Does Your Web Site Know Geography? - Audience Demographics and Website Design
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Geography doesn't only play a part in determining navigation and categorization of a website. It also plays a vital part in determining the location of an audience for a specific product type. If a website's product relates to investments, many more potential users will be in New York City as opposed to Kansas City. Likewise, if a website's product relates to fashion, many more potential users will be in Paris or Los Angeles than Oklahoma. Each production team must determine the demographics of their customer base and then design a plan to suit that geographic area.
Other factors to consider include: age, income level and cultural components. A dating site will be used by college students a lot more than retired people will use it. Therefore, a geographic-minded move could be to have the site categorized by different colleges around the country. The colleges could be embedded in the keywords, so users searching for a keyword like "West Virginia University singles" could likely hit on the well-optimized site.
Another key task to complete once the geographic target exists, involves creating content that contains keywords relating to that locale. The content shouldn't just include the name of the place that is being targeted, but should also include keywords related to that area. If the target is Philadelphia, mention the Liberty Bell or The Grape Street Pub. Any concrete details associated with a geographic location will increase the chances of the content being picked up by a search engine query.
Having content that relates to a geographic location not only helps visitors find a site, but it makes them feel at home. Since the Internet can be a vast unknown for most people, when they find a site that relates to their common, everyday experience, it can be a breath of fresh air. Having an experience on a website that makes the user recollect experiences from their personal life will make the user feel a much higher level of rapport and will likely induce a return visit.
Next: Geographic Website Plans for Small Businesses >>
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