Because instead of being “everything to everyone” your website will more likely end up being “nothing to anyone”. You may be saying to your self www.yourfavoritewebsite.com (a fictitious web address that you can replace with your personal favourite) has a target audience of everyone and is satisfying the needs of everyone very nicely thank you!! But if you look carefully at these sites you’ll find they actually have websites within websites with each catering to individual target audience groups.

Identifying your target audience is a fundamental aspect of website planning and analysis. Once you have identified your target audience you should be able to identify what they want from your website and then be able to plan a website that fulfill their needs.

When you do your audience analysis you should define at least 3 audience definitions that are clear and precisely.

Defining your target audience will allow you to focus on your most important customers requirements.

Note the qualities that define your target audience:

• What is their age, gender, location, income, job etc?
• What is your current relationship with them?
• Are they experienced with the Internet?
• What are their online spending habits?
• What are their needs?
• Is the buyer the user?
• Why they are coming to your site?
• What are they hoping to find?
• How often are they online?
• What do they generally use the web for?
• What is the primary “action” they should take when coming to your site (i.e. purchase, search for information)?
• What are the key reasons why they will choose your company’s products / services (i.e. cost, service, value)?
• Are they existing or prospective customers.
• How they will be accessing your website eg computer or phone.
• Which browser
• Family situation
• Household situation