In 2022, around 10 million college students used an online course to complete their degree. Combine that with the influencers learning about marketing, writers taking a course in screenplay creation, and business leaders hoping to learn something new about managing a team, and you have a thriving marketplace to sell courses online.

The trick is having a vibrant, clean, mobile responsive, easy-to-navigate online course platform. You must have a website specifically designed to attract leads to your course. It needs to convince readers to act and sign up so you can grow your online business (and make some money in the process).

Here are some of the tricks and tips that will boost your online courses through a carefully built website.

Simplify Your Website Navigation

How many times do you land on a website and feel completely lost about where to get the information you need? Online business and marketing courses need a landing page that feels instinctual so that potential students know where to go next when they look around.

Make sure you have a clean, hierarchical navigation structure that is clear as day. It should include items like:

• Home Page
• Quick About Us
• What the Course Teaches
• Benefits of the Course
• Pricing
• Contact

You can always add more sections as you learn what your customers like the most, but this gives you the basics. It helps to include a prominent search bar for those looking for a specific web design online course sub-topic.

One quick final note: never forget the CTA (call to action). This is your final “ask,” encouraging students to act. Something like a button with “Enroll Now” or “Start Learning Today” throughout your content.

Optimize for Mobile Users

In the U.S., around 63% of searches originate from a mobile device. A website for online course without a mobile responsive design will not perform as one that can work on any sized screen. If you want to generate more leads for your thrilling course about building a vending machine business or dropping that pesky extra fat around the waist, you’ll need a fully mobile responsive website.

Prioritize fast loading times by compressing your images and testing forms or checkout pages before going live. The easier it is for customers to find info, read everything, and click on an action button – the better!

Leverage Visuals About Your Online Course

You could have the best text website design and development in the world, and it won’t sell your online course without engaging visuals.

It’s time to pull on the heartstrings of your users a little bit with some good old-fashioned advertising. If you’re selling a course about running a Christmas pop-up business, bring out images and videos with nostalgia-inducing tales of family around a tree and neighbors helping those in need during the holidays.

Infographics that explain your course outline, engaging video trailers about what people will learn, and images of course outlines or instructor bios are all fantastic content on your website for online courses. Plus, you can use this content on popular social media platforms when marketing.

Implement Effective Online Course SEO

SEO (search engine optimization) is your bread and butter. Online course SEO means making the website streamlined so that when someone searches for a course about identifying popular birds in your local area, your website pulls up near the top.

Some tricks for quality SEO include:

• Optimize all meta titles and descriptions with the proper keywords and word count that popular search engines like Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo prefer.
• Publish your blog posts by answering popular questions from sources like AnswerThePublic, and be sure the title reflects the question. For example, “How to Choose the Best Online Course Platform?”
• Use structured data to generate leads for online course. This may be ratings, online reviews, and course pricing.

The most critical aspect is going to be keyword research. The words you put in popular spaces around your content (headings tags, paragraphs, bold text, etc.) make a big difference. Choose them wisely.

Create Dedicated Landing Pages for Each Course

Check out a famous author’s website, and you’ll find a page for each book. The same concept should apply when you sell courses online.

Create a unique landing page for each course you’re offering. Be sure there is a compelling headline, clear benefits, relevant credentials, student testimonials, and pricing on each of these pages.

You can also tailor the SEO keywords for each sub-page to boost your online course visibility on search engines.

Use Lead Magnets

A lead magnet is something that attracts your target audience’s attention. It adds value without them having to sign up for your course, but makes them interested in what you have to offer.

An online course platform hoping to grow should have a lead magnet like a free mini-course, eBook, or digital download. Once readers see the value in the free resource, they’ll be much more likely to sign up for your online business and marketing courses.

Highlight Trust and Streamline Enrollment

Web design for an online course should build trust with your audience. People are more willing to check out what you have to offer when other past, current, and future students comment about the course.

Feature reviews from social media, Yelp, Google, and other resources to build trust capital. You can use many plugins and apps in your website design and development to make this work automatically in the background.

While you’re at it, be sure the checkout process is as quick and easy as possible. Offer modern payment methods and a one-page enrollment system. The fewer steps to signing up for your online course, the better.

Think of Your Website for Online Course as a Funnel

A sales funnel is the same thing as pouring sand into a small-mouth bottle at home. You have a broad start to your landing page that attracts the most people in your target audience. Then, you can use a narrative throughout the content to “funnel” people to take action.

• Captivate with a strong headline about your course.
• Offer a value proposition as to why your course is worth taking.
• Answer the who, what, where, why, and how of your course.
• Build trust with social proof (reviews, testimonials, etc.).
• Inform about price and specifics.
• Make the “ask” so they take action.

That is a very basic online course SEO sales funnel, but it gives you a solid place to start. Once created, you can use popular online tools like Google Analytics to track visitor behavior and make changes to encourage more engagement and sales.

Final Thoughts

Improving lead generation for your online courses takes a rich blend of strategic website design, targeted SEO tactics, and a rewarding user experience. Use the tips outlined in this article and you’ll transform your website for online course success.

Of course, you can save yourself time and hassle by signing up for our website design and development services at Cerebral Development Solutions. We are a professional team of digital marketers and website designers specializing in connecting with your target audience by speaking in their language.

Reach out today, and let’s discuss how we can transform your online course sales through a streamlined, mobile-responsive, and highly engaging website.