When in the landing page development phase it is important that you follow some simple guidelines in order to receive the best results possible.

Lets take a look at what we have identified to work best for a high converting landing page.

1 – First Impression:

Make sure your landing page clearly communicates what your product or service is.  If it is unclear as to what the page is about the common browser will usually click the back button to find what they are looking for.

2 – Above the fold:

Keep all of your important information visible above the fold of you landing page.  You want all of your text, bullet points, images, and most importantly your call to action to be visible without having to scroll.

3 – Simplify Things:

Instead of long paragraphs, make bullet points with your strongest selling points short enough for the visitor to scan and make a quick decision.  The longer you keep a visitors attention the more likely they will convert.

4 – Establish Trust:

Being a reputable company goes a long way these days.  BBB Logo, As seen on the News or TV, a secure check out, and guarantees all help to establish trust.  Make sure to only use these if they actually apply to your business, otherwise your defeating the whole purpose of establishing trust.

5 – Strong Call to Action:

The whole point of landing page is to have your visitor complete a desired action.  Whether it be a Order Button or Request more Info button make sure your Call to Action is easily visible and lets your visitor know what to do next.

6 – Testing:

Above all else the single most important part of landing page development is testing.  Your job is never done when testing landing pages.  Just when you think you have found the winning formula you can always change something as little as an image or the bullet point and find a higher converting landing page.

Landing pages are extremely important for any business, especially when you are doing Pay Per Click Advertising.  Remember that these are simply what we have found to perform the best, but I highly recommend you do some landing page testing and prove me wrong.  You never know, just because a certain formula works for one landing page, doesn’t it mean is best for yours.

Landing Page Development, Landing Page Optimization, Landing Page Testing

As I’m sure you’re aware, there are 4 toll-free prefixes – 800, 888, 877 and 866.

Although the “800″ prefix has been around for over 40 years, its next oldest sibling, “888″ is only 13 years old. The “877″ prefix came about 11 years ago, while the youngest “866″ has only been in use for 9 years.

Does the longer legacy of the “800″ prefix result in higher conversions when tested against the newer toll-free prefixes?

See which “800″ prefix yields the highest conversion rate in this search marketing industry study performed by Engine Ready.

conversion rates, Landing Page Optimization

Sales copy, or copywriting, is the most important aspect of a business that “sells” online.  Copywriting is what drives sales, and without sales there would be no business.  There are several techniques that can be used to become good at writing sales copy and increase your online conversions.

Benefit of Good Sales Copy

Now before you develop the skills to become effective in copywriting you should learn how it will benefit you and your business.

It will…

• Increase the amount of conversions and overall conversion ratio
• Allow you to better connect to customers on an emotional level
• Increase the number of products sold (up-selling)
• Earn respect from visitors and create a relationship
• Increase sales, which will result in an increased list of buyers.  Once they have a positive buying experience they will probably come back to you the next time they are in need of a product or service.

Essentials of Effective Ad Copy

Certain phrases or aspects of copywriting trigger emotions in people that will influence them in the buying cycle.  Here are a few that are found to be effective.

• Tell a story – Make your visitors feel connected to you by sharing a similar experience.
• Original Content – Stand out from your competition and give you visitors what they want, not what they can find everywhere else.
• Customer Service – Stress the customer service they will get when purchasing through you, and make sure to fulfill your promises.
• Be a complete resource – Customers like to have their problems solved in as few steps as possible, so become a complete resource or guide them in the right direction.
• Popularity – People are influenced by others, there is no doubt about that.  Make it known that others are raving about your product or service and it will have a positive influence.
• Prove it – Show solid results proving your product or service is worth the time and investment.
• Sneak Peak – Offer a trial with no risk to give them a “taste” of your product or service.
• Exclusivity – Make them feel as if they are the only one (or few) that are getting your product or service.
• Sell the benefits – Clearly articulate how your product or service will provide the solution to the problem that initiated their visit.

These are only a few tactics and there are many more out there for you to experiment with.  Not all tactics are needed to be effective, but using one or more will increase your chances of meeting your company goals.

Headline

What is the first thing you see upon landing on a website? That’s right, the headline.  If you have a horrible headline and amazing sales copy then kiss the majority of your customer’s goodbye.  Spend the time to really test and see what is triggering your customers to continue reading and complete an action.
Some Ideas to begin a headline with…

• How to…
• Discover…
• Imagine…
• Attention…
• Learn…
• How to…
• Warning…

Call To Action

Another important factor when copywriting is your call to action.  Without a call to action your visitors are not going to know how, or what you want them to do.  You can have the best sales copy in the world but if you don’t have a strong call to action you are going to lose a huge amount of potential customers.
Here are some terms that will entice your visitors to take action…

• Join Today…
• Order Now…
• Order Today…
• Don’t Wait…
• Buy Now…
• Sign-Up…
• Subscribe…
• Become a Member…
• Learn More…
• Find Out…
• Get Your Free…
• Take Action…

Try to keep your calls to action to a minimum because you don’t want to put your visitors in a predicament of choosing between multiple actions.

No matter what kind of product or service you are providing you should always spend a great deal of time creating your sales copy; it will prove worthwhile in the long run.

copywriting, EngineReady, sales copy

I recently read an interesting article posted on SearchEngineWatch.com by Mark Jackson – “Google AdWords Quality Score — That’s Old-School for SEO”  http://searchenginewatch.com/3631651

The driving point of this article is that Google’s Quality Score is going to be base in-part on the content of the landing page.  If you are bidding on a keyword “Big Fatty Hamburger”, you better make sure that you have a Big Fatty Hamburger content-focused landing page. 

The article implies that this move by Google is very similar to SEO where you optimize your site around the keywords you wish to show up for in organic search.  Makes sense, right?

I too was under the same impression until I asked a question to our Account Specialist….   Their response is quite interesting:

“While this could help with their website conversion rate, it wouldn’t really affect their site quality score. In its current iteration the site quality component is geared more toward demoting sites that offer a poor user experience or less than above board business model, rather than rewarding more relevant sites. Basically, that component is either neutral or varying degrees of negative. There is no bump given for things like keywords on the landing page and the like. Let me know if you have other questions about this.”

That being said, if raising your quality score is your goal, making individual landing pages for each of your keywords is not going to cut it.  Google wants a positive user experience and as long as your site is not misleading, has a privacy policy, link to the homepage, and a proper website layout, then you get a 10 out of 10 (for this aspect of the quality score calculations.)  Your time is better spent a/b testing ad creative than creating or paying a web developer for dozens of unique pages.  It is important to note that these comments are based on addressing the Quality Score.  We believe very strongly that Landing Page testing is an integral part of a building a successful PPC marketing campaign – but the intention and focus should be based on increasing the Conversion Rate, not the Quality Score.

Landing Page Optimization, Quality Score