How To Optimize your Site for your targeted visitors.

I just wanted to try and give a few tips on making your site appeal to your target audience. This is my first thread I posted with tips, so go easy on me.

I find that the best way to start is to get Google Analytics because of all the features it has such as keywords, where people live who are going to your site, etc. This can still be done with AWstats and other statistic programs, I just prefer Google Analytic and recommend it.

Writing for your keywords

With Analytics you see the specific keywords that are bringing traffic to your site. This is a very important thing to keep in mind. If you own a blog you should write articles related to the keywords highly being searched.

Example: If I have a site on architecture, and I notice my highest searched keyword is "architectural styles" I would want to add content to my site that has the information that someone is looking for. The best way to do this would to be write an article about "architecture in the 1900's" or something along those lines. It could even be less specific or more specific of an article.

So pay attention to the keywords being searched on your site because you can see what the traffic coming to your site is really looking for, and if they find it, they are more likely to stay or come back.

Countries

Another feature with Google Analytics and AWstats is that you can see where people live who are going on your site. A good idea is to write you content to appeal to the place they live. I will give an example.

If I have a blog about architecture, and I notice that most of my traffic is coming from China. I would want to write something along the lines of "Chinese Architecture in the 1900's" or something along those lines.

I just wanted to give a few quick tips on trying to get your targeted visitors to return to your site. I'm sure there are a lot more tips people could come up with. If you have any feel free to post them.

I hope this helped
Thanks for reading

 

Good type for newbies... Fairly common though. Thanks for sharing anyways.

 

Great advice, thanks. Here are a few additional tips:

1. Clearly establish your site’s purpose. Is it to sell? To share information? What do you want people to do, to feel when they come to your site? Once you have that purpose established, be sure that everything – from content, to design, to colors – reflects that purpose.

Critical Note: If you have ads on your site, make it clear what’s an ad and what’s content coming from you. Don’t force people to wonder about that.


2. Keep your content current. Nothing makes me cringe more than visiting a site and seeing that the latest blog entry was recorded in 2007, that registrations are still being taken for a conference that was held months ago, or that some old event is still being "announced" as news.

Your web site is the last place people expect to find old information and, when they do, they often get disgusted and click away to the next site. Honestly, why would anyone take seriously the information on a site that doesn't appear to be monitored or updated on a regular basis?
Critical Note: Even if you don’t’ have time to update your site, take the old material down.

3. Discuss relevant (and not so relevant) news and events. Use your site to report, react to, and voice your opinion about things happening within your industry. Examples include the nutritionist who made mention of National Diabetics Month on her site or the natural soap maker who announced findings about ingredients found in many store-bought soaps.

Additionally, you should feel free to talk a bit about items in the news that may not directly affect your industry or product. Doing so can go a long way toward reaffirming for your visitors that you’re living in the same world they’re in and builds a certain level of camaraderie and trust.

For example, I wrote an e-letter about a national tragedy for a doctor I was working with. While this had absolutely nothing to do with his service, it did serve as a way to say to his visitors “I’m feeling this too, I’m not much different from you”, and that can help to build trust. While the effects of this are nearly impossible to measure, we know that people like to do business with people they trust and believe hold their same values.


4. Have something on the site that let’s visitors know that it’s being monitored and maintained. A blog that is regularly updated is a great tool for letting people know that your site is working and ever-changing. You may also want to add a monthly or weekly feature that is updated on a regular basis or even a mention of some very current event to let people know that you’re paying attention to your site. In short, you want to convey that the site your visitors are seeing today was not the exact same site they’ll see a month from now. You want them to know that something will have changed, which gives them reason to visit you again.

5. Have a “goody bag.” Remember when we were kids and went to a classmate’s birthday party? We played games, ate cake, and left with the ever-so-important “goody bag”. The contents of this small bag, candy, small toy, balloon, etc.) would often shape our overall opinion of the party.

Well, I translate this goody bag scenario to your web site in a very simple way. Your goody bag is what people get for coming to your site. Is it a discount off of your product or service, a free report? Maybe it is timely, up-to-the minute information or a contest they can enter. The key is to have something on your site that serves as a “surprise and delight” and makes people happy they stopped by.

Critical note: Make sure that what’s in your goody bag is something people want. If I’d ever received a birthday party goody bag filled with things I didn’t want, I’d certainly not be anxious to go that kid’s party next year!

6. Be sure that your site is easily navigated. This sounds so basic, but is so very necessary to reiterate. There are sites out there that look great, but are not practically put together, so visitors often get lost. Don’t let that happen at your site.

7. Get only as “fancy” as you need to. Snazzy graphics and flashy greetings can be interesting, but they’re often unnecessary. Consider your product and your audience and judge accordingly. Here’s where that old adage, “Just because you can, doesn’t mean that you should” should be carefully considered.

Thanks for allowing me to share these additional tips.

 

Very useful tips. I will follow these. Thanks for sharing.

 

Thanks guys for those enlightening tips. It's really a great help especially to those who are at the 1st stage of the learning process!