Guide to Landing Page Optimization

Good landing page optimization is crucial to your ROI - when users click on your ad, it takes them about 8 seconds to decide whether or not they want to stay on your landing page. Don't let the good money you're paying for your PPC ad go down the drain because of poor landing page design. Implement these tips for landing page optimization and watch your conversion rate skyrocket.

First of all, let's answer the question: What is a landing page?

A landing page is a customized page created specifically for your PPC ad. A landing page design should look a little different from the rest of your site. A landing page should have content that matches the copy in your PPC ad. If your ad title says: "Buy a Customized Jacket Today," the headline of your landing page should say the same.

An important thing to remember about landing page optimization is that your landing page and your conversion page are one and the same. With only 8 seconds to grab the user's attention, you do not want to make the user "work for it."

When thinking about landing page optimization and how to create a landing page that will increase your conversions, remember what a landing page is NOT.

A landing page is NOT:

• Your website's home page — this is the biggest mistake advertisers make in their PPC campaigns.
  
• The "Contact Us" page of your website.
• A long form with multiple required fields for a name, address, phone number, business name, email address, etc.
• A page with no way for a user to perform a conversion.

In this guide, you will learn landing page optimization and how to create a landing page that will increase your conversions. Here's what you must know about good landing pages:

1. Keep the landing page relevant to the keyword you're buying and the ad copy.

2. A landing page optimization tip that has been mentioned in numerous blogs and forums is this: If you have a navigation bar on your landing page that has links to other pages on your site, remove it now. Don't give your user another reason to not perform the conversion on the page.

3. Do not ask for information you don't really need. If you must have information (let's say to send a white paper to), only ask for the bare minimum with 2 or 3 required fields max (Name and Email Address).
4. If you are selling a product, the user should be able to buy that product on the landing page.

5. Always include a privacy policy on your landing page, as well as information on returns, shipping costs and customer service.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Make sure the landing page is relevant to the keyword/ad copy of your PPC ad

This is common sense, but because landing page optimization is something that might not be at the top of your list of priorities in your PPC ad campaigns, it may get lost in the shuffle. Always make sure that the ad copy of your PPC ad and the ad copy of your landing page is the same. Users crave continuity and this will help minimize buyer anxiety.

I recommend: Seal the Deal: 10 Tips for Writing the Ultimate Landing Page is a great article, with the advice to "Make sure your headline refers directly to the place from which your visitor came or the ad copy that drove the click" as Step Number One. Look at the landing page optimization experiment done by the Marketing Experiments crew, an experiment that indicates continuity is the key.

Scary-sounding landing page optimization tip: remove the navigation bar on your landing page design

It sounds crazy at first - you might be thinking to yourself, "Now why would I remove navigation links from my landing page? Don't I want users to click around and browse to see what else I offer?" The answer is a loud NO - you absolutely do not want to give your users the chance to "browse around" and lose interest.

I recommend: Look at samples of landing pages from MarketingSherpa for free landing page examples and landing page templates. You will notice that nary a sample landing page has a navigation bar or any links that might distract a user from the purpose of his or her visit - to perform a conversion. MarketingSherpa and other experts agree that dropping your nav bar will increase your conversion rate. Google calls navigation links on your landing page "conversion suicide." You might want to pay attention to what Google says about your Adwords landing page.

Keep the "required fields" to a minimum on your landing page

The shorter the number of required fields you have when a user asks for a white paper, free demo or download, the higher your conversion rate. It's common sense - web users are not generally a trusting group of people, and if you require several fields of information before you give that free trial to a customer, your conversion rate will suffer.

I recommend: Look at Number 6 on article, Ten Tips for Lead Generation Landing Pages: "If you met someone interesting at a bar, you wouldn’t ask for a ton of information like their annual income — you’d simply get his or her contact information so you could build the relationship over time." The more fields you require, the lower your conversion rate will be. And let's be frank - if someone is asking for a free demo or download, do you really "need" their title, business address, phone number, email address, home address? How 'bout you ask them for their Social Security number and thumb print, too? Better yet, just ask for the information you really, really need - probably just a name and email address.

Create landing page magic from click to conversion - your landing page is your conversion page

Don't make your users work for the conversion. Your landing page should be your conversion point. Remember that another name for "landing page" is "lead capture page." This is where your lead or conversion will happen. After users click on your ad, they should only have to click one more time to perform the conversion.

I recommend: If you are selling a product, make sure there's a "Buy Now" button right there next to it. If you want someone to fill out a form, make sure that form is above the fold. Do not make the user scroll down. Check out this short and sweet landing page sample from Marketing Sherpa.

Make the user feel comfortable - always include a privacy policy on your landing page

A well-placed privacy policy on your landing page will ease the user's fragile psyche. Nobody wants to be bombarded with spam. Make sure your user knows that you will never, ever, under any circumstances, sell his or her email address to a marketing company.

I recommend: It's OK to have a link to your privacy policy, but you can make it easier on your user, who has suffered through thousands upon thousands of spam emails along with the occasional worm or virus, and simply write: "We promise to never, ever, under any circumstances, sell your email address." Look at the Better Business Bureau's sample privacy notice.

Tips & Tactics
Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• Whenever you implement a new landing page optimization design, test it against your other landing pages.