While we are big fans of the optimizing and website analytics process, many people hire an SEO expert or web solutions company without really understanding the process. Many companies, for example, are dismayed when they do a relaunch and find their numbers have dropped. The drop isn’t the issue as much as it is the comeback. If the numbers don’t ever comeback, or increase—then—there’s a problem.

Fact: To build a website optimized for your target audience, you need to know who they are, what they like, what they are searching for, and how to package your product or services to meet those needs. This is the bulk of what your company’s SEO person will be doing, along with some profoundly challenging and absolutely necessary grunt work.

SEO Tip: Figuring out your audience before starting keyword research is pretty standard issue research for everyone from advertising to search engine marketing. Check places like usability.gov to analyze major characteristics and behaviors of your target audience. Usability.gov teaches you how to create and analyze a fictional persona of the general age, geography, and needs of the person most likely to shop or use your company’s products and services.

Once you know who your audience is, you can begin a two-part strategy to optimize your website; targeted, relevant content, and targeted keyword discovery. Putting up relevant content should just make sense without explaining, but keyword discovery is the beginning of the real SEO process—to figure out the words your target audience use when they search for your company.