What a Landing Page Is Not

A landing page is not a start page or a doorway page. Huh? Knowing the difference can save you a lot of grieve. With that being said, definitions are in order before learning how to construct a landing page.

Landing Page, Start Page, Doorway Page Defined

Landing Page - A landing page as a page that appears when an online customer clicks on an online ad or a search-engine result link.

The page is suppose to display content that is an extension of the ad the person clicked on.

Start Page - A start page is a page with a lot of links about a specific topic. Sometimes they also include pictures and content with the links.

But start pages can also have paid links on the page. This (the paid links) can be a red flag for Google. If the webmaster hasn't followed the Google rules about paid links than they (Google) will assume the webmaster is buying and selling links for the purpose of search engine manipulation. If Google finds that to be the case, the site may be penalized or the pages will no longer be seen in the Google index.

Doorway Page - Doorway pages are pages that are optimized for a few keywords that is visible only to the spiders, with the sole purpose of leading you to a different central page.

This is how a doorway page works. An individual clicks on a link, lands on the doorway page, and then they are immediately redirected to a different website.

As you can see by the description, doorway are considered spam and a bad SEO practice. In addition, these pages offer little or no content. This, in Google's eyes, is "black hat" tactics to SEO. This too, is another area in which Google closing the door on.

Now that we have the definitions, and a little clearer idea of what a landing page is and is not- we can now discover the uses of a landing page.

Uses of A Landing Page

The basic purpose of a landing page in online marketing is to motivate, to inform, to persuade and to sell the product or service to the visitor that landed on your well-designed page. That sounds, well, pretty straight forward.

To begin constructing your landing page, you need to consider page structure, your words, and your keywords in the total mix. If you do it right you will get sales, or convince someone to fill out a form or survey, etc.

Different Types of Landing Pages

1. A landing page that informs - this is a page that will give individuals valuable information. These are content based pages that has the sole purpose of informing the reader. It also emphasizes advertising-such as Google Adsense, banner ads, etc.

2. A landing page that request some type of transaction- The transaction can be: 1) filling out a form (Insurance companies vying for customers through quotes on their products) or; 2) buying a product or service.

Structure of a Landing Page

When a visitor clicks on your landing page, he/she should see the following structure.

Pre-Headline - This is a simple two line introduction to the landing page, just above the headline.

Headline

The headline should do three important things:
* Grabs the attention of the visitor
* States the purpose of the page
* Compliments and coincide with your banner or ad

You have only one moment to grab the attention of the visitor, thus, the heading should entice the reader to continue on to the next paragraph or subheading. So choose your words, font style (Arial, Verdana are good choices), font size to your advantage.

And remember, if the headline does not compliment or coincide with your banner, ad or ecover, then your target market is gone.

Body Structure

The body should consist of the following:

1) Paragraphs -- Paragraphs should be short with white space. Why? Most people will hit a site, but not read it word for word. Then what do they do? They scan the page. Which brings me to the next important part of a land page—sentences.

2) Sentences – First, sentences should be short, snappy, too the point, and without twenty dollar words. You have to assume scanners are in a hurry; they want the information as fast as you can give it to them without putting them to sleep, and without having to pull out a dictionary. Second, the first sentence of every paragraph should contain the summary of the paragraph. “A Call To Action” (Buy Now! Try Now!) should appear throughout the body of your copy, as well as, at the top and bottom of your page.

3) Bold subheadings – Bold subheadings should identify the topic of the paragraph or paragraphs that rest under the subheading. This will allow the skimmer to read or skip the paragraph – in search of the information they are most interested in.

4) Bulleted Information – Bulleted information is a lifesaver. Bullets help to condense copy into short, thorough, easy to read, sentences without being boring. Utilize them.

Things To Consider

1. Place the most important information above the fold.
2. Avoid distracting material in the sidebars. If the information in the sidebars distracts the visitor – focus is lost and that could mean a lost sale.
3. Add pictures or a form if relevant, but be careful about size.
4. Put your “Call To Action” above the fold, at the end, and balanced throughout the length of your text.

Keywords and SEO

Once the content is completed, then you should make sure that you optimize your landing page for the search engines. Images should have an alt tag description. Try to describe your images with specific descriptions.

Example: If you have a picture of a Schnauzer, put ‘alt=Schnauzer’, not ‘alt=”dog”

Go for the specific description not the generic. Why? If you were looking for a Schnauzer, would you look for dog or Schnauzer. In most cases, I would bet on the Schnauzer, or maybe even Schauzer+dog.

Note: Your landing page content must be keyword rich, but not keyword stuffed.

Keyword rich, as you know, is the means by which the search engines and your targeted traffic can find you.

Keyword stuffing means-that targeted traffic and the search engines will find you, and then, the search engines will penalize you or take your page from the index. This translates very simply: No index=no traffic, means no business.

PPC Ads

If you are writing your landing page for a Google Ad (PPC advertising), again, make sure that your landing page is relevant to your keywords and to the text of your ads. There are two reasons to heed this advice:

1) Your traffic will click away and go elsewhere to find the information they are seeking;
2) Google will penalize you.

Testing Your Landing Page or Pages

Sometimes, in the testing phase people may develop several landing pages for the same product, only varying their copy slightly. If you do this, it would be wise to index only the general landing page and have your robots meta tag include a “NOFOLLOW” so it won’t be indexed – this will prevent the search engines from penalizing you with a duplicate copy penalty on your site.

Though testing both landing pages can give you more accurate stats, you can also test one landing page at a time. Testing each landing page separately for a week. Though this may not give you the most accurate results, it can help you an idea of how your targeted market is thinking or not thinking-whatever the case may be.

Google Adwords Algorithm for Landing Pages

Google now assigns quality scores to landing pages to determine the positioning, pricing, and other factors. When this Google algorithm change first hit the Internet, it hit some established websites hard - decrease in income for some, closing of door for others.

Thus, if you do not want to be penalized with higher bid prices for your keywords, or a shift in page positioning of your ad, you should keep the following information in the back of your mind when developing a landing page.

1) Relevant content
2) Links to page that provide relevant and accurate information related to ad
3) Your landing page should have at least 500 words (which isn’t much).
4) Remove all Adsense ads on your landing page.
5) Your content should be original (if you have a catalog page, have descriptive content with an anchor to differentiate it from links that Google may consider spam.)

If you heed the above advice when developing a landing page, you may be nicely rewarded with a high page quality score along with some other benefits:

1) keyword minimum will decrease
2) Improve position on the content network
3) improved opportunities to get your ads on targeted sites.

Visitor Interaction

You want your visitor to have a positive experience on your site. If they have a positive experience, you may get a return visit and maybe another sell in the future. With that being said, it is advised not to enlist these nasty annoyances.

1. Do not alter browsers behavior or settings, such as eliminating the back button functionality. I've had to close my Internet connection in some cases to get rid of this nuance.

2. Do not automatically install software to visitors site without first telling the visitor or without allowing for the easy removal of the software.

3. Don't send them to a landing page that requires them to register. More times than not, you have lost your visitor. I've encountered this type of landing page several times. I have to say, I did said a few choice words under my breathe, before clicking away. Why? I was looking for information, not wanting to register.

To conclude, landing pages can be your best friend or your worst enemy. Design it correctly, follow the rules, and it will be your successful friend for life.