Don’t Write Your Website For You and Not Your Audience
Many industries use jargon that their audience
The food additive you’ve created might
members may not be aware of. Many site
use a scientific break-through reported in
owners show off the features of what they
subscription-only journals. If the audience
offer without describing the benefits of those
you’ve created your products for haven’t heard
features to their audiences in words that the
of those terms before, they might not find
audience might use to search for them, and
you, even if what you offer is exactly what
expect to see on a page offering those services
they want.
or goods. You really need to be able to get into
the heads of the people who might be most
You need to spend some time learning about
interested in what you offer, and anticipate
who your audience is, and how they talk about
what words they might use to find your site.
the kind of products or services that you offer.
The app that you offer might use cutting edge
Then you need to use that language on your
technology that no one has heard of before.
site.
Don’t Mix Audience Messages and Confuse Visitors
A friend showed me a page on a site about
they both shared in common was that they
financial services recently. The company
were both offered through the same division
behind the site is a household name, but the
of the company, and so the home page for
division of the company offering the services
the site was focused upon both audiences,
decided that it would be a good idea to create
showing pictures of younger couples moving
a site where they showed off what they offered
into new homes, and pictures of older people
together, even though the services were aimed
setting up offices. It gave me a headache.
at two different audiences.
The text on the page included messages
One offering was personal loans, aimed at
about financing, but didn’t target either
people who may have just left their parents
audience very well. I couldn’t help but think of
homes, and were setting out on their own. The
how much stronger both messages would be
other offering was for business loans for people
if they were presented on two different sites,
who were setting up a business, and that was
instead of reflecting the organization of the
targeted at a somewhat older audience. What
business.