Boost Your SEO by Conducting an Original Research Survey
Getting in front of your target customers on Google is the dream for most businesses, but SEO is becoming more and more competitive. So, how can you give yourself an advantage?
By doing what most businesses don’t do: publishing an original research report.
Most competitors will keep producing surface-level or opinion-based content. On the contrary, you can boost your SEO and set yourself apart by bringing something fresh to the table. And the best news? To get your initial data, you won’t need to pay an expensive agency.
We’ll show you exactly how this primary data resource will improve your SEO and how to use an original research survey to collect your insights.
What is an original research survey?
An original research survey consists of a survey or quiz-style questions to collect fresh data which you’ll then use to create a report.
For example, let’s say you run a women-only travel agency. Your original research survey could be tailored to female travelers, asking them questions about their experiences, challenges, fears, and preferences. Then, use that data to create a report along the lines of “Traveling as a Woman: Stats (And What Nobody Is Talking About)”.
Original research will benefit a lot more than your business website’s SEO
This guide will focus on the SEO advantages of original research reports, but for the record… creating one will benefit your business in so many more ways!
- Building authority – This data-backed resource will position you as a problem-solver and thought leader in the eyes of your target audience
- Reaching more people – From publishing a valuable resource to creating SEO-friendly content around it, you’ll grow your brand awareness and audience size
- Supporting your content strategy – You can repurpose and use your research findings to create blog posts, whitepapers, social media content, videos, and much more
- Collecting data for your marketing – Guess what? Through your original research survey, you literally get to ask questions to your target customers. As well as feeding into your report, that’s a goldmine of insights to inform your messaging and marketing
- Generating leads – Ask your audience to share their contact details when they contribute to your survey, and do the same when you’re ready to share your actual original research document. That way, you’ll get to stay in touch with them, nurture them, and recommend the most relevant next step, product, or service… before your report is even ready!
- Attracting new opportunities – Your first-hand research is a primary source of data, and you’ll share it with a fresh angle. So, it can result in all kinds of opportunities, from references in industry media to public speaking invitations or relevant collaborations
Not bad, huh? Now, let’s dive into how conducting an original research survey will boost your SEO, specifically.
Why original research matters for SEO (the nitty gritty)
Conducting original research is a great way to improve your search rankings: you’re literally creating content that’s valuable to both search engines and human users!
Earning high-quality backlinks
To search engines like Google, backlinks (so, when an external site links to yours) are a sign of trust and relevance, especially when they come from authoritative websites in your industry.
While you can attract them with other types of content too, first-hand research is a backlink magnet!
Think about it: it’s a reliable primary source. So, from journalists to bloggers and other people in your industry, others will want to quote it and link to it when they’re referencing your original data.
Boosting your authority on search engines
Ever heard of EAT? It stands for Expertise, Authority, and Trust, and it’s one of the criteria used by Google to determine the value of your web content.
Because your original research article brings something new, trusted, and relevant to your industry, it’ll increase your website’s authority in the “eyes” of search engines.
Generating evergreen content
Unfortunately, some blog posts and articles have a short lifespan, especially if you wrote about something that was only topical months ago.
Original research reports, on the other hand, have long-term value. They have the potential of gaining traction and attracting backlinks for years after their publication!
Ranking for more long-tail keywords
In other words, even more opportunities to reach your target customers when they’re googling something related to your industry or their challenges. You can do this in two main ways:
- Optimizing your report (if you choose to share it with everyone) or its landing page (if you only send it to those who sign up for it) for keywords that describe it
- Creating new SEO-friendly content around the sub-topics and keywords you discovered when conducting your original research
Increasing dwell time and engagement
A high bounce rate (so, when users leave your website right after landing on it) is bad for SEO. That’s one of the many reasons why your goal should be to keep people on your site for as long as possible.
Luckily, from your compelling landing page to your original research report and the content you’ll create around it, you get so many chances to hook your website visitors and keep them engaged.
Appearing in featured snippets and industry mentions
Even if your full report can only be accessed after someone enters their contact details, you can (and should) share some data on its landing page and in the SEO-friendly blog posts you’ll publish around it.
This won’t just pique your audience’s interest: it’ll give you more opportunities to show up in featured snippets and to be mentioned by other publications, which will boost both your SEO and brand awareness.
Collecting data for your original research: ScoreApp’s faster and more budget-friendly solution
By now, you’re probably excited to create your original report, but you might be wondering how to get there in practice. After all, traditional market research tends to be either expensive or complicated and time-consuming (or both).
Fret not: with ScoreApp, you can create an original research survey or quiz, asking questions directly to your audience while reaching and retaining more people.
What are the perks of doing this, and how do we make things easier for you?
- Affordable and scalable solution – Instead of hiring an agency, you get to do all this in-house, saving thousands on your market research costs (you’re welcome!). You can start with our generous free plan and only upgrade to a paid one when you need more features
- Quick survey creation – What would normally take weeks can now be done in hours… or even less! Use our intuitive drag-and-drop builder or customize a template to create your original research survey or quiz. Then, start sharing its landing page with your audience. Easy!
- Lead capture – When someone signs up to complete your original research survey, ScoreApp will collect their contact details, and you can also connect it to your CRM and email marketing platform
- Analytics and automated data collection – You won’t just collect lots of individual responses. With our reporting features, it’s a breeze to review them and make sense of them (for example, by compiling data and spotting patterns)
Basically, a ScoreApp original research survey is the perfect starting point to collect all the insights you need to put your new report together. Then? To start boosting your SEO and get the most out of it:
- Publish your report on your business website (ideally, using a compelling landing page and asking visitors to share their email address to access the actual research)
- From your social media to your existing email list, promote your report in your marketing to reach more people and attract more backlinks
- Create SEO-friendly content around it
- Nurture your survey participants. As well as sending them your new report as soon as it’s ready, set up automated sequences to stay in touch and turn some of them into customers. Even better? Use their initial quiz answers to personalize your emails for each segment, making them even more relevant and effective
- Create new resources or incentives around your report, like offering a discount or complimentary consultation to your survey participants
Start collecting insights for your primary source report with ScoreApp
Getting the data you need for your report is really as easy as 1, 2, 3:
- Create your original research survey – Plan questions that’ll uncover the answers and data you need, using ScoreApp’s drag-and-drop builder or customizable templates to bring them together
- Start collecting responses – Create a compelling landing page for your original research survey, and share it EVERYWHERE. For example, as well as adding it to your website, you could send it to your existing email subscribers, run paid ads to reach more people fast, and offer it in your social media content
- Review your data – Use ScoreApp’s intuitive reporting features to analyze your new insights. You’re now ready to use your data to create your report!
Do this today so you can boost your SEO and authority as soon as possible.
Serious about reaching more people, standing out, and positioning yourself as a thought leader? It all starts with an original research survey to collect your data: get it out there with ScoreApp today and for FREE.
