said… Not a whole lot of empathy shown for the real pain points and needs of this customer, and according to Reddit, many other people feel the same This guy was willing to pay for speed, but wanted a fair priced fair. That’s the pain point that was most important to him, and the NYC cab couldn’t provide it.
- #20 At Seer – we do SEO. And we believe that there’s person behind every search, and Google will reward the content that the people like best. And to empathise with them, we need to go beyond keyword research. we need to talk to the people behind the search. Yeah, we need to talk to them. Or at least we need to hear them out somehow. Let me show you how powerful this can be…
- #21 Gantt chart software company. Customers wanted to know what project planning was before they knew what a project plan was. And they wanted to know what
- #22 Figure out what the people want and give it to them. Google will reward you. How do we review customer sentiment at scale?
- #23 Client in the senior living industry Scraped 5,00+ reviews
- #24 Ran all 1-2 star reviews through NGrams Log Likelihood Ran all 4-5 star reviews through NGrams Log Likelihood Shows the frequency of various terms being used
- #25 Start with empathy to build trust with your customers, and Google will reward you! +134% INCREASE IN Local landing page conversion rate But as we know, it’s not all about the website
- #26 How many of you have pitched an idea and been turned down in your personal or professional life?
- #27 While we like to think of ourselves as rational in our decision making, the truth is we are subject to many unseen biases and heristics due to our system 1. Some of these are more applicable to us as marketers than others
- #28 Why do biases occur? Well, a few reasons... Availability and substitution
- #29 Shark attack, earthquake, struck by lightning – but we’re not building a wall to keep out the sharks Use data to make decisions, rather than relying on intuition or your system 1, and what “feels good” We all know this! Raise your hand if you’re not already using data to make decisions and get buy in for your decisions! Good, that’s step 1. But even when we use data, we need to watch out for system 1 But it’s not that simple, let me show you why…
- #30 Raise your hand if you went with option B
- #31 B first example, A second example Exact same odds, but most people would rather take the risk when it comes to the loss than risk the sure gain
- #32 So you get the point, there are a LOT of ways we are influenced by biases and heuristics SO, it’s not JUST about using data, but it’s also about how we frame our recommendation through data. MORE ON THIS LATEER
- #33 This is why we are now combining PPC data with SEO data through a tool called power BI in order solve these challenges We can now make a revenue case for SEO strategies by tying in PPC conversion data This allows us to better use data but also visualize it
- #34 This is why we are now combining PPC data with SEO data through a tool called power BI in order solve these challenges Client that creates a product that allows their customers to track their work, but they didn’t want to refer to their product as “project management software” because they wanted to differentiate themselves from their customers. bubbles are keywords, and size of bubble is ad spend Add conversion and average order rank “Project management” – MSV = 1,000,000 or whatever it is Looking at only competitors couldn’t make the case to CMO Visualization can now connect the dots between PPC and SEO
- #35 golf client, wanted to understand the competitive landscape across one product verticle - golf drivers In the past you may have asked them who their top 5 competitors are, checked out their rankings, ran a gap analyses, etc. What we can do in PBI.. Take all of the keywords that have converted one or more time Throw them into STAT for 24 hours Create a top 20 ranking report Join with PPC query report size of box is number of ranking keywords that have converted on PPC in the driver category Also need to be weary of our own biases and heuristics Never run a competitive analysis with 3-5 competitors again When it comes to SEO – Don’t follow them, unless what they’re doing is driving results and you can beat them (more authoritative site, better content, more logical contextual relevance, fresher content) Analyze them at scale
- #36 The first way that we can use our system 2 to overcome our system 1 is by using checklists, or simple formulas
- #37 What’s the first way we can scoot around our system 1 and eliminate biases through checklists..yes, simple checklists. In the early 2000s, the WHO realized that they had an international crisis on their hands when they looked at the amount of deaths from surgery and complications from surgery So, they modified a pre flight airline checklist to the operating room It was a super simple checklists with things to do check before giving anesthesia, before the incision, and before the patient leaves the OR In 6 months, deaths fell by 47 percent and post surgical complications dropped by 36 percent. Known allergy? Is the site marked? Does everyone know what procedure we’re about to do?
- #38 Identified important things that anesthesiologists know, but might overlook due to the unexpected - like a patient’s allergies. The reason why this checklist was so effective is because it ensured that surgeons followed simple, basic preventative measures that they consistently thought they followed follow but dind’t. These misses are simple failures, perfect for a classic cheWcklist. Created procedures for the nurses to follow instead of assuming that the surgeon knows what he’s doing – like is the site marked
- #39 For any problem that involves a process and making decisions
- #40 $100,000 to spend on off-site initiatives – you can pick 3. Which do you pick?
- #41 What was the reason we wanted to do this in the first place
- #42 Created simple if/then formula to tell us if this was good or not - over a certain amount of revenue based off client’s CVr and AOV
- #44 Eliminated our own biases and instead applied an objective checklist to help us answer the problem
- #45 not like there is some ultimate ranking system but we're evaluating strengths and experiences with client needs and opportunities
- #46 not like there is some ultimate ranking system but we're evaluating strengths and experiences with client needs and opportunities
- #47 WARNING: THESE ARE WEAPONS, DON’T USE THEM ON EACH OTHER OR PEOPLE THAT YOU LOVE
- #49 Really 5.5 million
- #52 Dr. Robert Cialdini’s book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, the concept of “reciprocity” is simple -- if someone does something for you, you naturally will want to do something for them. If you've ever gotten a mint with your bill at a restaurant, you've been the victim of reciprocity. According to Cialdini, when servers bring a check to their patrons without a mint, the diners will tip according to their perceptions of the service given. With one mint, the tip jumps up 3.3%. Two mints? The tip jumps "through the roof" to roughly 20%.
- #56 Can you spot the authority signals in this lawyer’s office? Top lawyers Pictures with important people Diplomas Maybe you can name drop other big clients who have implemented certain strategies?
- #61 80% chance of success vs. 20% chance of failure
- #64 While we like to think of ourselves as rational in our decision making, the truth is we are subject to many biases due to our system 1 Behavioral change stairway model Talk to your customers so you can empathize with them Smile, 3 tones of voice, mirror to build trust and rapport Make checklists, use and visualize data in order to influence It’s my hope that by doing so, you’ll become marketers, better practitioners, better consultants, and hopefully better human beings.