What an ice cream shop taught me about user experience

On a hot summer day your mouth can feel dryer than the Sahara Desert.

Just so happens, that intense thirst—and the brutal eagerness to quench it—taught teenage me how websites can improve their SEO by anticipating their customers’ needs. 

Braum’s Ice Cream and Dairy Store is a popular joint here in Missouri. It’s like an upscale Dairy Queen or Baskin Robbins. It was also my first job, from 16 to 18 years old.

And one thing I noticed within a month of working there was that nearly every time someone got a scoop of ice cream, they came back five minutes later for a cup of water. 

The problem? They had to wait in line again, and on busy nights this meant waiting as long as 10 minutes, all while going insane from a dry mouth.

This created longer lines and wait times for paying customers who hadn’t even ordered yet.

After a couple of months of this, we decided to improve the customer experience at our little dairy store. 

When a customer got ice cream, we immediately asked if they wanted a cup for water. We assumed what the customer’s next logical step would be.

They eat their ice cream. Then they come back for a glass of water.

Let’s get clever and eliminate a step—just give them the glass up front.

This approach worked well to improve the customer experience. 

But we could do even better.

Many times, people didn’t think they needed water and therefore when we offered them a cup they said, “Nope, I’m good.” 

Then five minutes later they’re at the counter asking for a cup.

So, we started putting water cups next to the dispenser in the lobby with a big sign by the cash register that stated exactly where the water cups were.

The result? Customers had a better experience and it cut down on our wait times and lines.

This is exactly how you should be approaching SEO these days.

Engagement and experience are the way

According to the Google API Leak, Google tracks thousands of user engagement metrics. 

This makes logical sense. Google wants to serve users websites that provide the best possible experience. 

If people get solutions to their problems, they have a positive experience and will keep using Google.

To create the best user experience possible, focus on engagement pathways and push people deeper into your site. 

Pushing users deeper into your site doesn’t just create a better user experience, it also turns traffic into revenue.

For instance, if you have an article on “flirty questions to ask a guy” we know the user wants a list of questions . . . duh. Look at the SERPs and you’ll see this clear as day.

But what’s the passive intent? WHY are they searching this question?

I call this optimizing the engagement pathway. Push people from top-of-funnel content to middle, to bottom.

I would assume someone looking for flirty questions is in the “talking/dating” stages and they are trying to show interest or get attention. 

So, let’s give them more.

While giving people a list of questions achieves the active intent, I would solve the passive intent by pushing people via internal links to deeper articles:

• how to tell if a guy likes you

• how to get his attention

• is he the right one for you

Solving passive intent, in other words, the “why” behind a search, is how you build a memorable experience and outrank big brands. It’s how you turn traffic into dollar bills and email subscribers.

The Today Show has an article on this topic and we can see just how bad it is failing at this: 

Cool. A list of 100 flirty questions I can send to my date. 

But why would I ever come back to this site? I got my questions, thanks, but I will never return because The Today Show didn’t answer my WHY. It doesn’t confront the reason I’m truly on this page. 

As SEOs, we need to assume the next step in the engagement process. We need to set up a metaphorical water station for thirsty users.

Test your theories and pathways by adding internal or external links to relevant articles. Push people to the next step and watch engagement and time on page climb.

And in turn, your rankings will stay and you will crush the competition.

This is SEO for 2024 and beyond. 

Your next steps

Reading articles and theory is cool, but you know what will actually move the needle for your business?

Action. Don’t just read this. 

Implement it or send it to a team member.

Here’s what to do next:

1. Identify 10 of your highest-trafficked pages.

2. Think about why users are landing on this article.

3. Make assumptions and test adding links that point people to the next step in their search journey.

4. Review and see which links get the most clicks.

5. Iterate.