More traffic sounds promising. Understanding what needs attention gives us somewhere to start.
When a marketing effort is not bringing in the results we hoped for, it can be easy to jump into making changes. Maybe the content needs to be rewritten, the page needs a different layout, or we need to bring more people to the website. At first glance, more traffic must be good, right? Well, it depends on whether those visits support the goal. These ideas could all be worth exploring, but how do we know which one would help? This is where taking a step back and understanding the problem becomes crucial.
Let’s consider an example from a healthcare SEO perspective. Suppose a provider is concerned about not getting enough appointment bookings and asks how to increase website visits. The connection makes sense: if more people visit the website, there could be more opportunities for them to learn about a service and schedule an appointment. Sounds simple, right? However, before focusing on increasing traffic, we need to understand what is currently happening on the site.
We could start by reviewing the available analytics, including page views, sessions, visitors, bounce rates, and where people enter the website. This would help establish where things stand before recommending changes. Looking through the pages could also reveal areas that need attention, such as missing metadata, missing headings, or images without alt text. While these findings would give us something to work on, they would not necessarily explain the concern about appointment volume. They would, however, begin to paint a picture.
More Visits, More Appointments?
This example connects to the first step of the marketing research process: identifying the research need. Before deciding how to address a concern, we need to determine what information would help us make that decision. Here, wanting more appointments is the business goal, while increasing website traffic is one possible way to support it. To determine whether that is the right direction, we might first ask whether prospective patients are finding the service through relevant searches. We could also investigate whether the page answers their questions and makes it clear how to request an appointment.
These questions may lead us toward different changes. No single solution works for every issue. A page that receives little visibility in search would need a different investigation from one that receives visitors who leave without taking the next step. Simply saying that both pages need better content would overlook what might be happening in each situation.
I think this is especially relevant in SEO because there are often several things we could improve on a page. The content might be too broad, the headings might not reflect what the page discusses, or the metadata might need a little more attention. However, having a list of possible improvements does not automatically tell us which ones should come first or how they relate to the result we want.
Knowing what you can change is different from knowing what needs to change.
We Have the Data. Now What?
Another part of identifying the research need is asking what we will do with the information. If we are collecting data, we should have an idea of how the findings could influence our next steps, right?
In this example, if further investigation suggested that visitors had difficulty understanding the services offered, we might prioritize clearer content. If visitors struggled to find appointment information, we might focus on making that next step easier to locate. The findings would help us decide where to direct our efforts. We can start by reviewing information that already exists, such as website analytics and search performance reports. These sources may help us narrow down what needs further attention before spending time or money on additional research. Still, there are limits to what they can explain. Seeing that someone left a page does not tell us why they left or whether they scheduled an appointment through another channel.
To me, this is what makes identifying the research need so useful. It gives the information we collect a purpose and allows us to explain why we are recommending certain changes. Rather than starting with everything we could update, we can focus on what we need to understand and use that knowledge to decide where to begin.
