How to kickstart SEO projects with Customer Journey Mapping (#795)
May 14, 2025 · 38:20 listen · Hosted by Chelsea Alves
Did you know that 68% of online experiences begin with a search engine, yet most companies still treat SEO like a standalone tactic—not a journey?
The truth is, SEO isn’t just about rankings or keywords—it’s about meeting your customer at every stage of their decision-making process.
Today’s guest is an expert at blending SEO with customer journey mapping to create smarter strategies that actually move the needle.
I’m your host, Chelsea Alves, and I’m excited to welcome Christopher Hofman to the podcast!
Foundations + Personal Journey:
Chelsea: Christopher, welcome! You’ve had such a unique career path—what first sparked your interest in combining SEO with customer journey mapping?
Chelsea: Many brands see SEO as a technical function. How did you come to see it as a strategic tool for understanding and guiding customer behavior?
Customer Journey Mapping in SEO:
Chelsea: For those new to the idea—what is customer journey mapping in the context of SEO, and why is it such a powerful framework?
Chelsea: How do you go about identifying the key stages of the customer journey—and how does that influence your keyword and content strategy?
Chelsea: Can you share an example of a business that transformed their SEO performance by better aligning with the customer journey?
Chelsea: A lot of companies are strong at top-of-funnel content but drop the ball further down. How do you approach creating SEO content for mid- and bottom-funnel stages?
Chelsea: What tools or data sources do you use to map search intent across the different journey phases?
Practical SEO Strategy:
Chelsea: When you kick off a new SEO project, what are the first 2–3 things you look at to assess where a business stands?
Chelsea: For brands with limited resources, where’s the best place to start when implementing a journey-driven SEO strategy?
Chelsea: Internal collaboration is often a blocker. How do you get buy-in from marketing, product, and sales teams to align around a journey-first approach?
Chelsea: What are some common pitfalls you see when brands try to implement SEO without a clear understanding of their customer journey?
Chelsea: From a measurement standpoint—how do you track whether your journey-driven SEO strategy is actually working?
Trends + Future Outlook:
Chelsea: You’ve spoken internationally about sustainable SEO. What trends or shifts are you seeing that marketers should pay attention to heading into next year?
Chelsea: AI is changing search behavior. How do you see that impacting customer journey mapping or SEO strategy as a whole?
Chelsea: What’s next for you, Christopher? Any upcoming projects or frameworks you’re developing?
Chelsea: Christopher, this has been such a practical and insightful conversation. Where can our listeners connect with you and learn more about your work?
Chelsea: Thank you again for joining us today!
And to our listeners—if this episode sparked some ideas for your SEO strategy, be sure to subscribe to the seotools.pro Podcast and leave us a review.
And don’t forget—if you’re looking to optimize your SEO with the actual customer journey in mind, check out Unmiss.com’s free Website Audit tool to get started.
This has been the seotools.pro Podcast. See you next time!