Three simple steps to an effective landing page
Posted 29th March 2009 at 06:35 AM by Amanti Code
Tags conversion, landing pages, sem, seo
Having the best seo software at your disposal is great however, if the goal of your search engine marketing campaign is to drive larger amounts of sales or to acquire a larger list of qualified prospects then Landing Pages should be one of the main components to your online marketing campaign.
However you drive traffic to your landing page is up to you. It can be from natural search engine results, pay-per-click, banner advertising, and joint ventures and so on. Relative to the speed of change on the internet, the concepts of a landing page are not exactly a new idea. In fact, internet and search marketing experts have been quietly using them in the last few years to gain a competitive advantage over their competition, some of which are high profile and globally recognized companies.
The thing is, not everyone out there who’s tried and tested this technique is doing it well. Getting a visitor to your landing page is really only half the achievement. The other is to successfully convert those visitors into prospects, members, or customers and that in itself can be an art that requires a narrow set of boundaries that need to be followed if you want to see more conversions at your landing page.
It’s amazing to see how many landing pages out there make it difficult for the visitor to know what it’s about, what to do, and how to do it. A vast number of landing pages out there really add unnecessary content that distracts the visitor as to the reason they were directed there in the first place.
Therefore it’s important to remember three things when planning and designing your landing page(s).
The first is to make clear to the visitor, from wherever they came from, what the landing page is about. Make it simple, don’t overwhelm or confuse them with an overload of content. What will happen is that most users will freak out, quickly run out of patients and continue their search. Besides, they’ll think they have more important things to do than find out why they clicked through to your landing page.
It doesn’t matter if the content of your landing page is going to tell them how live to 102. If it’s equal to 30 pages of reading they click-out before they get to the end of your very first sentence. When portraying what your landing page is about to your visitors, make it short, clear, and to the point.
The second aspect you should think about when planning and designing your webpage is what you want your visitors to do. Avoid the mistake of providing good quality content that interests your visitors, but not giving them instructions as to what to do next.
According to Wikipedia there are two types of landing pages. The first is referred to as a reference landing page which main objective is to present relevant information to the reader which is measured by the revenue value of the advertising. The second is referred to as a transactional landing page which main objective is to induce the sale of a product of service. When people visit your site, what do you want them to do?
The third aspect to consider is essentially linked to the second discussed earlier. It is important that you inform your visitors as to how to do what you want them to do. Make sense? These instructions should be very simple, quick and almost effortless.
Remember that most people are willing to give a certain degree of information so long as they know they will gain something in return that they feel is of value to them. If they’re willing to give you the information you are requesting make it easy for them, include graphics and step-by-step instructions. In return you’ll gain more conversions and un-frustrated prospects.
Once you have your landing page in place you will want to carefully monitor its performance.
Split-test your landing pages and compare each on virtually every page element. It may just surprise you as to how you can dramatically increase your conversions ten-fold if you make simple adjustments or changes to your landing pages. Split testing landing pages, monitoring and comparing their performance is a very involved process that requires a lot of data analysis if you want to do it correctly.
However there are software programs out there that can do this for you most of which can be very expensive. We recommend the Web CEO software suite as it integrates a highly advanced webpage (landing page) monitoring system that you can have automate and provide in-depth reports. You can find out more by viewing this popular seo software comparison lens. Learn advanced search engine optimisation and internet marketing techniques at www.amanticode.com.
However you drive traffic to your landing page is up to you. It can be from natural search engine results, pay-per-click, banner advertising, and joint ventures and so on. Relative to the speed of change on the internet, the concepts of a landing page are not exactly a new idea. In fact, internet and search marketing experts have been quietly using them in the last few years to gain a competitive advantage over their competition, some of which are high profile and globally recognized companies.
The thing is, not everyone out there who’s tried and tested this technique is doing it well. Getting a visitor to your landing page is really only half the achievement. The other is to successfully convert those visitors into prospects, members, or customers and that in itself can be an art that requires a narrow set of boundaries that need to be followed if you want to see more conversions at your landing page.
It’s amazing to see how many landing pages out there make it difficult for the visitor to know what it’s about, what to do, and how to do it. A vast number of landing pages out there really add unnecessary content that distracts the visitor as to the reason they were directed there in the first place.
Therefore it’s important to remember three things when planning and designing your landing page(s).
The first is to make clear to the visitor, from wherever they came from, what the landing page is about. Make it simple, don’t overwhelm or confuse them with an overload of content. What will happen is that most users will freak out, quickly run out of patients and continue their search. Besides, they’ll think they have more important things to do than find out why they clicked through to your landing page.
It doesn’t matter if the content of your landing page is going to tell them how live to 102. If it’s equal to 30 pages of reading they click-out before they get to the end of your very first sentence. When portraying what your landing page is about to your visitors, make it short, clear, and to the point.
The second aspect you should think about when planning and designing your webpage is what you want your visitors to do. Avoid the mistake of providing good quality content that interests your visitors, but not giving them instructions as to what to do next.
According to Wikipedia there are two types of landing pages. The first is referred to as a reference landing page which main objective is to present relevant information to the reader which is measured by the revenue value of the advertising. The second is referred to as a transactional landing page which main objective is to induce the sale of a product of service. When people visit your site, what do you want them to do?
The third aspect to consider is essentially linked to the second discussed earlier. It is important that you inform your visitors as to how to do what you want them to do. Make sense? These instructions should be very simple, quick and almost effortless.
Remember that most people are willing to give a certain degree of information so long as they know they will gain something in return that they feel is of value to them. If they’re willing to give you the information you are requesting make it easy for them, include graphics and step-by-step instructions. In return you’ll gain more conversions and un-frustrated prospects.
Once you have your landing page in place you will want to carefully monitor its performance.
Split-test your landing pages and compare each on virtually every page element. It may just surprise you as to how you can dramatically increase your conversions ten-fold if you make simple adjustments or changes to your landing pages. Split testing landing pages, monitoring and comparing their performance is a very involved process that requires a lot of data analysis if you want to do it correctly.
However there are software programs out there that can do this for you most of which can be very expensive. We recommend the Web CEO software suite as it integrates a highly advanced webpage (landing page) monitoring system that you can have automate and provide in-depth reports. You can find out more by viewing this popular seo software comparison lens. Learn advanced search engine optimisation and internet marketing techniques at www.amanticode.com.
