Some users will love your website, while others detest it. Because of this unavoidable subjectivity, it’s critical that you develop a strong understanding of your client’s target audience.

Take the time to ask your client who their ideal users are before starting to work. This insight can be invaluable and help inform your content and design decisions, ultimately helping you build a comfortable, familiar, and fluid experience for their users.

Your client’s answers can also help you when drafting web copy. They’ll allow you to identify the ideal voice, tone, and language you should use on the site, in order to position your client’s brand authentically in the eyes of their users.

Here are some of the details  to gather from your client:

• User demographics (age, gender, education, income)
• User psychographics (media consumption habits, lifestyle, commonly used slang, or jargon)
• Purchasing habits
• Current website metrics (if completing a redesign) including existing bounce rates, user navigation flows, and conversion rates

While recording this information, it’s helpful to differentiate between who your client’s ideal users are and who their actual users are. Some clients will have a distorted view of who comprises their existing customers or they might be trying to reach a new audience altogether. It’s important to keep track of what’s relevant to each audience segment, so that you don’t alienate any of them with your design.

Having a strong answer to this question will give you the foundation for designing a website that resonates with users and accomplishes your client’s business objectives.