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The following excerpt is from Dan S. Kennedy’s book No B.S. Direct Marketing. Buy it now from Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iBooks | IndieBound
Traditionally, websites have been designed to sell the customer on your business and to help make a significant enough impression to persuade them to buy your product or services. Direct-response websites are set up to motivate — no, demand — that visitors take action. They’re designed to generate and foster a relationship with the customer, but more important, initiate leads. Does your website do that now?
If you’re starting from scratch or want to revamp your existing site, there are a number of things you should keep in mind.
Step 1: Keywords
First, you must have well-researched, strategically placed keywords. These are SEO keywords that are used most frequently in online searches. The more of these you have embedded in your site, the more likely your site will come up in someone’s search, and thus, the better your chances of them visiting your direct-response website.
Lists of keywords are available for free online. Find the ones that best match your brand, product, or service, and plug them into your site. The more people who come back to your site, the higher Google will move your SEO ranking. Frequent, repeated site visits indicate you’re an authority with good content, and that increases your score in the Google algorithm. Better scores move you to page one, and since about half of search traffic goes through Google, and the majority of resulting purchases take place from businesses on page one, that is exactly where you want your business to be! Yes, this process takes time, knowledge, money and energy, which most business owners are not willing to exert. But again, can your business afford for you not to?
Step 2: Simple design
Often, people build a website that contains lots and lots of information — too much. This style of website might attract a wide range of visitors (due to high keywords) but achieve minimal or no conversion. The key here is to design your website so that visitors click “buy,” not click away.
Your direct-response website needs to have a simple design that is easy to navigate, and it…
