If you already have a website, this article will teach you how to make it more profitable. If you don't have one, and you don't have the knowledge to create it, use SiteBuildIt - an easy 1-2-3 do-it-yourself tool.

Building Your Landing Page

We're not going to put you through that “writing for print vs. writing for web” discussion again. We'll just tell you what to do in order to have a landing page that converts better.

If there's one thing we want to plead for, that's copy. All the search engines on this virtual planet that we call web understand text. Including Google. In fact, it's the only thing they understand. They don't know about design, pictures and animation. On the other hand, the only way to tell people what you want them to do is through copy. That's why they say copy is king.

To build a landing page that converts, follow these steps:

1. Set one goal per page

   Having more than one goal per page will confuse your visitors and drive them away. Everything you write must converge towards the same purpose.

2. Obtain testimonials

   This is a common way to gain your visitors' trust before they actually get to know you. Whenever somebody praises your service or product, remember to ask for their accept to publish that on your web page.

3. Choose your keywords

   Use your keywords with balance. Make them come naturally. Don't overoptimize. Remember your goal.

4. Write the content

   Supposing you've done your homework and all the people that come to your landing page are targeted visitors, driven by one of your AdWords™ ads, here's what the page must do:

   • be genuinely helpful
   • offer reliable information
   • avoid the mambo-jumbo sales lingo
   • put the benefits of your service ahead its features
   • offer real solutions to real problems
   • create the urge to buy
   • make it easy to order

   Tweaking your page copy is a very important job. You need knowledge and patience to do it. But if you do it right, you'll be amazed with the results. Read Ken Evoy's Make Your Words Sell.

5. Add relevant links

   Remember that you sell solutions to problems. If you know about something else that may help, don't hesitate to link toward it. It could be something in it for you, too. But that's another story and we prefer to save it for the affiliates section.

Matching the Ads with Your Content

This is a second condition to make your landing page convert: your ads (together with your keywords) are the ones that send you traffic. If they don't work for the same purpose (i.e. selling the same product), all your trouble is in vain.

The biggest mistake you can do is send all the traffic to the home page. So don't. Each ad in your campaign should work for its own landing page. By customizing them, you make them more effective.

Your next step is to improve your ads.