How to transform web pages into gateway
pages
Most web designers build their websites
with little consideration for developing free
search engine traffic. Designers naturally
assume that everyone comes to the front door
or main page; actually it's much easier to
attract traffic to pages with a narrower focus.
The main index page of your website is often
too general in focus to rank as well as possible
in the search engines so the average webmaster
spends much more time and money developing
traffic than they did in designing the original
website.
I wanted to clear up some misconceptions
concerning the use of doorway or lead pages
to generate free traffic from the search engines.
Used correctly lead pages are acceptable to
the search engines and they can actually boost
your overall traffic count by 100 to 1,000
percent.
Mini-sites are often successful because
they are more specific and highly targeted.
Lead pages can be used in the same ways as
mini-sites and can even be more successful,
even in the Pay-Per-Click search engines.
Lead pages can deliver your visitors to
your sales pages and develop free highly targeted
traffic, but it used incorrectly they may
be considered spam by the search engines and
can get your site banned.
Effective Lead Pages
The search engine's first responsibility
is to deliver information directly related
to a search, not to help promote our websites
or help us boost sales. The secret to the
effective use of lead pages is to understand
how we can best assist the search engines
to deliver more relevant search results.
An effective lead page answers the question
typed into the search engine as specifically
as possible. The process should be considered
a two step process. Step one, you give your
visitor exactly what they clicked on your
page to get, and step two, offer a link to
related information to ask for the sale.
It's best to do some research in the search
engines before writing the copy. You need
to define the question your potential visitor
will ask. If they have a problem, you can
capitalize on providing a solution. Perhaps
there is a common misconception that you can
clear up. Consider what makes your product
better than other similar products; focus
on only one issue per lead page. If there
are multiple issues or benefits, create additional
lead pages.
Knock Off The Leaders
A lead page should never be general in focus;
the more specific it is to a single issue
or concern the more traffic it will attract.
Choose the most specific keywords you can.
Test the various keywords in the search engines
before using them. Take the time to visit
the top websites that come up in the search
results for your keywords. Your visitors may
visit several pages so it's important that
your page more specifically address the single
issue better than the other top listings.
Attracting qualified traffic requires a
winning title and description because that's
all people see in the search results. You
will never get the visitor unless you offer
the winning title and description first.
What you want to do is deliver specific
information in your lead pages not sales hype,
if you must use hype, save that for your sales
page. Offer a link to your sales page at the
bottom of your lead page to direct them to
more detailed information.
Targeting Traffic With Lead Pages
Lead pages often attract more traffic than
your main pages because a lead page can be
more highly targeted. The search engines will
be your partners if you understand that their
purpose is to provide results relevant to
the keywords in the search.
The purpose of a lead page is *NOT* to make
a sale its single purpose is to provide specific
information in order to deliver a qualified
lead to your sales site. Effective lead pages
are short; don't try to make them into mini-sites.
Less is more, remember you want to be specific;
don't try to tell the whole story on your
lead page.
It's worth taking the time and investing
the effort in every single lead page. One
good lead page can drive thousands of highly
targeted visitors to your site earning you
more income than an expensive advertising
campaign, and it's free targeted traffic.
Keyword Density
Search engines evaluate keyword density.
If you have 200 words in your lead page and
three key word phrases appear in your title,
description and in your copy naturally you
will get a high keyword density rank, often
higher than many of the top listings. The
more times you can naturally and effectively
use a keyword phrase in your copy the higher
keyword density you'll achieve.
Three to five percent keyword density is
considered great for any page, more may be
seen as keyword spamming and actually lower
you're ranking. If you include a graphic use
the most important keyword phrase in the graphic's
alt="tag".
Write 2 to 5 short paragraphs, just enough
to address ONE specific benefit or issue.
If you can identify and use 2 or three keyword
phrases designed to address an identified
desire in your market you will achieve good
ranking. Don't try to do everything in one
lead page, make separate lead pages for each
issue you can identify. Rather than making
10 and stopping, make one or two a week as
you identify new issues in your market.
Link Popularity
Search engines give higher rankings to pages
that link to other popular pages. It's usually
a good idea to include a link bar on your
lead pages, usually at the bottom, offering
high quality links to your most important
related pages. The search engines will spider
these links and your whole website's link
popularity score will raise over time.
It's best if any offsite links add value
to your lead page. Choose popular affiliate
links to related products where you will earn
a commission. Your visitors will often click
on one of your other links rather than leaving
right away if your lead page delivered good
information but wasn't exactly what they wanted.
Affiliate Programs
If you promote affiliate programs you will
do a lot better promoting your own lead pages
than you will promoting a supplied affiliate
website. In fact, I don't even bother submitting
affiliate websites. The search engines are
not interested in delivering traffic to hundreds
or thousands of identical webpages.
Build your lead pages to address the individual
benefits your affiliate product offers and
you will generate a lot more traffic to your
affiliate pages.
Summing Up
Don't try to deliver all your traffic to
your websites front door, develop your own
targeted pages addressing single issues and
have those pages lead them to your sales pages
after delivering whatever they were searching
for in the first place. Lead pages often sell
better than your main website in the Pay-Per-Click
search engines as well.
People search for specific information;
give them what they want before asking anything
from them.
Quality counts more than quantity, a few
well researched and thought out lead pages
can deliver much more traffic than an expensive
advertising campaign.
About the Author
ROBERT SMITH helps thousands successfully
market their Internet based business. You'll
find tons of free marketing tools &
resources on his Internet Marketing web
site at:
http://www.smithfam.com/.
The WebKit CD - Now with Complete Sales
Website
http://www.smithfam.com/webkit/
You can reach him by phone at: 689-1847
PST
and by email at http://www.smithfam.com/askbob.html
By Robert Smith © 2003 All Rights
Reserved
|
