Top tools to better understand your target audience

In SEO, many people discuss and talk about keyword research, analysing competitors and other things that can be done to get traffic to your site.

This is great information and is often very useful to the user however, statistics and trends relating to the target audience is generally forgotten about and is certainly not discussed often enough.

Target audience is an importance factor to consider when deciding who you are targeting and how to make sure your keyword choices will actually reach them.

Here are some tools you can use to help narrow down your target audience and help to provide information on search volume trends.

Google Trends

Google Trends is a great tool if you are looking for a basic search volume trend line and a few regional ideas. There are features allowing you to narrow it down to specific years and months or to specific countries if you’re planning to target your search marketing campaigns that way.

Alexa

Many in SEO will have heard of Alexa Ranking. However, not many actually use the information provided. Alexa can give you an idea about the kind of traffic a competitor gets, and an insight into their visitor demographics.

Bing xRank

Bing xRank keeps track of notable people and puts them in order for you. It then compiles the findings into an insightful ranking formula that tells you who the world is searching for the most. This tool does not provide as much detailed information as the other two, but it does give you an idea of the search volume trends on Bing.

Kenneth Berkley
SEO Programmer