For the best ppc results, fix your landing page

[arpan911]

In the slew of discussions of keywords, PPC ads, and even contextual search marketing that’s standard for search, we’ve forgotten what is, in some ways, really the most important search marketing element: the website. I’d like to take a moment to talk about it here. Specifically, I’d like to talk about what might be the most important element of the most important element of search: the landing page.

Why do I place so much emphasis on landing pages? Because, while we SEM experts spend most of our lives dreaming about keywords and SERP pages, in the end it’s not about the SERP at all. It’s about websites.

Think about it. The searchers are trying to find the best website to suit their purpose; the search engines want to help the searchers to find the best site; the advertisers want the searchers to find the site their pushing through the SEs. Nobody’s really focused on the SERP as the endgame at all. Everyone is focused on the site—even if the SERPS happen to be an excellent way for everyone to get to that goal.

As it happens, most of the excitement in Search takes place on the search engine results page (SERP). That’s where thousands of sites or more can compete for visitors, one visitor at a time. So, in the short term, the SERPS are the only place where you can beat your competition. Which means that our intense focus on keywords, good organic results and highly visible ad listings make a lot of sense.

But even so, it would be incorrect to say that that you should end the conversation in the SERPs. The point you have to keep in mind is that it’s extremely hard to get any money, or site traffic, or any other positive outcome for your website through search ads alone. That’s even with the huge branding potential of the unclicked PPC ad (and it’s there). Because the bottom line is that the bulk of the search ad payoff happens on your site; if so you don’t get conversions through PPC searchers, you’ve thrown the bulk of your PPC spend out the window.

Which brings us back to landing pages. If your website is the point of your SEM, then getting your landing page right might be the most important thing you can do for getting conversions. If you maneuver things right, you can get the conversion on the landing page itself; or, at the very least, you can use your landing page to convince the new visitor that she’s come to the right place—which is the only way you can convince her to click, climb, and crawl to a conversion through the maze that is your site navigation scheme.

But to design the best landing page for searchers, you have to start by understanding how they’ll think about your site when they get there, and how that will color their expectations.
Different visitors, different tastes

When people come directly to your site via the homepage, they probably think about your site the way that you do: they see it as the online presence of your business.

A good analogy is walking into a store. When you walk into a store, you’re highly conscious of the branding that the store has given itself. If I walk into Gap to buy pants, I don’t think, “I know I’m buying pants, but what’s the name of this store again?” I think, “I’m buying pants at Gap.” And the same holds true online: when you go directly to Amazon.com, e-Bay, or any other site, you’re very conscious of the site as the context for your online activity. That kind of mentality might make you more excited by a store greeter or, online, a splash page; it might make also make you more likely to browse.

Search is the opposite. From the get-go, the context of a search is the thing the searcher wants to find. That’s true, mostly, because searches aren’t brand-focused, they’re item focused—they’re out to find one particular thing, no matter where it is. Even if it’s a branded item, they might be just as willing to buy “gap pants” at Gap.com as they would on e-bay. And the fact that every SERP shows all the players in the field at once heightens the feeling: when they click the link from the SERP, they know in the back of their head that, if things don’t work out with the site they’re on now, they still might find what they want on any of thousands of other sites.

This means that when you’re bringing visitors onto your site through Search, the first and most important thing a landing page needs to do is fulfill their immediate need—or at least convince visitors that you’re fully capable of fulfilling their immediate need, and show them how to use your site to do just that. If you don’t do that job done in about five seconds, you’ve lost your conversion—because this visit isn’t a trip to the store where the visitor happens to buy something; it’s a quest for an item, service, or item of information.

Here are three things that are absolutely critical to creating the best landing page. I’m putting these points up just to get you thinking about how you should think about things; the list is by no means exhaustive:

If you have the technological capabilities, run A/B landing page testing to see which one of your landing page options works the best off of each keyword. If you don’t have those technological capabilities, hire someone who does.

Make landing pages that are as specific to the keyword search as possible. That way, visitors can convert on your site that much quicker—and will come away that much more excited about you. At the time of this writing, if you look up “nike shox” in Google, e-Bay comes up as the first PPC ad. The ad sends you to a page selling Nike Shox sneakers—not to one of e-Bay’s more general sporting goods, clothes, or shoes pages.

In a recent article by Jamie Roach of Offermatica, in iMedia Connection, Roach makes a good suggestion: put the actual keyword, or a word related to your keyword, onto your landing page. That tells the visitor unequivocally that she’s come to the right place. Just make sure (and here’s the tricky, and sometimes technologically complicated part) that the keyword makes sense in context.

Roach also suggests putting elements of your overall site into your landing page. Just because this person is visiting to buy one thing doesn’t mean she can’t learn more about you. I’d go even further: the fact that search is a nearly brand-neutral sphere (at least in comparison to, say, the TV spot), you need to make up for “lost time” once people get to your site.

But I would also just add that it’s a thin line you have to tread: overdo the branding, and the visitor will feel like you’re distracting her from her mission. So make your landing page consistent with your general site design, as Roach suggests, and, as he also suggests, you might want to put your special offers on that page too. But you also might want to keep your ten minute flash intro for the homepage.

Again, this list of improvements for your landing page is by no means exhaustive; see it less as a to-do list than as a set of crucial examples. But in any case it’s important, when we’re busy thinking about SERPs and keywords all the time, to start thinking a bit about websites too.

By: Abe Mezrich

[littlenicky]

hei there, thanks for sharing arpan911

Make landing pages that are as specific to the keyword search as possible. That way, visitors can convert on your site that much quicker—and will come away that much more excited about you. At the time of this writing, if you look up “nike shox” in Google, e-Bay comes up as the first PPC ad. The ad sends you to a page selling Nike Shox sneakers—not to one of e-Bay’s more general sporting goods, clothes, or shoes pages.

this has answered a question that i've been wondering about

[mini_0]

Exactly , a landing page is what you should rrot for , it is what the surfer came looking for . And if it is what is advertised and is nicely designed and put up then you are in for a good go. One tip i read some where is that if you are selling a product then what you can do is that you can make your landing page as a review and ttimonial with the all the good features thrown in , just to satisfy the custi=omer , instead of just bangng him on to a buying page . It will guarantee more sales and people might like to refer others too . try that .