Tired of blog posts, books, and other SEO content that just seem to parrot the same things? Me, too. That’s why I thought I’d give you a sneak peek of The Search Within: Using Consumer Behaviour to Power SEO.
Enjoy!
Measuring the Right Things: Behavioural SEO KPIs
If You Can’t Measure the Mind, Measure Its Signals
Admit it. You’ve obsessively watched organic traffic charts, celebrated an increase in impressions, and cried over a slight drop in bounce rate. We’ve all done it. Mostly because traditional SEO metrics like rankings, sessions, or CTRs are familiar and easy to track, but here’s the kicker: They’re surface-level snapshots. They never tell you the full story.
Why is that a problem? Because real people don’t behave like spreadsheets. They hesitate, compare, revisit, and scroll aimlessly at midnight. And traditional KPIs often ignore this beautifully messy behaviour.
Take bounce rate, for example. Someone could land on a page, spend five minutes soaking in your content, and leave satisfied. The next person could visit your site to grab a quick statistic and leave equally satisfied, but analytics calls that a bounce. It’s the digital equivalent of judging a date by whether they texted you after. It’s not the whole picture.
“Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.”
— William Bruce Cameron, Informal Sociology: A casual introduction to sociological thinking
Engagement Signals That Matter
To truly understand what’s working, we need to look at behavioural KPIs that act as signs that someone is engaged, intrigued, and maybe even falling in love with your brand. Now, in truth, you’ll likely need to combine metrics from social media platforms, video platforms, your CRM, and other sources to customize your reporting and get an accurate picture of what’s going on. However, there are a few out-of-the-box metrics right in GA4 and other analytics platforms to get you started:
1 – Dwell Time
Dwell time is the total time a user spends on a page before returning to the SERP. If someone clicks your link, stays a while, and then bounces back, that’s a good sign. Short dwell times? Maybe your content didn’t match their intent, or the experience was subpar.
According to a 2023 study by Backlinko, the average first-page result on Google has a dwell time of over 3 minutes, which is a solid indicator that longer on-page time correlates with better rankings.
2 – Scroll Depth
Ever wonder if your “contact us” form at the bottom is ever seen or why it’s not capturing leads? While you may think it’s because users don’t care, it could be because you’ve buried it in a content graveyard. How can you tell? Scroll depth.
Scroll depth reveals how far a user makes it down a page. It’s also a good indicator of whether users are simply skimming the intro and leaving or if they’re actually reaching your CTA. Combine this metric with click counts, and you will be able to tell if your CTA is the problem or if it’s the page or traffic source that’s keeping your conversions down.
For even better troubleshooting and reporting, I recommend Hotjar or Microsoft Clarity to visualize scroll behaviour.
3 – Click Patterns & Rage Clicks
User behaviour tools like Crazy Egg or Clarity can show you where users are clicking, even if there’s nothing there to click. Rage clicks (rapid clicks in frustration) and dead clicks (clicks on non-interactive elements) reveal design or UX friction. For example, if users repeatedly click on a line that looks like a link but isn’t, you know they’re expecting something, and you’re not delivering. That’s friction. And friction is the enemy of conversion.
4 – Navigation Paths
Navigation paths show you how users move through your site, including which pages they view first, where they go next, and where they drop off. Think of this as digital body language.
By using GA4’s User Path Exploration, you can trace the customer journey to find out if users are following a logical path (Homepage → Category → Product → Checkout) or are bouncing between random blog posts like they’re lost in a maze. Either way, you can optimize the flow and get more conversions from the traffic you’re already generating.
5 – Return Visitors & Frequency
When people return to your site over and over, you know you’ve secured some emotional engagement and you’re delivering value that sticks. A high percentage of return visitors usually signals trust, interest, or ongoing consideration, which are all green flags for nurturing leads or moving users closer to conversion. You can also track visit frequency and the time between visits to gauge buying cycles or research behaviour.
6 – Time to First Interaction
Time to first interaction measures how long it takes for users to click, scroll, or engage with your page. If visitors land and sit idle for too long, they may be confused or unsure about what to do next. To make this information actionable, combine Time to First Interaction data with heatmaps or video session replays to identify hesitation points or cognitive overload.
7 – On-Site Search Queries
What users search for after landing on your site can often reveal gaps in your content or UX because it’s essentially a repository of all the things users expected to find but didn’t. GA4 can track this with custom event parameters. Or you can use platforms like Site Search 360 to get deeper insights.
8 – Exit Rate by Page
Exit rate tells you how often users leave your site from a particular page. While some exits are natural like after a thank-you page, for example, others signal disappointment or disinterest. High exit rates on product or pricing pages, for instance, could mean friction in the buying journey. My recommendation here? Segment by device or source to identify patterns.
9 – Micro-Conversions
Not every win is a sale. Micro-conversions are small actions that indicate user intent, such as:
- Downloading a guide.
- Clicking to view a video.
- Using a comparison tool.
- Saving a product.
- Signing up for notifications.
Track these in GA4 using event tracking and elevate them to conversions if they represent key steps in your funnel. While no one else might care how many times one of these micro-conversions occurs, they can help you diagnose and troubleshoot a whole range of SEO and conversion problems, including audience misalignments, keyword research errors, and more.
10 – Scroll Speed & Reading Behaviour
Scroll depth is helpful, but scroll speed or “reads,” which is time on page and scroll depth, can help you determine whether your audience segments are skimming or scanning. Scroll speed and pause points, particularly those around subheadings or images, can be excellent signals of high interest or confusion. If you’re looking for a more out-of-the-box solution, tools like Scrollmagic may be a worthwhile investment.
Using GA4 and Tools for Behavioural Insight
GA4, love it or hate it, does offer improved behavioural tracking. And while I’ve hated the learning curve of the new software (particularly because it occurred while I was working with a massive, complex site with a ton of customized tracking, settings, and events), it does a good job if you use the various new features to your advantage.
Engagement Rate Over Bounce Rate
GA4 replaces bounce rate with engagement rate, which is the percentage of sessions that last longer than 10 seconds, have 1+ conversion events, or 2+ page views. So, it’s more aligned with actual user interest than bounce rate ever was and requires less cross-referencing and data magic.
Events and Conversions
Perhaps one of the biggest perks of GA4 that I’ve enjoyed is custom events for key behavioural actions:
- Scroll tracking (e.g., 50%, 75%, 100%).
- Video plays.
- CTA button clicks.
- Internal link clicks.
- Audience segmentation and tagging.
They’re a bit tricky to set up in some instances, but once they’re done, you can mark these as conversions to measure intent-based actions rather than just sales.
Behavioural Funnels
Remember those behavioural funnels we built and played with earlier? You can essentially replicate and add them to GA4 to track not just drop-offs but where hesitation occurs. These things have enabled me to verify and measure the success of various campaigns, troubleshoot pesky customer journeys that just didn’t seem to be working, and spot some absolutely shocking opportunities that generate a lot of revenue. I can’t recommend this strategy enough.
Segmenting Audiences by Behaviour
Not all users behave the same, and that’s where things get interesting. In fact, it’s probably one of my favourite aspects of audience targeting and conversion rate optimization to work on. Segmentation allows you to build highly personalized strategies that adapt and account for the many reasons why people act the way they do.
High-Intent vs. Low-Intent Visitors
Segment users by source, session depth, or time on site. Someone who visited your site three times and read your pricing page is in a very different mindset than a first-timer who landed on your blog.
You can also use GA4 audiences to:
- Create remarketing lists for high-engagement users.
- Customize content for frequent returners.
- Identify “lurkers” who never convert and figure out what’s missing.
Emotional States and Situational Context
People behave differently depending on their emotional or situational state. For instance, users researching “best family lawyer” at 2 a.m. may be in a completely different mindset than someone doing so at 2 p.m. on a weekday. Behavioural analytics like time of day, device used, and sequence of actions can give us insights into emotional or situational context. Use this to tailor your CTAs, content tone, keyword strategies, or even the timing of offers.
Defining Success Through the Lens of User Experience
While I hate to admit it, Google doesn’t care about your traffic goals. It would certainly make everyone’s jobs easier if it did. In the end, Google only really wants one thing: It wants users to be happy. That means our KPIs need to shift from “Did we rank?” or “Did we show up?” to “Did we help?”
Perhaps one of the best recommendations I can give when looking to use psychological triggers as KPIs is to look for moments of clarity, comfort, and confidence as behavioural indicators of a good UX.
The Seven Psychological C’s of Conversion Rate Optimization (Psychological KPIs)
1 – Clarity
Answering the Question: Does the user understand what you’re offering and what to do next?
How to Measure: For clarity, you measure how well users understood your messaging and communication throughout a specific journey, making it an ideal metric for determining the effectiveness of campaigns and keywords. Here, track and measure points where a user finds additional information.
Places To Measure Clarity:
- Scroll depth on FAQ sections prior to clicking a conversion point such as “Contact.”
- Scroll depth across information-heavy pages.
- Interactions with tabbed content, expandable sections, or comparison charts.
- Clicks on help icons, tooltips, or explainer videos.
Why Clarity Measurements Matter: Cognitive fluency. The easier something is to process and understand, the more we like and trust it.
2 – Comfort
Answering the Question: Is the user feeling emotionally safe and familiar on the site?
How to Measure: To measure comfort indicators, track points where users return multiple times to the same page. It’s about the only objective measurement I’ve found for the familiarity-breeds-trust concept I’ve been hammering on throughout this book.
Places To Measure Comfort:
- Return visits to the same page.
- Average time spent on product or service overview pages.
- Scroll slowdown or hover over “comfort zones” like trust badges, guarantees, or FAQs.
- Low bounce rates on repeated sessions.
Why Comfort Measurements Matter: Mere exposure effect. Repeated exposures increase preference and trust.
3 – Confidence
Answering the Question: Is the user becoming more sure of their decision?
How to Measure: To use confidence as a KPI, track places where users seek to increase their trust and confidence levels.
Places To Measure Confidence:
- Clicks on testimonials, reviews, social proof, or third-party validation.
- Comparisons of pricing tiers or reading case studies.
- Time spent on About, Contact, or Guarantee pages.
- Interactions with chatbots or live support for pre-purchase questions.
While these kinds of KPIs can be a little lower on the priority list for clients or the C-suite, I find they’re priceless when troubleshooting poor-performing sites. They also add colour to the numbers that normally dominate reports and provide context for biased customer surveys and feedback form data reports, transforming these assessments from a summary of how the site is doing to why the site is performing the way it is and what users are thinking.
Why Confidence Measurements Matter: Risk aversion and social proof. Users want assurance that their decision is safe and a smart one.
4 – Curiosity
Answering the Question: Is the user showing a desire to explore or learn more?
How to Measure: To use curiosity as a KPI, track places where users seek to deepen their understanding of your brand, your products, services, and even you.
Places To Measure Curiosity:
- Click-throughs to internal links, related articles, or “read more” expansions.
- Site search queries after landing on a page or post.
- Interactions with interactive tools or calculators.
- Explorations and interactions with image carousels, product zooms, or tabs
Why Curiosity Measurements Matter: The information gap theory. We’re driven to understand and fill gaps between what we know and what we want to know.
While these kinds of KPIs can be a little lower on the priority list for clients or the C-suite, I find they’re priceless when troubleshooting poor-performing sites. They also add colour to the numbers that normally dominate reports and provide context for biased customer surveys and feedback form data reports, transforming these assessments from a summary of how the site is doing to why the site is performing the way it is and what users are thinking.
Why Curiosity Matters: Risk aversion and social proof. Users want assurance that their decision is safe and a smart one.
5 – Commitment
Answering the Question: Is the user making small, progressive steps toward conversion?
How to Measure: Here, you’re looking to measure all the micro-conversions, or micro “yes’” that target audiences make on their way to the big conversion you’re tracking or trying to troubleshoot. So, to measure commitment, you want to measure these moments.
Places To Measure Commitment:
- Newsletter signups, reads, or returns to resources.
- Downloading gated content, checklists, or case studies.
- Clicking “save for later” or adding to a wishlist.
- Account creations without immediate purchases.
- Social shares.
- Direct visits.
Why Commitment Measurements Matter: Commitment and consistency. Once we take a small action toward conversion, we’re more likely to follow through with a bigger one.
6 – Control
Answering the Question: Is the user navigating with ease and making their own decisions confidently?
How to Measure: You’re looking for points that contribute to comfort and satisfaction. So, look at and track points where users clearly indicate that they are changing their mind and wandering away from a defined path.
Places To Measure Control:
- Usage of filters, sort tools, or customization features.
- Page backtracking patterns, indicating users were lost or unsure.
- Engagement with “choose your path” flows or wizards.
- Exit rates after forms or CTAs, indicating your methods may be too early or too pushy.
Why Control Measurements Matter: The autonomy principle. People want to feel like they have the freedom to act on their own terms, enhancing trust, brand confidence, and loyalty.
7 – Closure
Answering the Question: Did the user complete their goal and feel emotionally resolved?
How to Measure: You’re looking for points that indicate the user has reached the end of a task or mental loop and left with satisfaction. These can include a variety of tasks such as finishing a checkout, booking a demo, or downloading a resource. (While these don’t explicitly measure satisfaction, you can use this measurement as an indirect indicator of such.)
Places To Measure Closure:
- Exit after goal completion, such as a purchase, signup, or booking. (If they don’t exit, visiting another page that provides information about something completely different can also be a signal of satisfaction and should be tracked here.)
- Short time-to-conversion for return users.
- No “looping” behaviours like returning to FAQs or pricing pages over and over.
- Reduced support tickets or follow-up questions.
Why Closure Measurements Matter: The Zeigarnik effect. This phenomenon tells us people remember uncompleted tasks better. Closure provides emotional relief, resolving the mental tension that results.
Final Thoughts: Measure What Matters
Traffic spikes are nice. Rankings are cool. But if you want to create content that truly connects, you need to measure the emotional and behavioural fingerprints your visitors leave behind.
To do that, you need to think more like a psychologist than a marketer or SEO. Look for patterns in how people feel, not just what they do. Because the secret to better SEO isn’t better content. It’s a deeper understanding.
Want More? This Is Just a Taste.
If this post sparked something in you—if you’re tired of chasing traffic without understanding why people click, scroll, or convert—you’re going to love The Search Within: Using Consumer Behaviour to Power SEO.
It’s not another SEO playbook. It’s a mindset shift. A toolkit for thinking like your audience, mapping behaviour to strategy, and finally measuring what actually matters.
👉 Grab your copy now to start building SEO strategies that connect on a human level!
The Search Within: Using Consumer Behaviour to Power SEO (PDF)
The Search Within introduces a bold new approach to digital strategy: Behavioural SEO. Blending psychology, real-world search behaviour, and situational context, this book helps marketers create content that connects, converts, and actually resonates. Ditch generic funnels, forget outdated personas, and discover how to build smarter, more human-first strategies that align with how people think, feel, and search.