Prepare your website for your target audience.


The prospective clients, the group of people that you want to reach through your website, are your target audience.

a Target Audience for your WebsiteSo, who is your target audience ?

Depending on the topic of your website, your target audience could be:

  • world wide, or for a certain area of a specific city,
  • for people of any age, or of  a determined age  group,
  • for e-commerce, or for sharing information about a hobby or common interest, etc.

How will your target audience find your website ?

Consider the topic you selected for your website, then define what the people in your target audience would search the Internet for in order to find your website.  Make a list of words and short phrases you think your target audience would use to search for your website.

Google Trends can help your website.

Here is where it would be helpful to have some idea what words and short phrases your target audience would use to search for your website, if you could just ask them.  Google features Google Trends, which you can use to determine how many people search for a word or short phrase.  Google Trends even allows you to compare words and short phrases (from the list that you made) to see which ones more people are searching for. If your website is primarily for local interest, you can refine your Google Trends response for a country and city.

Less searched words and phrases.

  • What if some of the words and short phrases you know significantly help describe your website don’t appear to be as popular on Google Trends ?
  • What if some of your words or short phrases haven’t been searched for enough for Google Trends to have any data to respond to your request ?

Your list should include some more popular words and short phrases, to increase the probability of your website being found by your target audience. But you can also include words and short phrases on your website that you know significantly help describe your website even if they don’t appear to be as popular on Google Trends. If a member of your target audience is as familiar with the topic of your website as you are, they may search for that same word or phrase, and that could help them find your website

Dan's Floor Store - storefront - Ponte Vedra, FloridaFor example, looking at words for a client’s website, Dan’s Floor Store

we compared:

  • wood floor installation and wood flooring installation
  • hard surface flooring
  • tile work

and Google trends showed us that wood floor installation and wood flooring installation were more frequently searched for than hard surface flooring. Tile work is about as popular a search topic as wood floor and wood flooring installation.  We use each of the phrases (as applicable) in the content text on the website.

But search word trends are always changing, so you should periodically check how your search words are trending for your target audience in you analytic data, and adjust them accordingly.

“A and B” testing, that is to say trying similar but different approaches to the same goal can also help you find out what works best for attracting your target audience to the website, but that will be another Jax SEO Works article.

If you would like to get better results with your small business website, Contact Jax SEO Works. We enjoy helping others.

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  1. #1 by Bill on June 16, 2013 - 6:06 am

    I have to agree. When I visit a website and their most recent blog post is 3 or 4 years old, I start to wonder if how they maintain their website shows how they take care of their customers. Some people don’t know how to do stuff like add photos or new blog articles to their websites, and that is why they need to hire someone to help them. It’s just good business.

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