Once you have chosen a product to promote, the next step is
to set up a landing page using WordPress. WordPress is free software that you
can use to design an effective website even if you have no design experience or
programming knowledge. All of the programming is accomplished from a
user-friendly dashboard that makes setting up a landing page for your new
affiliate product a snap.
If you already have a blog, you may already be familiar with
WordPress, since it is the most popular software to use to set up a blog. If
you’re new to WordPress, I want to clarify that I am talking about
WordPress.org, not WordPress.com. WordPress.com is a free blogging site, but it
is not the same as having your own website. To effectively market affiliate
products, you must have your own site. Many affiliate programs require
affiliates to own their own domain name.
You have the option of hosting your site through WordPress
directly, or of using another host. Most hosts allow the use of WordPress. I
caution you against choosing a free or very cheap hosting program. What you save
in up-front costs can come back to haunt you in the form of excessive downtime
and poor customer service.
Choose a domain name that relates to the product you are
selling. Ideally, you want to use some of the most popular keywords you found
while you were researching. If a product is sold by many of your competitors,
finding a great domain name may prove to be a challenge. If a .com name isn’t
available, consider using one of the other extensions such as .biz or .us
instead.
When you set up your site on WordPress, you can choose from
hundreds of free themes. I strong suggest that you choose a mobile-responsive
theme. As of 2015, more people conduct searches on mobile devices than on
computers. Google penalizes sites that are not mobile-friendly, so there is no
reason to choose anything other than a mobile-responsive theme for your new
site.
Here are some other things to keep in mind when setting up
your new landing page:
■ Write a strong headline that indicates what people can expect to see on the page and creates a strong desire to keep reading. Try to use your primary keyword in the headline.
■ Choose a theme that is eye-catching but not unpleasant to look at. Clashing colors may actually drive people away from your site. You want them to stay, read or watch your content, and OPT IN. If your site is too garish it may have the opposite effect.
■ Stay away from fancy fonts that are difficult to read. It’s fine to use a special font here and there for emphasis, but do not choose something that is overly ornate.
■ Consider making a sales video for your page. There is evidence to show that landing pages with videos tend to get more conversions than pages without video. You can provide the video content in written form as an alternative for people who prefer not to watch a video.
■ If you choose to have only written content on your page, make sure that it is well-written and compelling. Everything you write (or pay to have written) should focus on solving a particular problem that the person reading your page has – and explain how the product you’re promoting can help them solve it. Break up the content with subheadings and bullet points to make it easy to read.
■ Focus on creating natural-sounding content to improve your Google rank. Simply using your keywords over and over again isn’t enough these days. Your content must be relevant and compelling, and your use of keywords must be natural and not forced.
■ Choose a strong call to action that repeats multiple times on the page. The best CTAs are those that emphasize the benefits of using the product you are selling. For example:
o Lose Weight NOW
o Yes, I want to retire early
o Help me train my dog
All of these are solution oriented and far more appealing than a bland “Click here.”
Optimizing Your Site
Setting up your basic website is important, but you also want
to do whatever you can to ensure that your site is fully optimized. I could
write an entire book about SEO, but my goal here is simply to give you an
overview so you make sure to hit the important points.
■ Your landing page should be optimized for one main keyword and several secondary keywords. Your primary keyword should be a long-tail keyword – one that is very specific and tailored to people who are ready to spend money to solve the problem that your chosen product addresses.
■ Do not worry about keyword density. As mentioned before, the most important thing is the quality of your content. Use your keywords in your headline, in the first sentence of your content, and in a few other prominent locations.
■ Don’t neglect your tags and descriptions. The information that appears on your page is only half the battle when it comes to SEO. You should also use your keywords in the following places:
o Your page title (the title that appears when your page comes up in response to a Google search)
o Your meta description (the short description that appears under your page title on Google)
o Your H1 and H2 tags, which let Google know where your headlines and subheadings are
o Your alt, or image tags, which appear when one of your images fails to properly download on a viewer’s page
Using these tags properly can do a great deal to boost your SEO.
Everything on your page should be informative and relevant to
people who are searching your chosen keywords. While keywords and tags are
important, Google places the highest premium on content that is well-written and
relevant. As long as your page has high-quality content and uses keywords
effectively, you should do well on Google.
Blogger Comment
Facebook Comment