You can spend millions on a website and if you don’t pay attention to the fundamentals that lead to sales, you’ll gain nothing.
There’s a modern day fixation with keywords and search engine optimization, but what about the actual person who visits your website? Surely we want to be appealing more to a person than a bunch of software and algorithms!
Online copyrighting and optimization specialist Nick Usborne believes that no website is complete without these five keywords that people are all programmed to respond positively to:
- Free
Despite its ubiquity (a Google search on “free” returns over sixteen billion results) it continues to tantalize online visitors. Offer free downloads such as sample chapters, quizzes that entertain and engage, subscriptions to your email list, shipping to send buyers your books or audio recordings.
- Sign Up
Invite visitors to subscribe to your email program or newsletter. People check their email more frequently than they surf the Web, and this is a great way to reach and stay in touch with your fans. Make your newsletter exclusive so that the only way to get a particular type of communication from you is when they sign up and it’s even better.
- Buy
Ask your visitors to make a purchase; it’s critical. “The word, buy is an instruction,” writes Usborne. “It tells people to do something.”
Shying away from asking the question does no one any favors – your denying others from the experience of reading your books and you’re living a more frugal life because of it.
- Now
“The Web is an easy-come and easy-go environment,” he notes. “If you can’t get people to act immediately, forget it.” You want people to act now. Sign up now. Order now. Buy now.
Visitors to your website already understand that buying online is easy, so why not remind them that they can do it this very second; even if it’s the middle of the night for them.
- Thank You
Just as those who sign up for newsletters might unsubscribe, those who order a product might return it. When visitors become customers, your work is just beginning; and the first step in building a relationship is saying thank you.
Too often the common courtesy is forgotten in the online world, which can make buying online feeling even more cold, sterile and emotionless. So put back some of the warmth of human kindness and say ‘Thank You’.
How you use these keywords is as important as using them. They are known to influence each and everyone of us on a very deep level, so go through your website and check carefully for where you could substitute what you have with each of these words.
See if you can spot somewhere where these keywords will make the biggest difference (such as more sign-ups to your newsletter, or more sales). Then make some changes, and test the results. As Usborne writes, “the proof is in the testing.”