Optimize Your Landing Pages
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Written by Atila on September 8, 2008 – 6:23 am
The landing page onto which you drop a searcher who has clicked one of your ads is arguably the most important aspect of your PPC efforts. Getting searchers to your site is the easy part compared to getting them to stay and convincing them to either make a purchase or sign up for a service.
The first thing you need to be sure of is that the landing page accurately pertains to the keyword that leads to it. If searchers are dropped on a page that has nothing to do with the term they were looking for, chances are they will feel tricked and navigate away immediately. Google also frowns upon any landing page that is not relevant to what was being advertised.
Next, you need to be sure that the Web page loads in a timely manner. Features such as Flash animation or extremely large images can slow down the loading time of your Web site. This is unfriendly for both SEO and PPC. If searchers click your ad and the landing page takes a long time to load, chances are good that they may change their mind and navigate away from the site before they see what you have to offer.
Google offers a free landing page optimizer that allows you to customize portions of your landing pages. The optimizer automatically creates different landing page varieties and records conversion statistics about each variation. You can test different content, layouts, image placements, and more. Over time, Google determines which variation converts best and most often displays that version.
The landing page is one of the most discussed aspects of Internet marketing. The number of tests and tweaks you can perform is almost limitless. Every single factor comes into play and can influence the overall conversion rate for your campaign drastically. You first need to consider if you have chosen the right page.
If the Google Web Site Optimizer proves too complicated, consider a series of simple A-B landing page tests. This is a term used to describe sending an equal amount of traffic at equal increments throughout the day to two landing pages. This type of test shows you which page is driving more conversions and which page is causing your potential customer to shop elsewhere.
You can also test various changes within the same landing page. Try tweaking the colors and fonts on your Web site. You may discover that the blue background converts better than the green background. Maybe the image of the smiling customer on your page seems to drive more conversions than the picture of the cute kitten. All these seemingly minor influences play a part in the overall success of your online business, and you would be wise to always test each one.
