What is website personalization?

Website personalization is the process of tailoring website content, messaging, and user experiences to different visitors based on their behavior, interests, context, or stage in the customer journey. The goal is to make the experience more relevant, which can improve engagement, conversions, and retention.

TL;DR

• Website personalization helps visitors see more relevant content and offers.

• Start with segments, personas, and customer journey stages before changing lots of content.

• Begin with small, measurable tests (headlines, banners, CTAs, recommended content).

• Use first-party data and consent-aware practices.

• With Umbraco Engage, marketers can manage personalization closer to their CMS workflow.
  
  

Why is website personalization important?

Imagine walking into a store where the staff understands what you are looking for, the shelves highlight products that match your needs, and the next step is clear.

That is the digital equivalent of good personalization.

Personalization matters because it helps visitors:

• Find relevant information faster

• Engage with content that matches their interests

• Move through the journey with less friction

And it helps businesses:

• Increase engagement and time on site

• Improve conversion rates

• Strengthen retention and loyalty

• Make better use of existing traffic

Website personalization vs. web content personalization

These terms are often used interchangeably, but they can mean slightly different things:

• Website personalization: Personalizing the overall website experience (content, navigation, CTAs, offers, flows)

• Web content personalization: Personalizing specific content blocks such as headlines, banners, product recommendations, or article modules

Most teams start with web content personalization because it is easier to launch and measure. Over time, they expand into broader website personalization across journeys and segments.

Website personalization examples (practical use cases)

If you are new to personalization, start with high-visibility, low-complexity examples.

Homepage personalization

• Different headline for first-time vs. returning visitors

• Different CTA for visitors from paid campaigns vs. organic search

• Industry-specific hero message for known segments

Web content personalization

• Recommended articles based on pages already viewed

• Persona-specific case studies or proof blocks

• Content modules matched to journey stage (awareness vs. decision)

Conversion-point personalization

• CTA text based on visitor intent

• Promo banners based on cart behavior

• Form variants based on audience segment or campaign source

These examples are useful because they are easier to measure than large-scale redesigns.

How to personalize a website (step by step)

Personalization can feel complex, but it is much easier when you start small and build a process.

1. Define the goal

Choose one business outcome to improve first:

• more demo requests

• more product page clicks

• more content downloads

• higher newsletter signups

  
  

This keeps your personalization efforts focused and measurable.

2. Identify audiences or segments

Start with simple segments you can act on, such as:

• new vs. returning visitors

• traffic source (organic, paid, email)

• product/category interest

• customer vs. prospect

Avoid creating too many segments at the start.

3. Map journeys and intent

Personalization works best when it reflects where someone is in the journey:

• Awareness: educational content, guides, explainer pages

• Consideration: comparisons, reviews, proof, demos

• Decision: pricing, implementation info, discovery call CTA

• Advocacy: onboarding content, tips, next-best offers

4. Choose one personalization change to launch

Start with one change that is visible and easy to measure:

• swap a homepage headline

• show a different CTA module

• personalize recommended content

• tailor a banner to campaign source

5. Measure and learn

Track both primary and secondary outcomes:

• clicks

• signups

• conversion rate

• time on page

• downstream engagement

Use the results to refine segments and prioritize the next personalization idea.

6. Scale responsibly

As you learn what works, expand to more pages, more segments, and more journey stages.

The goal is not to personalize everything at once. The goal is to build a repeatable, effective personalization program.

How personas and customer journeys improve personalization

Personas and customer journeys help you make personalization more intentional.

Instead of showing random content changes, you can align messages to:

• who the visitor is likely to be

• what they care about

• where they are in the decision process

Example: a personalized customer journey

Imagine Theresa is shopping for a new laptop:

1. Awareness: She lands on a blog post from Google about laptops for video editing.

2. Consideration: She explores a comparison page for higher-performance models.

3. Decision: She adds a laptop to cart but hesitates at checkout.

4. Advocacy: After purchase, she receives useful setup tips and relevant accessory recommendations.

A personalized experience can support each stage with more relevant content, offers, and CTAs.

The principle applies across B2C and B2B websites: match the message to the stage.

How to start with personas and customer journeys in Umbraco Engage

If you are building a personalization strategy in Umbraco Engage, start with the foundation first.

1. Understand your target audience

Start by identifying the visitors and customer types that matter most to your business.

Helpful first steps:

• Identify your most valuable or best-fit customers

• Group them into 3-6 meaningful audience clusters

• Name your personas so teams can discuss them consistently

This makes personalization planning much easier than trying to target everyone at once.

2. Clarify motivations and barriers

For each persona, define:

• key goals

• pain points

• success criteria

• common objections or barriers

This helps you create more relevant content and CTAs for each stage of the journey.

3. Bring personas to life with usable context

Make personas practical, not theoretical.

Include:

• short bio and context

• goals and frustrations

• example behaviors

• related content interests

Then connect those personas to the first-party data signals you collect so personalization becomes actionable.

4. Map customer journeys

Document what each persona needs at each stage:

• Awareness: educational resources

• Consideration: comparisons, proof, demos

• Decision: friction reduction, clear CTA, trust signals

• Advocacy: onboarding help, retention content, follow-up offers

5. Launch small personalization use cases in Umbraco Engage

With your personas and journeys mapped, begin with manageable use cases:

• different homepage headlines for new vs. returning visitors

• tailored CTAs for campaign traffic

• content modules matched to persona interests

This approach helps your team learn quickly without overbuilding.

Why use Umbraco Engage for website personalization?

At Umbraco, we sell a marketing suite for Umbraco CMS that includes personalization. It is called Umbraco Engage.

That matters here because many teams struggle with personalization for the same reason: workflow friction.

What makes personalization hard in practice

• too many tools

• unclear ownership between marketing and dev teams

• too much manual setup

• disconnected reporting

How Umbraco Engage helps

Umbraco Engage helps teams personalize experiences inside the broader Umbraco workflow, so marketers can focus on strategy and content instead of stitching together multiple systems.

Practical advantages:

• CMS-adjacent workflow for marketing teams

• Segments and journeys that support personalization planning

• Personalization use cases connected to content operations

• Ability to pair personalization with analytics and testing efforts

This is especially useful when your goal is to scale personalization gradually instead of launching a one-off campaign.

Want to see personalization in Umbraco Engage?

• Take the interactive product tour of personalization in Umbraco Engage

Generative AI makes personalization more scalable (but not automatic)

Personalization has a reputation for being resource-heavy because it often requires multiple content variations for different audiences.

Generative AI tools can help by speeding up tasks like:

• drafting headline variations

• adapting messaging for personas

• brainstorming CTA options

• creating content variants for testing

That said, AI should support your personalization workflow, not replace it.

Use AI to generate ideas and drafts, then validate what works using real performance data and user behavior.

Generative AI makes personalization scalable

Personalization has had a reputation for being a very resource-heavy discipline, as you need to tailor your messaging based on your user personas. 

But with the rise of LLMs and generative AI like ChatGPT and Gemini, personalization is more accessible than ever for companies and marketing teams of all sizes. The tools make it easier to craft tailored content quickly, efficiently, and at scale.

One of the biggest hurdles in personalization has always been the sheer volume of content needed to make it work. That’s where LLMs step in. Need multiple variations of a product description to appeal to different personas? Done. Want to brainstorm personalized email subject lines? Easy.

Privacy and compliance in website personalization

Personalization is not just a content challenge. It is also a trust and compliance responsibility.

Use consent-aware practices

Respect user consent and only collect or use data in ways that align with your legal and ethical requirements.

Prioritize first-party data

First-party data (data collected directly from interactions on your own site) is generally more reliable and more sustainable than third-party data for long-term personalization strategies.

Keep data handling practical and secure

A good personalization strategy depends on data being:

• validated

• accessible to the right teams

• handled responsibly
  

The goal is to build a trustworthy foundation before scaling advanced experiences.

Common website personalization mistakes (and how to avoid them)

1. Personalizing too much too early

Trying to personalize everything at once creates complexity and slows progress.

Fix: Start with one page, one segment, one goal.

2. Building segments nobody can use

Overly detailed segmentation can become hard to operationalize.

Fix: Start with a few actionable segments tied to clear decisions.

3. Ignoring content operations

Personalization needs content variants, ownership, and maintenance.

Fix: Plan how content will be created, reviewed, and updated before scaling.

4. Skipping measurement

If you do not define success, you cannot know if personalization is working.

Fix: Track outcomes and compare against a baseline.

5. Forgetting privacy and consent

Poor data practices erode trust quickly.

Fix: Build privacy-aware workflows from the beginning.

Summary

• Website personalization helps businesses create more relevant website experiences for different visitors.

• Start with clear goals, simple segments, and journey-based thinking.

• Focus first on practical use cases like homepage messaging, CTAs, and content modules.

• Use first-party data and consent-aware practices to build a strong foundation.

• Umbraco Engage helps teams bring personalization into a more practical CMS-centered workflow.

Ready to explore personalization in Umbraco Engage?

If you want to see how personalization can work in practice inside Umbraco:

• Take the personalization product tour

• Book a discovery call