The purpose of search engine optimization, in the grand scheme of things, is to increase the amount of traffic to a clients’ brand in hopes of that traffic resulting in sales. However, an increase in traffic to a website doesn’t necessarily guarantee an increase in sales.

Many believe that can be accomplished using conversion optimization, which can be defined as a system for increasing the percentage of visitors to a website that convert into customers.

When considering your SEO and conversion strategy, it’s important to know your audience. Kaushik asks the reader to assume that he is working as a part of a business that sells clothing. His idea of his audience in the “See” stage follows the logic that “all people wear clothes.” In other words, the “See” stage should allow you to frame your audience in the largest possible way. While the “See” stage is very broad, it is still technically exclusionary. At this point, people who don’t wear clothes are not included in the audience.

According to Kaushik, the audience during the “Think” stage now becomes “all people who wear clothes who think they might need some.” One should look at the “Think” consideration stage as a subset of the “See” audience further broken down into a group that has shown even the slightest bit of intent. While one may not know when the audience will need clothes, one can know that they are thinking that they need new clothes by inferring from their behavior.

In the “Do” stage, SEO professionals should look at the audience as “people who wear clothes who think they might need some, and are currently looking to buy them.” This is a subset of the “Think” audience and, as a result, the most desirable audience for the client.