These days, SEO is without any doubt one of the most prominent, effective, and productive marketing channels in existence. It really comes off as a surprise then that a countless number of people using this lucrative channel simply overlook the fact that, once we pass put aside technical terms and keywords, SEO is just as dependent on good knowledge of the target audience as any other approach.
In other words, if you want your strategies to bear satisfying results, you first need to find and target your intended pool of clients and only then start developing content and keyword strategies. Trying to cast a net that is too wide will never produce the number of conversions you need.
Let us take a look then at how you can narrow down your ideal SEO audience and make sure your investments truly count.
Understanding the target audience.
So, before we proceed to other considerations let us first make sure we are all on board when it comes to the very term ‘target audience.’ In the simplest of terms, the target audience describes the people who show a general interest in your product or services and to whom your marketing messages should be delivered. In the context of SEO, this group of people is defined by the type of keywords they will use to find the goods they need.
In a broader sense, however, the target audience is usually identified with some top-level traits like:
- Age
- Nationality
- Level of education
- Purchasing power
- Education
Marketers may try to narrow down these broad designators even further by focusing keywords around buyer personas that describe your ideal customers in a more specific manner with qualities like:
- Personal traits
- Lifestyle interests
- Exact profession
- Preferred social media channels
Even though buyer personas make an excellent pick for very niche companies the general practice is to build keyword strategies around broader customer profiles.
Take into consideration local trends and preferences.
The world has, by now, become one giant global market. But, despite national borders no longer playing the same rigid role they once had, the different markets are still hedged by different trends, sensibilities, and customer interests. It is highly recommended to take these regional trends into account and ask for local help. So, if you are, for instance, expanding Down Under, you should look out for professional Sydney SEO services to help you out with the local market. Remember, though, that these discrepancies are sometimes present even on the regional or communal level so approach every expansion the same.
Get to know your current customers.
The people who are already using your products or services gave your company a sort of seal of approval. So, if you want to understand to whom your marketing department should be appealing, there is no better way than to start with your existing clients. In this case, look for insight from your sales team since these people are in constant touch with your customers and know their preferences and interest the best. But, it’s always a good idea to back these looser descriptions and assumptions up with more focused client interviews and good old hard data provided by your Google Analytics and similar tools.
Pay attention to subtopics.
Subtopics or topic clusters are an excellent way to leverage the customer insights you already have and uncover the customers you may have been missing out on so far. Essentially, the recent Google algorithm updates try to bring more variety to search results by taking the keywords they used for the query to bring in associated or subtopics that might prove to be relevant for the person performing the search. Putting aside the implications these updates have for the process of SEO, analyzing your keywords and SERP and seeing how they fit into these wider topic clusters may uncover some new client niches and keyword angles.
Pick up the social cues.
Last but not least, we would like to remind you that social media makes a tremendously fertile ground for further exploration of your target audience and its habits and interests. So, if you already have a solid social media following, you can use some of the robust tools like Facebook Audience Insights, HubSpot, Sprout Social, ShortStack, and Instagram Insights to see who are these people behind the profile pictures, where they come from, how they prefer to interact with your brand, what are the pages are they following and do these pages feature yet untapped client niches you should consider.
So, there you have it – top five strategies that should help you reach a better understanding of your target audience, look at this group of people from a new, fresh perspective, and uncover other customer niches that can make your SEO strategy even more effective. The most important thing, however, is to have a crystal clear understanding of who are the folks on the other side of the screen. If you don’t meet this basic requirement, all of your other moves will simply fall flat.
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