DIY SEO #2: Defining Your Target Audience
By Kurt Steinbrueck
April 28, 2011 
3 Comments
In search engine optimization we often talk about website traffic, people visiting a website, but there are really different kinds of traffic. Not all traffic is created equal. Who do you really need?
You are going to be investing a significant amount of resources into the search engine optimization of your website. So, it’s important to make sure you get a return on your investment. This means your SEO has to target the right people. For example, if you are an elementary school in Tampa, FL, you need to attract people in the Tampa area. People in Orlando are not going to travel to Tampa for an elementary school. You also don’t need to attract people looking for middle or high schools. For any website, there are certain criteria that need to be met in the visitors you are targeting for the SEO to have the best return on investment.
Determine Your Target Audience:
In our last step you decided on the objectives for your website. Now, consider what types of people would have the highest likelihood of completing those objectives. These may be people in a particular geographic area or people in a certain financial status or any number of things.
Come One. Come All….or not:
There is a trap that some people fall into when trying to complete this task. When determining your target audience it can be easy to find a reason to want just about anybody. After all, anybody may eventually become your target audience and it would be great if they were already familiar with your organization when they arrived at that point.
Eventually you may get to the point where you have the luxury and extra resources to target the fringe traffic that may eventually become your target audience, but for now we need to focus on who is going to help you meet the objectives for your website…now. Be decisive.
In order to help you with figuring out your target audience, I’ve put together some questions and tips you should consider for your organization:
Today’s Task:
- Determine and write down the criteria for your target audience.
Photo by Melissa Gray
What are the criteria for your target audience?
DIY SEO #1: Planning Your Objectives <- DIY SEO: Main -> DIY SEO #3: Brainstorming Keywords
I know I want to target businesses and individuals who already have a need for my service or know they will soon and are looking to find someone to handle that. I only do general transcription (as opposed to medical or legal), but not doing very well narrowing it more than that.
Pam, that's good that you've identified at what stage in the sales process your target audience should be. That will be helpful as you proceed with the SEO of your website.
It's not always apparent what other criteria there should be for your target audience. You've already started narrowing it down by indicating you aren't targeting medical or legal transcription. Are there any particular industries which you do serve that would be more fruitful than others? The idea is to try to identify the types of people who have the greatest demand for your services so that you can target those people.
Thanks for the tips and help!