Published on 06/11/2008

Ever wondered how to optimize your landing pages for both your visitors and search engines? This first article of a two-part series shows you how to increase your conversions and Quality Score at the same time.

Optimize your landing page for greater profit and Quality Score

Bam! Your ad has netted a searcher and sent them to your landing page. You now have less than 10 seconds to convince them to stay.

Is your landing page ready?

Landing pages need to cater to both man and machine and finding this balance can be tricky. Building a landing page on all the Quality Score ideals may not get you any conversions. Yet ignoring Quality Score for the sake of conversions can see your well of visitors start running dry.

Conversions are certainly a goal of your landing page, but you need to widen the picture to ensure long-term profits. This means catering to the Quality Score gods as well.

Here are 12 guidelines to help you build profitable and high Quality Scoring landing pages:

1) Answer the question or solve the problem for your customer

This is the first rule, because if you’re not sure about any of the tips that follow – refer back to this one. It’s the golden one. If you keep your visitors’ expectations in mind, it’ll keep you on track with satisfying them.

2) Send your visitors to specific, targeted landing pages

Read rule number one again. Then consider the best landing page you can send your visitor to, relative to their search query.

With broader queries, you may not have enough specific information and a home page is your best option (although you’d want to watch the ROI on broader keywords and decide whether it’s worth it).

For specific and long tail queries, you can step up to the plate with a landing page tailor-made to your visitor. People who are ready to buy generally search in this fashion, so make the best of the opportunity with a targeted landing page.

The same goes if you are selling a variety of products, send your customers to the specific product page without them having to navigate.

Let me demonstrate:

I’ve researched new smartphones and decided the Blackberry Pearl 8130 has my name on it. I type in ‘buy cheap blackberry pearl 8130’.

I open up the top 3 sites on my Google

The first site is a review site.
The second site takes me to the exact product page on an online vendor’s web site, with a buy now option.
The third site takes me to the home page of an online department store with a variety of products and brands I can search for if I have the time.

I’m not stuck between a rock and hard place, the second site is definitely the pick of the bunch. Now if I really wanted to shop around, I could search the third site and do a price comparison. I could also work further down the SERP.

However, site two has put itself in the best possible position to get my sale.

If you’re playing in a highly competitive sandpit, targeted landing pages give you an added advantage.

No landing page is guaranteed to convert. However, handing your visitors what they’re asking for (or more) gives your landing pages the best chance at conversions and more profit.

3) Ensure your landing page load time is as fast as possible

From April 2008, page loading time now impacts your Landing Page Quality Score in Google Adwords. Google considers “waiting time” to be part of the quality of a user's experience.

The load time grade for a keyword is based on the keyword-level destination URL. If you didn’t use a keyword-level URL, then the load time grade for that keyword will be based on the slowest time (not average) of all the ads in the ad group.

There are two load time grades which you can view on the Keyword Analysis page. If yours is “No Problems Found” it will have no impact on your landing page quality. However, if it is graded “This Page Loads Slowly” it will have a negative impact on your quality.

So make sure your landing pages are served to your visitors without delay, and before they have a chance to abandon your page and convert elsewhere.

4) Create compelling, attention-grabbing headlines

Remember those 10 seconds you’ve got to convince a visitor not to hit the back button?

Initially, your headline is crucial in creating interest and engaging your visitor. They need to see immediately what your site is about and be curious to know more. Then they’ll continue to read.

A great headline shows them clearly and quickly that your landing page offers them the answer to their question or solution to their problem.

Here are 4 tips for effective headlines:

Pose a question your visitors can relate to. A question to which they can answer ”Yes! That’s exactly what I’m looking for.”
Eg. Are Your Landing Pages Delivering the Profit You Want?
Address a fear or concern - Connect with your visitors’ emotions and make them aware of what they could be losing and what they certainly don’t want to lose.
Eg. If You Are Not Optimizing Your Landing Pages, You Are Losing Thousands Of Dollars
Show them the benefit – give them a picture of what they’ll gain, the rewards of their success after they read your page and take you up on your offer.
Eg. Increase your profits by 500% by building Quality Landing Pages
Make it stand out - use a different color, font and size from your content

5) Make your landing page professional and attractive

First impressions count online as well as offline.

Initially, besides the headline it’s the look of your site that attracts visitors to stay. Good headline or not, if a visitor lands on a page and hits a solid wall of pure text content – they’ll bail out on you.

A professional looking web site is attractive to visitors, conveys a message of trust and says you know what you’re doing.

No matter how big a dentist’s smile is, if he’s missing a few pearly whites, you’re not going to be overcome with confidence are you?

Make sure you:

Look professional by using an attractive theme that’s easy on the eyes. Eg. Red and black may make an attractive tie, but red text on a black background is unappealing and hard to read.
Don’t waste space – Remember the real estate you’ve got to work with. Huge graphics or banners that leave very little room for your pitch and calls to action don’t do you any favors.
Use relevant images and in the right amount – they should be in theme with your product offering and used to enhance your content’s message.
Break up your content with headings, subheadings, solo links, bullets, numbering and other formatting methods. This makes it more attractive and easier to read.
Make smart use of white space – while you don’t want to waste space, you don’t want to crowd the page and create too many distractions either.
Keep it clear and simple!

6) Use a clear layout and simple site navigation

Good site layout and navigation goes hand in hand with a professional looking landing page.

Lead the eyes with a logical and organized path through your website – draw your visitors into your calls to action.
Make sure any design elements, videos, images or other objects don’t distract your visitors or lead them away from your conversion triggers.
Menus and navigation bars make it easier for your visitors to find out what they need to know.
Don’t give your visitors a reason to stray away from your site. Keep prospective customers navigating and converting within your site. Use outbound linking wisely and be aware of the tangents it may send your visitors on.

Think of the layout of large department stores. Most have good signage to guide you to other sections within the store; however they certainly don’t make it easy for you to exit and head to another store!

Basically, make it easy, unambiguous and painless for your visitors to convert into paying customers.

12 Steps to Maximizing your Landing Page Profits - Part 2 (Steps 7-12)

In the next post, we go through the next six steps of maximizing your landing page profits, including what sort of content to use, how to inspire trust and how to get your visitors to take action immediately.

Landing Page Zen

Dynamic landing pages are just the tip of the iceberg in the art of landing page optimization. There are many other conversion secrets you can apply in your quest for the perfect landing page.

Here in our office, the Landing Page Handbook by MarketingSherpa is our "bible". We've seen massive increases in conversion by following its guidelines.

For example, just one simple trick we learned from the new version lifted a client's application form completion by 10%, which will add an extra $90,000 profit to their bottom line.

MarketingSherpa's best-selling Landing Page Handbook has now been updated and expanded even more for 2008. You'll receive:

Page Design & Copy Step-by-Step Instructions
Research data and usefal stats including 54 Stat & Data Charts
114 Samples of Landing Pages to Copy
Specific Help for Search marketing (PPC and SEO), Email, B-to-B, Ecommerce, Blogs & Lead Generation Conversions

It's a very comprehensive and easy to read guide that can help you raise conversions by up to 55% or more for search, email, and ad campaigns for lead generation, ecommerce, and even blogs.

You'll find the answers to questions such as:

How can we raise ecommerce sales with landing page tweaks? and
What's the Number One, easy, way to lift Google PPC (paid search ad) conversion rates?

Take a look at the Landing Page Handbook Now

“I suggest that if you are spending any significant money on pay per click that
you NEED to get this guide.”
- Jim Kukral

About the Author

Reena Shohet is a PPC marketing specialist and the Product Manager for SpeedPPC. Increase your profits by overcoming the Top 7 Challenges of PPC marketing. Discover how and sign up for a FREE Email Course to Improve your PPC marketing - visit www.SpeedPPC.com.