Michael Epps Utley {kind=image/jpg}
Everyone’s search engine habits are unique to them. Some people’s patterns are remarkably mundane. Others include quirks they wouldn’t want others to know about.
Google is attempting to address search diversity by leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and constantly updating algorithms. It's all about understanding user behavior so the search engine can serve up better recommendations.
The issue is that our experiences, backgrounds, social lives, and beliefs influence our search behaviors.
In this article, we’ll review some human cognitive biases that impact search and how to exploit them to improve search rankings.
What Is Cognitive Bias?
To make it through our chaotic, stressful days, our brains use shortcuts to perform effectively. They are an adaptive set of tricks that make it easier for us to process information.
In most cases, the shortcuts save us time and effort without significant negative consequences.
Other times, brain hacks get us into trouble, especially when cognitive biases pop up.
Cognitive biases are mental processes that impact memory and how we view things. They also force us to quickly judge people, brands, or situations in ways that are often unfair, shallow, or inaccurate.
To win the search engine optimization (SEO) game, it’s necessary to understand the potential biases the people you are targeting bring into their searches, how they select and interpret your content, and how they evaluate your messaging. This background information can inform your SEO, marketing, and content strategies.
Cognitive biases happen in three parts of the search journey:
The searches we make
The results we choose
The impact the content has on us
Let’s look more closely at each of these.
The Searches We Make
Google became capable of understanding natural language through algorithms like BERT and MUM. It can understand synonyms, entities, and relationships between words based on their order and context. Google now delivers nuanced and meaningful results that usually satisfy search intent.
The issue is that searchers often bring their non-standard contexts and prejudices into their queries.
This results in two biases:
Confirmation bias — the human preference for information that backs existing beliefs.
Search engine bias — when top search results are viewed as the best answer to a query despite potential editorial bias based on many complicated factors.
In short, our personal experiences shape how we enter the Google search journey. Because of this, the language used in searches influences the results. People’s attitudes affect the information they seek, and Google supplies material that reinforces individual beliefs.
People want the things they read to confirm how they view the world. That’s because changing personal points of view impacts identity. People don’t want to have their identities challenged.
Key takeaway: Word selection matters. When it comes to SEO, businesses tend to target keywords that have a large search volume to generate high traffic. What could be more beneficial is to take time to understand the people you are targeting and their biases so you can create content and marketing assets that resonate with them, making it more likely they will be served up and selected in search.
The Results We Choose
There is a significant amount of competition for attention in search results.
Paid ads
Featured snippets
Image packs
Video packs
People also ask
SERP-specific carousels
Rich snippets
Organic links
Add to this the fact that click rates for organic results fall precipitously the lower you get on the page.
Cognitive biases present throughout the search engine results pages (SERPs) complicate things further for businesses that want to rank.
The confirmation bias addressed in the previous section influences not just the content search engines serve but also what people select. Unless users seek a balanced perspective, they tend to click on results supporting their preconceived notions.
Another bias that influences behavior related to clicking on content is salience bias. It’s the human tendency to pay more attention to noticeable or emotionally striking items instead of less prominent, controversial things.
This bias highlights the need to actually look at search results to see what you’re competing against and find a way to package your content to make it stand out, whether it’s identifying a winning image, video, or featured snippet.
Key takeaway: To win the bias game when it comes to content selection, it’s critical to use meta titles and descriptions that address the biases of the people you’re targeting. Then, package your content in an appealing way that will cut through SERP clutter. Engendering feelings in visually appealing ways will drive more of the right traffic to your website.
The Impact of the Content
Google values content that demonstrates experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T).
People often trust authorities to point us in the right direction. We trust personalities and brands that have established themselves as leaders in areas of interest.
Cognitive bias coupled with authority bias results in people giving authority figures an extended amount of goodwill. Because of this, they’re more likely to respect their opinions, recommendations, or direction, often because they are aligned with their own.
Key takeaway: Leveraging authority figures in your content can help it win the authority bias game. Finding experts that people in your target audience respect will conquer any cognitive bias. Reference authority figures in your meta titles and descriptions to spark recognition and interest.
Cognitive Bias and SEO: The Final Word
For better or worse, cognitive bias is here to stay. While it’s important for individuals to try and combat their own biases, marketers benefit from leveraging these biases to drive more qualified traffic to their websites. Put simply, you want to give your target audience the content they’re looking for. The tips in this guide will help Google serve up your content to more people aligned with your brand.
