Before we talk about Micro-moments and their impact on SEO, let’s first take a look at what Micro-Moments are. Just as the name implies, Micro-moments are very small moments in time in which someone wants to do something. They may be more aptly described as “I want to” moments. They are the initial thoughts that turn a person to the internet for a solution to their needs. Let’s take a look at the different types of micro-moments:
I-Want-To-Know
With the adoption of new technology, such as smartphones, we often seek immediate answers to our questions. If we want to know something, we pull out our trusted device and search for the information we seek. When once we would wonder for hours if penguins have knees or not, today, we can just pull up the answer within seconds. They do, in fact, have knees, just in case you are wondering. However, Micro-Moments cannot be defined by our desire to gain the answer to a simple trivia question alone. We may want to look at product reviews to find the best laptop to buy, we may want to know when exactly to call a plumber for that leak, or we may just want a great recipe for chocolate cake. We have these moments all throughout our day, and more often than not, the internet provides the answer for us.
I-Want-To-Do
Some may say these moments are very similar to I want to know moments. During these moments, we want to do a particular task and look for the information to help us succeed. We may want to venture into a new line of work and want to know how to go about it. We may want to spruce up our old furniture and want to know how to upcycle it, or we could just be looking for instructions on how to fix that aforementioned leak ourselves. We often want to know how to do various things, and asking someone else is often not an option, so the internet provides a correct and immediate answer.
I-Want-To-Go
A little less frequent but very important micro-moment is when we want to go somewhere. We may be looking for directions to the nearest store or local cinema. These types of micro-moments mainly happen when someone is wanting the location of something, or finding out how to get there.
I-Want-To-Buy
I want to buy moments are the point at which someone, as the name suggests, wants to make a purchase. They may be looking for a website to buy the product in mind, where to go to buy said product, or even just help to decide what type of product is best for their needs.
As you can see, these moments are all very similar to each other, that’s why we are calling them micro-moments; they are usually tiny parts of a bigger process that the mind goes through when wanting to achieve something. The key, especially in marketing and the business world, is optimizing not just for the bigger picture but for the smaller details.
How do we optimize for Micro-Moments?
Due to the modern world and its immediate and constant need for information, we always need to think about micro-moments when we consider our marketing strategy. Let’s take a look at the various ways we can improve our SEO to help optimize for these.
Be clear and concise
When you are looking for quick answers to information, what do you normally do? You type your question into your browser and check the search results. With the adoption of AI summaries by Google, sometimes you don’t even make it past the search results. But some things need more information or need to be more accurate. You pick the answer that seems the most helpful and open up the result. So, make sure you keep the titles of your content relevant to the information you are providing, think of answers that would be asked by people searching for your information, then answer them, and do it in a fast and efficient manner. However, don’t leave out vital information whilst doing so. Make sure you are thorough; if you are providing product information, make sure you are telling the user everything they need to know. Separate your information with headings, make good use of paragraphs, use bullet points and even provide video content, pictures and infographics to enhance your content.
Optimize for Rich Snippets
Once your content is clear and concise, you can help search engines understand it better by enhancing the content that is displayed in search results. With the help of a structured data markup language, you can present more relevant information to those seeking answers. A web developer can do this by adding schema or microdata to their HTML code allowing the search engine to deliver more of the information within your content to the user before they have even clicked on the result. This can help you stand out from other search results and potentially help you get more traffic to your website.
Make use of all platforms
Gone are the days when a website was all you needed to gain customers and drive sales. Today, we have to make sure our online presence spreads beyond our homepage into the world of social media, business listings such as Google My Business and directories such as Yelp and Yell. The more places you are, the better. Different people have different tastes and prefer one form of searching to another; some may look for product review sites to see information about a product, whilst others may look for a video on YouTube. If people are looking for a business or service with the best reviews, they could look at Facebook or Google My Business. Make sure you are covered for every eventuality, so in that micro-moment, when someone is seeking a solution to their want, you are very easily seen.
Speed is key
As we have said micro-moments are all about immediate answers and solutions. So optimizing for this is essential. Make sure your website or app loads quickly. Personally, I have changed my decision about purchasing just due to a slow app. I have also left a website if it is taking too long to load, and in this world of instant gratification, many others do the same. So whatever it is you are doing, do it fast!
Optimize for mobile
Time and time again, Web Geeks mentions how important it is to optimize for mobile devices. Micro-moments most often happen on mobile devices, so this could probably be the most important factor. It is far easier to pull a phone out of your pocket and search a topic than it is to walk over to your computer, so make sure your sites are adaptive or responsive. A badly presented site on mobile will mean users are going to turn elsewhere for their solution, losing you sales in the process. This includes making the process of purchasing easy on mobile, too; it is not only format that counts; many people, especially younger generations, tend to opt for making purchases from their smartphones, so make it as simple as it is for your users on desktop.
Think voice search
Nothing could make micro-moments more immediate than not even stopping to type. With so many people forgoing the dated practises of past generations and just asking Siri or Alexa to do their searching for them, you need to optimize for natural language to get your content seen when users are using voice search.
Personalization
Knowing what the user wants before the user knows they want it is a very powerful tool for your arsenal. You can interpret customer behaviour through data collection and analytics. Using dynamic retargeting ads can get you seen by those who have interacted with your website before, allowing you to take things you already know about that user based on purchase history or other data and deliver them things you think they want to see. This can make you stand out from other sites.
Even though these moments are Micro optimizing for them is incredibly important so thinking of them in regards to your SEO and other various marketing strategies is essential.
Key Takeaways
- Micro-moments are small moments in time when a user makes a search online. They are often small moments that form part of a bigger process.
- The 4 types of micro-moments are I-Want-To-Know, I-Want-To-Do, I-Want-To-Go, and I-Want-To-Buy.
- We can optimize for Micro-moments in SEO by providing clear and concise data and then getting the search engine to display more of our content in rich snippets by using schema markup.
- Making sure our website is optimized for speed and formatted for mobile satisfies the immediate nature of Micro-Moments.
- Increasing your online presence by making use of all platforms can increase your ability to get seen by users during their searches.