Winning Google’s Zero Moment Of Truth (ZMOT) With SEO

Google's Zero Moment of Truth

Before you buy something, what do you do first? More often than not, your answer will be doing a quick search online. This is called Google’s Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT).

Nowadays, before people go to the store or purchase an item online, they are most likely to go and search about it first. What are the different brands on offer? What are its differences in terms of price points? What can it offer me that competitors can’t? And the most important question — how can it improve my life?

To be able to win your website’s Zero Moments of Truth, you need to offer your consumers the information they need to finalize their purchase. In this article, I’ll be discussing how you can optimize your pages to win your ZMOT using SEO.

Understand Google’s Zero Moment of Truth

The first step is to understand exactly what Google’s Zero Moment of Truth is. Before ZMOT, the Traditional 3-Step Model involved a Stimulus, First Moment of Truth, and Second Moment of Truth. People would see a stimulus such as a television ad, go to the store to purchase it, and see the results for themselves at home.

Traditional 3-Step Model Before Zero Moment of Truth

With the advancement of technology, search engines are now more accessible and reliable in terms of giving consumers detailed product descriptions. Due to this, Google’s Zero Moment of Truth is now said to be a precursor to the First Moment of Truth. After people encounter a stimulus and before they go to the store, they will first go online to search about it. This new level is crucial as it has led to more informed consumers around the world.

Zero Moment of Truth

What does this mean for your business? Two things. One, as more companies utilize ZMOT, your landing pages will need to stand out online. And two, you need to be able to let your customers know why your product or service is the best.

Let’s begin.

Find Your Zero Moments Through Search Intent

The first step to optimizing your landing pages is finding your Zero Moments. You have got to know what type of information people are looking for on search engines. Here are some key questions that you can ask yourself:

  • How are people finding your landing pages?
  • What keywords are they searching with?
  • What “need” are they looking to solve?

To get the answers to all three questions, the most important piece of data that you need to interpret is “search intent”. Are your landing pages fulfilling the search intent of your customers?

For example, users that search for “cough medicine” are not looking for Buy 1, Take 1 deals. They’re looking for information about cough medicine and how it can help them.

Search Intent For Zero Moment Of Truth

This is part of the Zero Moment of Truth. Before people choose to buy cough medicine, they want to know about their choices. And now that you’ve discovered your search intent, you can move on to the next step — optimizing your landing page.

Generate Relevant Landing Pages

To win your ZMOT, the information you include in your landing pages should be relevant to the searcher. Think about their context and what information is crucial during their Zero Moment of Truth.

From the previous example, one look at Google’s top ranking results will show you that people are looking for HOW types of medicines can treat different types of coughs.

A man drinking cough syrup

Let’s say one of your products is dry cough medicine. Is it a suppressant, expectorant, topical remedy, or a lozenge? What does that entail? Is it a temporary or long term solution? Can you get it over-the-counter or does it have to be prescribed? What makes it the best amongst its competitors?

Once you have these factors listed down, plan out your page’s design to make it more accessible and digestible.

Make Easily Digestible Page Designs

Mobile-friendly pages are crucial to Zero Moments. Why? Well, you may not know where people are accessing your site from.

For people at physical stores who want to learn about a product, they will probably use their smartphone. Those who heard about the product from a friend online could use their desktop to look it up. Some may even use other electronic devices such as tablets.

A factor that you should consider is the way that you present your information. It has to be laid out in a way that can be easily read and understood. Avoid long chunks of text as much as possible.

Here’s a sample from a landing page that our team created for a client’s cough medicine.

Simple Page Design For Zero Moment Of Truth

Not only that, but also take into account your site speed. Those who are in physical stores looking an item up on their mobile phones may find a slow website irritable. This could cause them to leave your site and increase your bounce rate.

Key Takeaway

To win Google’s Zero Moment of Truth with SEO, you will need to generate landing pages with relevant information that can be easily accessed by your customers.

Make sure that your content matches the search intent of your consumers. Do your research to find out what type of information they’re looking for when they go to search engines.

Then generate relevant landing pages with those factors in mind. Don’t forget to highlight the points that make your product or service stand out from its competition.

Lastly, ensure that your page has an easily digestible and mobile-friendly design. This is so that customers in the Zero Moment of Truth can easily and quickly make an informed decision.

These are just a few pieces of advice I have when it comes to winning your website’s Zero Moments. Now that you know about this decision-making change, review your other pages to see if they have what it takes to win.

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Sean Si

About Sean

is a Filipino motivational speaker and a Leadership Speaker in the Philippines. He is the head honcho and editor-in-chief of SEO Hacker. He does SEO Services for companies in the Philippines and Abroad. Connect with him at Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter. Check out his new project, Aquascape Philippines.