23/02/2019
do you want to use your website? What do they want?
Those are the key questions you need to answer about your users.
There is often confusion about who the users of a website are. This
frequently arises because data about online traffic misleads people into
thinking their websites are a success, when in fact they are failing.
For example, your traffic statistics might show that your site attracts
thousands of visitors from many places worldwide (e.g. Africa) and that
they read hundreds of articles on your site, again and again.
This might seem like a success. You could be forgiven for thinking you
are serving your users well.
However, unless these people are members of your target audience, they
must not be counted as users of your site. Their activity is
inconsequential and must be ignored.
This might sound strange, but the reason is very simple.
You are spending limited resources on your website in order to generate
maximum value. As such, you cannot be concerned about everyone
you must only focus on those users who are most important to you and
steadfastly ignore everyone else.
Successful websites do this. Websites that fail, do the opposite.
As such, before you create a website you must decide exactly who you
are aiming it at.
Your website audience is unlikely to be a homogeneous mass. Most
organisations find they have at least two or three core audiences.
When you know who you are building the site for, you can compare
them to your goals and then decide what content to give them by
researching their needs.
