Upgrading your Website: Identifying your users
Upgrading a website seems a daunting task, and can be something you put off for as long as possible until you’ve left yourself with as little time to prepare as possible…
Whatever way you procrastinate, there’s no need to fear a website upgrade anymore!
This is part two in our series of how to upgrade your website. We’ll be looking at identifying your main users or user groups. For this subject, Dani interviewed Mark Byrne and Paul Jones as our subject matter experts.
Identify your users
You wouldn’t release a new product line without doing your research and so you wouldn’t make a website without knowing what visitors you’re going to attract.
Identify who you are changing the website for, what your audience wants from this and how they will benefit from the changes.
Market research is really important in this stage and there are endless ways to do so:
- surveys
- questionnaires
- analytics
- social media polls
However you choose to conduct your research, you need to find a way to drill down to the main things your customer want to gain from your website.
Why is it important?
To quote Mark — ‘when someone came to look for pictures of dogs they don’t want to see a picture of a lion ’ and he couldn’t have put it better — without knowing what your audience is looking for, you can’t cater to their needs and your website will struggle to succeed.
It’s important because achieving your newly set out SMART website goals from part 1 of our series is the aim of your business’ website. Without showcasing what you have to offer with a well-put-together platform for the people using your website, how do you expect to make your new website a success?
Taking the first steps…
In the process of upgrading your website or CMS, understanding your user is one of the first steps to take.
It’s so important to understand your audience. Do your research and target them appropriately to increase your business’ success from your site. Your user’s want a site that’s going to deliver them the best possible experience.
Listen to our first podcast with Paul and Mark who explain how to identify your users and ways to conduct research.
