Creating a website can often be an extraordinarily confusing process. Everyone gets to have a say (it seems) and often what looks good gets picked over what “works good.”

The result is painful – a good looking website, often with decent (even high) levels of traffic – but NO leads, NO prospects and NO new database contacts.

The reason for such failure is simple – you end up with an online brochure (a bad one at that) rather then a direct response-marketing website.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

There are some very straightforward things you can do to turn a brochure website into a direct response website and in doing this transform your business by getting more phone calls, emails and database signups.

They are…

1) Developing a Keyword Plan

Choosing the right keywords for the landing pages on your site helps search engines ‘understand’ and therefore index the pages of your site.

This will result in your site ranking higher on SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) when the relevant keyword is used as a search query.

Furthermore, it will enhance the performance of your PPC (Pay Per Click) campaigns, resulting in more traffic – often for less money.

2) Simple Design and Navigation

People don’t come to your site to be impressed with your company’s creative graphic design and creative page layout ideas.

They want information, solutions to problems, inspiration – so give it to them. Make the content high quality and use a design and navigation that makes accessing the information easy and straightforward. No one should have to pause and think to try and figure out how to move around your website.

3) Compelling Copy

Visitors to your website want relevant, high quality information and they want it right now.

If you don’t present them with the information they are looking for, then they’ll hit the back browser button and your hard won visitor just “bounced” right off your site and out of your life.

Great headlines, well written and compelling copy, good use of sub headlines, images and captions all contribute to keeping visitors on your site.

4) Ask for the Order

If you had a salesperson who spoke to lots of potential customers but never asked for the order, or never ushered the customer down the next step in the sales funnel, the chances are you’d fire them. Websites should be viewed in the same way.

Visitors, on average, will look at between 3 and 8 pages on your site. They pick those pages at their discretion, leaving you with no idea at which point they will become ‘sold’ on taking some action.

Make sure you have a ‘call to action’ on every page. This should be in the form of sidebar banners for your ‘visual’ browsers, in the masthead banner for immediate impact, and, especially important, text based ‘call to actions’ in the copy so visitors with ‘banner blindness’ will still be enticed into taking an ‘action’.

5) Create Packaged Information offers

Some of the people who visit your website are in an early research stage. Don’t let them come, browse and then leave your site without trying to persuade them to take some form of action.

Create a must-have buyers guide, valuable white paper or unique special report which you offer on the website.

Visitors then complete a form requesting your guide, and in the process complete their first transaction with you.

Although no money has changed hands – they got a valuable (to them) package of information, and you got their valuable (to you) contact details.

Now you can start to communicate with them and develop a relationship that means when they become ‘open to buying’ and your chances of getting the deal are high.

6) Newsletter Sign Up

At the very least, ask visitors to sign up to your newsletter in exchange for special offers, the latest new products and services and invitations to special events.

Get these things in place and you’ll transform the performance of your website.

What’s the downside?

Well – you have to think more.

You have set clear objectives, and use them to guide the development process. You have to be clear about who you are targeting. You have to create better content and you even have to be prepared to mess up your shiny new website a bit.

By that I mean – you have to create more forms, more links, repeat your call to actions and have more copy and content. Some people would cut these down (or out) because they certainly don’t create a ‘clean’ website.

You could even say they make websites uglier.

Now I don’t think you have to have ugly – but ugly and high performance can, and often do, go together (take a quick look at www.amazon.co.uk if you don’t believe me – pretty ugly, but the highest selling website on the planet).

If it came down to a choice between beautiful and no leads or ugly and a phone that rings off the hook, a steady stream of email enquiries and a fast growing database – I’d take ugly any day.

Your Website

We build direct response websites. Our team of web developers, search engine experts, graphic designers, copywriters and marketers create “built in” direct response websites by default.

It is so strongly engrained in our ethos, thinking and creative process that you could be accused of thinking that we have some special direct response website DNA genetically engineered into each and every one of us.

To discuss how we can create a brand new, direct response website for your business call us now on 01536 747310 or send me an email now.

If you want to find out how we can fix your current website (not everyone needs a new site) you can request a free Website MOT here.

The post Is Ugly Better? Why a Direct Response Website is actually a thing of Beauty… first appeared on WD&M.

Successful websites understand that visitors have a primary purpose when viewing a page – to get information.

They also understand that visitors have different requirements …

Some people will arrive at your website to investigate your products and services, some to buy now, others to research the credibility of your company, and some looking for free information offers.

Your visitors could fall into one of many categories and a successful page layout will cater for the needs of all the types of visitors that might be attracted to your site by offering all options so they can find their way easily to the content that they want.

That’s why seemingly ‘busy’ sites with many links and options on the landing page can be the most successful, and why a ‘clean’ website is unlikely to deliver the best results for your business – as discussed in our post on the clean website paradox.

Every website will need a layout tailored to suit the needs of the types of visitor they are targeting, however by beginning with a template of a successful layout you will be more likely to end up with a website that delivers the results you want.

Here are some example page layouts that work really well for most websites.

Home Page Layout

Real World Example

Landing Page Layout

Real World Example

Initial Working Design

Final Design





It is of course important to remember that you should use a combination of images and text to direct the traffic around your website as different visitors respond differently to each medium.

The post Designing the page layouts for your website first appeared on WD&M.

Very often these days you will come across individuals, such as a graphic designer or a web developer, who will offer to design, build and maybe even populate and optimise you a website.

However it is highly unlikely that one person alone has the full skill set required to create the right website for your business – the reality is that each person is best at their primary skill or discipline.

Whilst someone will need to lead the project and programme (it should be an ongoing process) you will usually need to create a team of people with key skills.

To create a highly profitable website your team needs to be made up of professionals with the following skills and expertise…

• Marketing Strategy – this could be you, or someone who understands the ‘big picture’ in terms of your objectives, strategy and integration with your offline marketing. This person is usually the ideal person to lead and direct the website development team.
  
  

• Search Engine Marketing – this person will be a key player on your team. If generating high levels of traffic is important to the success of your strategy then they should be involved early on in your planning process. They should influence the strategy, structure, contact and copy of your site and will also want to oversee the work of the website developer (to ensure that coding is search engine friendly) and the graphic designer (to ensure that all relevant content is searchable).
  
  

• Copy Writer – words are critical to persuading your website visitors to stay, read and take action on your website. A skilled copywriter is essential to creating high quality content, which is the key to a great website. They will also play an important role in implementing the Search Engine Marketing SEO plan and strategy. Their work will have profound implications for the success of your website.
  
  

• Graphic Designer – your graphic designer’s job is to ensure that the look of your website is appropriate and fit for purpose. They will need to understand your objectives, your target market, and your strategy, and then with you decide how best to present your content and copy to your target market.
  
  

• Website Developer – your website developer has the technical skills to take the structure, content and graphic designs, and turn them into a fully functioning website that provides visitors, search engines and the website owner with a great experience.

We strongly recommend working with a team of genuinely skilled people, under the firm leadership of someone who understands marketing, including online marketing.

The post Your Website Development Team first appeared on WD&M.

So often the brief for a website designer or developer begins with the words – “we want this website to be fresh and clean”.

And one thing many people say about their current website, is that “it’s a mess, we need a cleaner website”.

Really? Why?

Let’s test that burning desire for a “clean” or “cleaner” website by asking a couple of questions…

When was the last time you were on the Internet and came across a website so clean and so fresh that you dropped everything and fired off an email to your friends and colleagues sharing the joyous news that you’ve found an unbelievably clean website?

When was the last time you found a website so clean that it had you reaching for your credit card to buy before you knew what was happening, or filling in a form on the website requesting an appointment?

Hmmm – nope, I can’t remember either.

This is the clean website paradox – everyone wants a clean website, certainly a cleaner website than they have now – but we don’t really know why.

It just seems like the right thing to say when your developer or designers asks you what’s important to you about the design of your new website.

Let’s dig a bit deeper and put the “clean website” idea to the test.

First lets look at the worlds most popular newspaper website, Britain’s own Daily Mail – surely their Mail Online website must be super clean?

Here it is…

OK – that’s not at all “clean”, in fact if you have time go to the Mail Online now and start scrolling down the page – it goes on f-o-r-e-v-e-r.

But hey, they don’t actually try and sell on the Internet, so let’s look at the world’s most successful website in terms of sales.

Amazon is number 10 in the world website rankings and the first that actually sells products…

Nope – that’s not clean either. In fact, it’s a mess, but it sells like crazy.

And the UK’s most successful property website?

No – that’s not clean either. What’s going on here?

Successful websites understand that visitors have
a primary purpose when visiting – to get information.

And that if the website doesn’t deliver, then the back button on the browser gets hit pretty quickly, and you lose the visitor.

They also understand that visitors have different requirements …

Some want general information on products and services as they “gen up” on the industry, the products and the service.

Others want to buy now.

Some want to ‘check you out’ – get an understanding of who you are, look at your ‘credentials’ and your track record.

Some want to download your information offers – white papers, buyers guides and reports.

Your visitors could fall into any of these categories – so your website needs to offer all options to visitors so they can find their way easily to the content that they want.

That’s why seemingly “busy” sites can be the most successful.

WDM offers a no obligation, Free Website MOT where we will assess your website in 4 key areas and advise on how to improve your website’s performance. Click here to find out more.

The post The “Clean” Website Paradox first appeared on WD&M.

When it comes to the structure of your website there are two essential requirements.

1. The first is that you keep it flat by keeping your pages as close to the Home Page as possible.
2. The second is that you create ‘silos’ of ‘like’ pages.
Let’s take ‘keeping it flat’ first.

1. Good Site Structure – Keeping it Flat 

First let’s look at the problem with many websites.
As this headline implies, poor site structure must therefore be deep (not flat).

Here’s what bad site structure looks like…

The problem with this structure is that as pages get further and further away from the Home Page they lose the carried through benefits of the ‘authority’ associated with the Home Page.

The further away from the Home Page a web page sits within the structure of the website the less important it is deemed to be by the search engines.

This means that these deep pages are likely to get lower positions in the search engine results.

So, you could be working hard to optimise a key product or service page on your website for important keywords, but if it is 5, 6 or 7 levels deep within your site structure you could well be wasting your time.
The solution is to create a website structure that positions pages…

No more than 3 clicks to the deepest level

Ideally you want to structure the navigation of your website so that there are no more than 3 clicks to the deepest level.

That means your website navigation structure should look like this…

And you want to have your most important pages with your best keywords at levels 1, 2 or 3 to ensure that they maximise their full SERP (Search Engine Results Page) potential.

The outcome should be higher indexation and better longtail SEO results.

2. Allocate your web pages to Silos

The other key aspect is to organise your content into ‘silos’ containing like content, creating ‘mini sites’ within your website.

So for example, if your website is for your Bike shop, all of your Mountain Bike pages should go under the navigation tab and URL yourwebsite.com/mountainbikes, which would look like this…

In this example you can see how by identifying a themed ‘chief’ landing page you can significantly improve the visitor experience, reducing exits and improving conversion, and at the same time you improve the SEO potential of your website.

The post The Importance of Navigation Structure first appeared on WD&M.