The customer journey is the sequence of touchpoints a person has with a brand, from first contact through research and purchase to the time after. It matters for SEO because many of those touchpoints start with a search query.
What are the stages of a customer journey?
There is no single standard model. A common version uses awareness, consideration, purchase (or conversion), retention and advocacy. Touchpoints include search results, ads, review sites, the brand’s own website, email and customer service.
User journey is often used as a synonym. The term comes from UX research and describes the steps toward any goal, including ones without a purchase. Customer journey puts the emphasis on buying and on the relationship that follows.
What does the customer journey mean for SEO?
People search differently depending on where they are. Early queries tend to be informational, later ones comparative or transactional (assessment). Pages can be planned around these stages and linked so the next step is easy to find.
Web analytics shows part of the journey. In Google Analytics 4, the key event attribution paths report shows which channels users came through before a key event. Google splits each path into early touchpoints (first 25%), mid touchpoints (middle 50%) and late touchpoints (last 25%). Contacts without a click or on third-party platforms are largely missing from this view (assessment).
Example
Someone searches “office chair back pain”, reads a guide and bookmarks it. A week later they search “ergonomic office chair review”, compare three models on a review site and finally buy through a shopping ad. After the purchase they get an email with setup tips. Each of these steps is a touchpoint.
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