Understanding the type of people who visit your site is a very important task because you can use that information to enhance your site to suit them. As a result, you will gain more repeat visitors that come back again and again for more.
First let’s determine why it is important to find out the age range and knowledge level of your audience.
A layman might linger around a general site on gardening, but a professional botanist might turn his nose at the very same site. Similarly, a regular person will leave a site filled with astronomy abstracts but a well-educated university graduate will find that site interesting.
Try to determine where your market is. Are they parents? Retirees? Homeowners? Pet lovers? If you are selling art supplies then you may find that hobby sites will cater to your audience better. If you sell information for do-it-yourself projects you should show up in home decorating as well as financial sites (‘Save Money on Landscaping Projects!’ for example).
Take your audience’s emotional state into consideration when building your site. If a very irritated visitor searches for a solution and comes across your site, you will want to make sure you offer the solution right up front and sell or promote your product to him second. In this way, the visitor will put his trust in you for offering the solution to his problems and is more likely to buy your product when you offer it to him after that.
When you are designing your website is extremely important that you take the time to get to know your audience. Take into account the characteristics of your audience. Are they old or young people? Are they looking for trends or are they just looking for basic information? Do they have a problem that needs to be solved or are they just looking for fun and entertainment?
Always keep in mind that you won’t use the same approach to communicate with teenagers that you would use for senior citizens. Try to use informal language in your sites sparingly where you see fit. Sometimes this will help you create a sense that your audience is on common ground with you.
Getting to know your audience and incorporating their wants and needs into your site design will help you to build a long-lasting and trusting relationship with them, which will go a long way when it comes to the overall success of your website.
