SEO Research
Want to launch a food delivery website aimed specifically at office workers within a pre-described geographical area? Or perhaps you want to launch a new female-oriented version of your website?
A research stage will involve the project team developing a clear understanding of the business objectives and attempting to determine whether or not the initial objectives are feasible and can be delivered via the site.
Research will help us to identify the requirements needed in order to meet the main project goals. i.e. new customer acquisition, customer retention, increase in customer spend, trial of new product offerings etc.
Please note that Hamilton Buchanan will usually contract specialist 3rd party researchers who specialise in delivering research within an online marketing context.
We generally use the following research methodologies:
Online Surveys
In order to begin the process of understanding the demographics and requirements of your site, an online survey will be deployed to capture data from your visitors. We can either deploy the survey directly off your site using 3rd party software or we can design an online survey which can be emailed via a link to your customer database.
The online survey will gather demographic data, but more importantly aim to offer a clearer understanding of your customer behaviours and needs.
One of the major benefits of an online survey is that it will allow data to be captured from a large number of people, in a relatively short space of time and at a lower cost per head than other forms of research. In addition, data collected can often be very accurate as feedback will be captured at the source.
Questionnaire design will be delivered by Hamilton Buchanan (or via our Research partners) with input and sign-off from the client project team. Once the survey questions are determined the survey will be deployed and data capture will begin. We will analyse the data and prepare a report outlining the major findings.
Please bear in mind that a research phase can often be quite extensive and as such as our quote is based on detailed client requirements.
User Journey and Online Persona Profiling
User Journey Profiling
It’s critical to understand how visitors move through your site but, to also understand the behaviour profiles of your typical online customer. Are they searching for information deep within your site? Does your average customer visit your site a few times prior to purchase? What is the click path of your most profitable online customer? We can analyse your web traffic customer user journeys in order to develop recommendations to aid your primary and secondary conversion rates.
Online Persona Profiling
Once we have conducted research, either qualitatively or quantitatively, we will collate the findings and produce ‘Personas’ which define your core target audiences.
Personas are simply detailed descriptions of typical users from the target audience. Each is given a name, face, and job/lifestyle as this helps in creating real-life scenarios, these in turn assist in identifying the users’ end-goals, which can be focussed on during the requirements, design and testing stages of an online casino geared to the female gambling market. They help us to understand what features a website would need to have in order to attract core target customers and inform decisions about the associated branding and design.
Personas are used throughout the project (for example, during conceptual design, interaction design and prototype testing) to answer questions such as “Who is this person?” and “How will the site support their needs?“