Oh Landing Pages, Oh Landing Pages — How I Love Those Landing Pages! Ok — enough of my “singing in the shower” routine. 🙂 In all seriousness, I really do love Landing Pages. Why? I thought you’d never ask! Landing Pages are the “triple threat” of Web Marketing — (1) they help you convert more visitors into leads & buyers, (2) they help you rank highly on search engines for target keyword phrases, and (3) they provide some very juicy content for attracting highly valuable inbound links to your website. So for all of these reasons, today I’m providing you with my top 10 tips for creating stronger Landing Pages on your website. Away we go…
1. Write content for readers, not robots.
Let’s start here. If you really want your Landing Pages to have the “oomph” they need to convert those tire-kickers into wallet-grabbers, you’re going to need good content. The biggest mistake people make when creating Landing Pages is they write for search engine robots and end up “over-optimizing” every page to read like a garbled piece of search engine rubbish. Don’t do it! You’ve been warned.
2. Stick to about 1,000 words for most landing pages.
Yes, it’s true. You need about 1,000 words of copy on each Landing Page — or more! Start with around 1,000 words of high-quality content on each page and build from there to improve your conversion rates and your search engine performance.
3. Include multimedia in every landing page.
Don’t stop at just adding text. Add multiple images, charts, graphs, videos, and anything else you have in your marketing arsenal to make the page really POP! Again, this is for your prospects & customers FIRST but it will also aid in your SEO quest.
4. Use lots of subheadings for readers & robots.
Create some structure on every Landing Page. Make good use of H1, H2, and H3 tags to make your page easy-to-read and easy-to-scan. You want it to look visually impressive to your visitors, and you want it to be logically structured for those pesky little Google bots.
5. Share your landing pages on social media.
This is a definite definite must. You should be sharing your Landing Pages repetitively on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Plus, and Pinterest (the big 5 social networks) and any other networks that make sense for your type of business. Those social signals help drive new eyes to your pages and they help build your overall web marketing footprint.
6. Include lead generation forms on every landing page.
Duh! This is a no-brainer but I wanted to be sure I include it because it’s remarkably common for people to leave it out. Make sure you have more than just your phone number visible on each page. You need forms that are easy-to-see and easy-to-complete.
7. Add a very clear call to action.
Be sure your visitors actually know what to do next on your Landing Pages. “Fill Out This Form” or “Pick Up The Phone And Call Us Right Now” — these are the types of statements you should be making multiple times on every Landing Page you publish.
8. Highlight the features and benefits of your product or service.
Features are good, but this is only the starting point. Really focus on BENEFITS too. This is “Copywriting 101” stuff. If you don’t already know about the difference between features and benefits, read this great Features vs. Benefits article right now.
9. Make your pages easy-to-read and easy-to-scan.
I mentioned this in #3 above but it should be a separate item on your Landing Page Checklist. Take time before you publish to ensure it just looks good.
10. Create targeted landing pages for every product or service.
Finally, don’t stop at just one or two Landing Pages. You should have one unique Landing Page for every single product, service, or special offer you have.
Well, that’s 10. To be honest, the rabbit hole goes much deeper than this. But it’s a solid start!
What else would you add to the list? Please leave your comment below.