After all, you’ll never talk directly to most of the people who visit your site, and any assumptions you make about them can be misleading.
But when it comes to web development, everything you do should be driven by what you know about the target audience for a website. How do they think? What do they know? What do they want & expect? What don’t they know? Who are they?
A great way to make an effective website is to create a typical User Profile. Think of it as a fictional persona you create that represents all the common characteristics shared by all your customers, visitors, and leads.
By doing this, it forces you to think about who you are trying to reach and it puts you into their shoes so that you can better serve them.
But which personal characteristics are relevant, and how can you find out what they are? Below, we present four key user attributes that you can (and should) identify when building your website’s User Profile.
1. Your Target Audience’s Age & Gender
You’ll want to start with some basic information: age and gender. A professional web design and development company can help you capture key information about the people visiting your website. Compile those reports and determine the average age for your User Profile. Should your website be appealing to Baby Boomers, Gen X, or Gen Y, etc.?
You might even want to give your user a name! It might sound silly, but the more you think of your User Profile as an actual person, the more you’ll start to see your website through their eyes. (You can even give them a picture!)
If the target audience for a website is predominately male or female, assign a name accordingly. If you have a more evenly blended audience, choose an inclusive, unisex name.
2. Your Target Audience’s Platform of Choice
How does your User access your website? We’re not just talking Mac vs. Windows here. Do they use desktops, laptops, smartphones, or tablets? Which version of which operating system? Which web browser? Are there any plug-ins that might pose problems for them?
Knowing the platform that the target audience for a website uses is part of what makes an effective website. It will help you maximize load times, build user-friendly ecommerce systems, and ensure that every element of your site works as it should.
3. Your Target Audience’s Educational Level
Some online businesses cater to everyday consumers, others to corporate clients and highbrow intellectuals. If your User has a business background, he or she will likely recognize a “call to action,” but others might have difficulty executing the follow-through. Navigation, button copy, content, calls to action, rich Internet applications, etc. should all match the digital sophistication of the target audience for a website.
4. Your Target Audience’s Location
Is your audience local or confined to one region of the country? Or are they scattered throughout the United States or around the globe? Maybe you have a predominately international audience. These things matter.
This is what makes an Effective Website
Putting some attention on all of these elements will help you design & develop an effective website from the get-go. You will be thinking of some of the key elements that your users need. These elements will help your website be more appealing to your target audience.
Take for example, professional ecommerce website design. As the world and our US economy goes more global, you may be serving customers in other countries and currencies. This will get you to think about which currencies you will offer to complement the primary currency. Layout, copy, and design should also avoid any gaps in language or cultural custom that might confuse someone in a different part of the country or world. Shipping methods will also need to be reconsidered and you may also have to offer translations of text as well. In short, understanding and catering to your users is the natural thing to do and is what will make an effective website!
Find Out More About What Makes an Effective Website
If you’d like to learn more about how to effectively design & develop your website to accommodate for your user’s profile, get in touch with ClearTech Interactive. Our experienced experts can craft highly advanced web tools that will send your site skyrocketing in both performance and results.
Just send us an Email or call 727-562-5161 & Press 1 to speak with a Web Development Specialist today.