User emotions and statistics
24-09-2009
A few months back, I guest-lectured at Bournemouth University at the Centre for Excellence in Media Practice (CEMP) master class. I was presenting a 45-minute overview of search (both PPC and SEO) combined with a brief discussion on the importance of understanding basic web stats and how you should use them to your advantage. Yes, I had to squeeze all of that into a 45 minute presentation.
I was there to explain to the students that driving traffic to a website was only half the battle and that helping (or making) users do what you want them to do on your site was the tricky part. What I wanted to focus their minds on was the fact that flashy looking web design is one thing but if users could neither find the site in the first place nor use the site when they found it, what was the point in their creative efforts?
To date, my career in search has been numbers focused. Yes, I do write ad copy for clients, I do recommend landing pages, but my primary focus has always been on the numbers. How many clicks on the keyword “Caribbean Boating Holiday” does it take to convert to a successful Bahamas holiday booking? How many keywords are clicked before a booking is made? What ad drives the highest CTR%? What position provides the most cost effective return? And so on and so on.
But the bigger question I feel is, what are users thinking when they search? What do they respond to? What emotional state are they in? Traditionally, we can only guess what we think will make a compelling ad based on the product we are trying to sell. Wouldn’t it be good if we understood the users motivations and perceptions rather than showing them all the same ad, just because on average it had the best CTR%. The likes of Google and Bing have been toying with this for a while now, but they are again focusing on the statistics. What we need is an understanding of the user, not from a bunch of numbers but from almost a one-to-one interview with them.
From a Redweb perspective, user centric design has been our mantra since we began, and our user experience (UX) team are testament to this. The Redweb UX approach tends to be qualitative but with an important degree of attention paid to the quantitative.
Obviously UX and Search are two different disciplines, but there is a degree of crossover. We need to pay meticulous attention to the stats. These guide us along the path of what the user is searching for and clicking on. We can’t ask every user why they clicked on one of our ads, but we can see the volumes. I guess my point here is with some upfront insight into what we feel our users will click on, we have a flying start.
Quantitative data has been where I have had my foot, but I feel a change is coming. Here at Redweb Search, we are currently working closely with the UX team and with real users to gain insight into the types of things that shape user search behaviour and our clients are benefitting from it as we go. We are in the early throws of working with Bournemouth University to shine a light on the emotional response to search listings, rather than just relying on gut instinct backed up with a load of stats. I won’t ever abandon the stats completely, as I need those to prove to clients that my ideas were right (insert laugh here) but our user-centric approach is helping our clients achieve more that gut instinct and analysis alone. I will keep you updated as the ongoing research project rolls on.
Written by: Dan Hills