Website Personalization is the process of creating customized experiences for visitors to a website. Rather than providing a single, broad experience, website personalization allows companies to present visitors with unique experiences tailored to their needs and desires.

Personalization is by no means a new concept. Waiters will often greet repeat customers and refer to them by name, even knowing what their “usual order” is. Shopkeepers can use visual cues to provide personalized experiences—an exhausted looking couple with three children probably wants to get what they came for and be on their way, while a single person slowly browsing the aisles might be interested in some chit-chat. The point is, in the offline world, personalization is so common, it can go unnoticed.

Website personalization attempts to use data to take that same level of one-on-one attentiveness and translate it into the digital world:

• Online retailers can provide targeted offers to shoppers based on browsing behavior.
• Travel sites can present visitors with promotions based on the current weather or season.
• News and other media outlets can surface specific videos to viewers based on where they live.