Rendered Concept of a Community NetworkAs an internet marketer, one of your main challenges is that you have to deal with various types of users who all need different things. This challenge is especially prevalent if you work with authority sites, since the broader your site, the more potential types of users you’ll have.

In this post I’ll cover how to group different user actions, with an eye towards how understanding the user leads to more sales.

Identify User Profiles

I’ve covered how to create user scenarios in another post, so I won’t spend too much time on it here, but the first step to making sure you can target different types of users is to first understand the mindset of the users that are coming to your site.

One important area to consider is the level of experience a user has with your topic. Beginners need more information explained, while intermediate or advanced users might find that same information trivial. Understanding this distinction is key.

Create Multiple Goal Paths

Once you understand what your different readers are looking for, you can start to lead them around your site in different ways.

Since you control your own linking strategy and most users navigate blogs according to the links in the post and the main navigation, you have a tremendous opportunity to create a sort of ‘parallel universe’ such that one user type has a completely different experience on your site than another user type.

To use the above beginner vs. advanced reader example: beginners might only read beginner topics and be directed towards beginner-oriented products, while advanced users might only read advanced topics and be directed towards more advanced products.

Example: Beginner vs. Advanced Paths for an SEO Site

Beginner: “Why is SEO Important?” –> “SEO Basics” –> “Online SEO Training”
Advanced: “3 Tips for On-Page Rank Factos” –> “Improving Your Meta-Tags” –> “On-Page SEO Analysis Software”

The users have different scenarios, and different content and products to match them. Both groups find the information they’re looking for, and are effectively unaware of the other path insofar as it does not help them solve their current problem. Everybody wins.