SEO specialist is, first of all, a technical worker who performs a specific task — website promotion in a search engine, improving its positions. The search engine is focused on the interests of Internet users. Adapting to its requirements, webmasters make micro-markup, design snippets in a certain way, and so on. But is this really useful for promotion?
In particular, fashionable buttons in snippets for going to social networks (Facebook, Vkontakte, Twitter) look beautiful in Yandex results, but they take visitors away from the client's site. How can you manage traffic? According to professionals, services like Userator, Movebo, etc., which supply "guests" to a site for a fee, are not only useless, but also harmful. Yandex and Google search engineers easily identify fake users, since their behavior is set according to a certain template, for which they can get banned. With the help of such systems, you can only "wind up" hints for low-frequency queries, for which the site is in the desired position. But it is possible to work differently with behavioral factors of website ranking (actions of Internet users), without using Userator and analogues.
Perhaps the most important of them are clicks on search. A search engine can easily evaluate the CTR (clickability) of each position, the order of transitions, and calculate how many visitors returned from the site to the search results to refine their query. Search engines evaluate all this with an accuracy of up to 100 percent.
But there are also other behavioral factors on the site itself, these are: transitions from page to page, presence, size of the permanent core audience, time spent on the site, number of repeat visits, actions on pages (filling out forms, participating in a survey, using a calculator, map, etc.), transitions to other resources.
There are mechanisms for targeted influence on these factors, which are called triggers, in translation from English — “triggers”. They work as follows. As you know, every person is prone to certain behavioral reactions. Knowing them, the webmaster can push the site visitor to certain actions, such as online purchase, call, filling out a questionnaire, registration, posting a link on his/her page in a social network. That is, the goals of triggers are user motivation. SeoPult analysts suggested classifying them by 3 types of human behavior:
- Triggers focused on instincts
- Triggers using hereditary qualities
- Triggers working with behavior formed during life
Triggers associated with instincts:
- Distrust, or expectation of deception. To reduce it, recommendations, reviews, diplomas, certificates, and letters of thanks are posted on the site. Logos of famous brands in the portfolio work well - they increase trust in the company.
- Safety - the desire for guarantees. To satisfy it, they write about guarantees, insurance, the ability to return the product or take it to a service center for free repairs.
- Herd mentality - the desire to see that the product or service is already popular. And this is shown by likes, views, shares, comments. The text content should contain phrases like “we are recommended”, etc. A customer or completed work counter will also help.
- Simplicity. How to make a purchase, how to pay for it should be described as clearly and accessibly as possible, there should be many calculators to calculate the delivery cost, discount, percentage, etc.
- Haste. To hook the user, not to let him leave the page, you need to provide maximum information: photos, maps, panoramas, video review, detailed description.
- Sex. Using attractive female images for presentation, advertising of goods, in the role of online consultants. However, this tool should be used wisely for example, in the b2b (business to business) area it reduces conversion (the ratio of the number of site visitors who have completed target actions to their total number).
Triggers that work with qualities inherited from parents
- Greed. To overcome it, discounts, promotions, crossed out prices, price reductions, bonuses, gifts for purchases are offered
- Fear of missing out. To stimulate it, countdown timers are installed, restrictions on the duration of the promotion are written about, a limited quantity of goods in the warehouse
- Laziness. Services for comparing similar products by characteristics, price, company make the search easier
- Pity. To use it, you should notify that a certain % of the proceeds will be transferred to the child's treatment, to an orphanage, etc.
- Distraction. If a person wants to take a break from reading, he can chat with an online consultant
- Unambiguity. You should offer terms that are beneficial to a specific audience (delivery to the regions, discounts for students, pensioners)
Triggers that work with a person's behavior formed over his life
- Personal assessment. Polls and tests posted on the resource give the consumer the opportunity to express their opinion.
- Bargaining. The opportunity to bargain is realized by auctions, promotions like “find where it is cheaper”.
- Entertainment. Mini-games, fun content
- Skeomorphism is similarity to well-known resources. Competent button design, style and design are responsible for this.
We can conclude that triggers motivate the visitor to actions that improve the visibility of the site and increase the number of transitions to the site.