Google‘s messy middle and what (ecommerce) SEOs need to know about it

31 categories, 1,000 shoppers per category, 10 purchase simulations per shopper, 310,000 data points: Google's Consumer Insights team recently conducted an extensive experiment to understand how users really arrive at a purchase decision on the Internet. What the findings of this study are and what this means for SEOs you will learn in this presentation.

Transcript

1. Google‘s messy middle and what (eCommerce) SEOs need to know about it Florian Elbers NEOSEO speakerdeck.com/neoseo @florianelbers
2. Who is speaking? Florian Elbers (he/him) u Freelance SEO-Consultant u In SEO since 2009 u Host of SEO Meetup Hamburg u florian@neoseo.de u linkedin.com/in/florian-elbers/ u twitter.com/florianelbers @florianelbers 1 #BrightonSEO
3. Who knows what it is? And from when? @florianelbers 2 #BrightonSEO
4. The purchase funnel / conversion funnel @florianelbers 3 #BrightonSEO AWARENESS DESIRE ACTION INTEREST
5. Google‘s shopping behaviour experiment u 2 years long study u Conducted in light of the pandemic in 2020 @florianelbers 4 #BrightonSEO
6. Result: There are no typical journeys @florianelbers 5 #BrightonSEO Purchase trigger Purchase
7. A new structure: The Messy Middle model @florianelbers 6 #BrightonSEO
8. Search behavior evolves over time @florianelbers 7 #BrightonSEO
9. The Paradox of Choice in eCommerce NEOSEO 8 #BrightonSEO
10. Decision making principle: Category heuristics @florianelbers 9 https://baymard.com/blog/macys-filtering-experience #BrightonSEO
11. Google helps finding category-specific filters @florianelbers 10 #BrightonSEO
12. Decision making principle: Authority bias @florianelbers 11 #BrightonSEO https://longtailux.com/case-study/how-adore-beauty-reduce-customer-acquisition-cost-by-64- with-personalised-landing-pages/
13. Buying guides on Product Listing Page @florianelbers 12 #BrightonSEO
14. Build more specific SEO landing pages u Landing pages for „[product] + u [Purpose]“ u [Country of manufacture]“ u [Without XYZ]“ u [With XYZ]“ u [For XYZ]“ u [Against XYZ]“ u [Age]“ u [Target group]“ @florianelbers 13 #BrightonSEO
15. Key action 1: Ensure brand presence u Be present in u SERPS, u Ads, u price comparison sites, u social media platforms, u etc. @florianelbers 14 #BrightonSEO
16. Key action 2: Employ behavioural science u Consumers are looking for reassurance to strengthen their purchase decision during evaluation @florianelbers 15 #BrightonSEO
17. Key action 3: Close the gap between trigger & purchase u Reduce the cognitive burden experienced by consumers while exploring and evaluating @florianelbers 16 https://de.slideshare.net/kloeckner/behemoth-seo-search-strategy-for-huge-websites #BrightonSEO
18. Thank you & check the study! NEOSEO 17 #BrightonSEO https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/consumer- insights/consumer-journey/navigating- purchase-behavior-and-decision-making/