A couple of months ago, my dad and I were looking at new and future Ford Mustangs on various sites.  We’re both Mustang nuts.  As a tech savvy guy, I was zipping through search results to drill down the specific info I was after.  When I was watching over his shoulder, I was cringing at the number of AdSense ads he was clicking on . . . just trying to find the info.  Those big blue keywords really jumped out at him.  I decided not to say anything and just observe.  I learned a lot that afternoon.  It actually caused me to reflect a little bit on who my audience is and how my written word is read by a less internet-savvy audience.  As a result, I’ve changed my writing voice on some of my sites a bit in order to be more . . . elementary.

Sometimes, as bloggers and tech-savvy Internet users, we get so fine-tuned into our blog’s subject matter that we forget who our audience is.  This is especially true if you attract a significant audience from search engines.  I have a suspicion that the typical visitor to my sites is not quite as tech-savvy as I am.

Step back from your content and think about what kind of questions a visitor that arrived at your last post because of the keywords within it a Google’s favor of your site.  What is it about those keywords that a searcher would want to know?  What would such a visitor want to buy if they were looking for information on those keywords? How can I break down the information regarding these keywords to short, simple words and sentences?  Can I use a more active (less passive) voice in communicating my message?

These are the questions I’ve been trying to ask myself when writing lately because that searcher is my audience. He (or she) is actively seeking information and I want to make sure he finds what he is looking for on my site and, if I can intelligently incorporate affiliate links within the content, then I’ve got a potential lead/conversion.