In my colleague Matt Lester’s recent Search Engine Land column, he discussed ten tips for a more effective paid search campaign. For this article, I’ll follow up Matt’s advice with ten tips to help you develop a more effective search engine optimization (SEO) campaign. But before we dive into the tips, let’s briefly look at what SEO is and its key concepts.

SEO, quite simply, involves designing your website to improve its ranking in organic search results on search engine results pages (SERPs). And by optimizing for terms that your target audience will use to search, you will drive relevant traffic to your site that has a better conversion rate.

The key concepts in SEO (credit to Search Engine Land Features Editor Vanessa Fox for the inspiration on this) are straightforward: relevance, discoverability, and crawlability. Relevance means keeping to a topic and helping the search engine understand what your site is about (ideally it’s about one thing in particular). Discoverability means telling the world about your site. The technical details and environment may have changed, but search marketing is still just marketing. Get your website out there, communicate with the online world and your users. And finally, crawlability means making the site accessible. Search engines regularly send out automated programs called web crawlers, and it’s these crawlers that will visit your site and try to understand your content. Help the search engine crawlers find every page on your site and make sure they can understand what they’re seeing.

And now for the Top 10 SEO Tips:

1. Keyword research is the first step in SEO. Take the time to figure out what words are used by the people you want to visit your site, and then use these words on the relevant page. In particular, make sure you use these keywords in the first few words of your page title because this is the most important bit of the page from a search engine’s perspective.

2. Get trustworthy advice from SEO sources on the web. Unfortunately, not everyone knows as much as they say they do online and far too often SEO forums are full of bad advice; choose your sources well. A few we recommend: Google engineer Matt Cutts’ blog, Search Engine Journal, SEOmoz, and of course, Search Engine Land.

3. Look after your code. This means building a website that is easy for the search engines to understand. Your website should make use of up-to-date technologies like Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to minimize the amount of formatting in the HTML page code.

4. Make navigation easy. You can do this by building clear text links to all parts of your site. Search engines can’t follow image links or clever animated links like Flash; they like their navigation plain and simple—and so do many users.

5. Get links from trusted, relevant sources. Links are like a vote for your site and you can’t rank well without them. Unfortunately, buying links or being indiscriminate in the places you link to and places you request links from is no longer a good way to raise the importance of your site; think quality, not quantity. Links must be relevant to the content of your site and they must be from reputable websites.

6. Build a sitemap page. Building a sitemap helps search engines discover every page in your website. The best sitemaps list the pages in your site along with brief keyword-rich descriptions of the page. If you have too many pages on your site, create as many sitemaps as you need and make sure they’re linked together.

7. Don’t forget the technical stuff. There is a lot happening technically in the background that can cause problems with the way the search engines see your site. For example, if you use a cheap web hosting company, you might be bundled on to the same web server as a pornographic site that Google really doesn’t like—guilt by association. Also, does your website use techniques that search engines don’t like, like certain types of redirection? If in doubt, ask your web design company.

8. Track your progress with a web analytics program. There are lots of options to use; Google Analytics in particular is easy to use, versatile, and it’s free. Web analytics can tell you a great deal about how people interact with your site and how much traffic the search engines are sending you.

9. Tell search engines where you are. You can do this by submitting your site details to search engines. This doesn’t guarantee a better position in the results, but it certainly helps. Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft all have a facility to submit a list of all the pages in your site.

10. Remember that content is king. Building great content and keeping it up to date is the key to SEO. Search engines love sites like blogs, which are highly topical and regularly refreshed. But always remember to put your visitors first—at the end of the day, even a site that ranks well and gets lots of traffic is no good if the visitors don’t like what they see.

As I said, these my top ten SEO tips. There are many others, but these are tried and true methods to get your company moving in the right direction… up to the top of search engine results pages.

Jim Newsome is the Search Manager for Kellysearch.com, a comprehensive online buyers’ guide and vertical search engine, with more than two million company listings from over 155 countries worldwide. The Back To Basics column appears periodically at Search Engine Land.

Chances are, if you’re reading this you’re either running a cost-per-click (CPC) advertising campaign or are considering it. You probably know that CPC advertising involves selecting a set of keywords and writing an ad to appear when someone searches for that keyword in the major search engines. And you’re aware that CPC advertising requires you to set a cost that you are prepared to pay for a click. And you are probably familiar with the benefits of CPC advertising; namely, generating leads, driving sales, and creating brand awareness.

But what you may not know yet are these ten tips that can increase the effectiveness of your CPC campaign, while also helping to keep your search engine marketing budget on track. These tips focus on Google AdWords, but many apply to CPC programs across the board.

Show when it counts. Adjust your campaign to consider user peak times. If your target audience is primarily searching for your products between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. on weekdays, then only show your ads during these times. Within its “Edit Campaign Settings” Google has a handy option called Ad Scheduling, which allows you to automatically turn your campaigns on and off at specific times. What’s more, if there is a peak time of day when your customers tend to search then you can even up the budget at that time and lower it at others.

Choose keywords carefully. Various tools will help find specific keywords or phrases that are being used by your audience. You can pay to use tools such as Keyword Discovery, but a free and easy way to find out is to use Google’s Keyword Tool (accessible when you’re logged in to AdWords). To use it, you type in your term and the tool instantly gives you variations people have searched for, a rough idea of the number of searches, the advertising competition against those terms, and, if you add a max CPC, an estimate of the position and cost for each term.

Select longer tail terms. Another useful aspect of the Google keyword tool is that it can help you find Longer Tail terms. Longer Tail terms are ones that appeal to users searching for very niche or specific items. For example, a generic term from the B2B world would be ‘valve’. A Long Tail term would be ‘pneumatic pilot valve’. If your budget is limited, it is worth avoiding the high cost generic terms and trying to pick up traffic from people doing very specific searches. Not only will the CPC be significantly cheaper, but you’ll tend to find that prospects know exactly what they want, and the quality and number of inquiries resulting from the clicks will be much higher.

Go negative to be positive. Staying with Keywords—think negative! A lot of keywords are included in B2B, B2C, and general social searches. Appearing in the results for anything other than your target market is a waste of time and potentially a waste of money. Adding negative keywords is an ideal way to exclude your campaigns from areas that are not relevant to you and enquiries you cannot fulfill. For example, if your company sells power tools but you don’t rent them, then words like “rent,” “hire,” or “lease” would be your negative keywords.

Think seasonal. Some products are going to be more or less popular depending on certain times of the year due to holidays, weather, or major events. If your business sells seasonable products, it may be worth upping your spend in the months leading up to these high-demand times to reap the extra traffic…and profits. To the same effect, if seasonal keywords are not part of your core business, focus your energy elsewhere until the excitement (and bid price) decreases.

Ad copy is key. You’ve spent ages picking quality keywords and setting up your campaigns and hopefully now your CPC ad appears high on the Search Engines…you’re there in front of your potential customers, so don’t fall at the last hurdle. Ad copy is one of the single most important components in differentiating you from your competitor. To help improve your copy, try Google’s Dynamic Keyword Insertion Tool. Automatically adding the keyword someone searched for into the ad copy is an easy way to ensure relevancy in the eyes of both Google and users, but is no longer the most effective. This is a trick that many people already know and it is therefore overused. Try to use distinctive, even quirky, verbiage to catch your prospect’s eye. Include a major call to action; if you have a unique selling proposition or new offer, say so.

Back it up. Don’t think of your other promotions, be they offline or online, as separate entities. People may see your print ad, for example, and remember the creative and the product you’re selling but not your company name. If they typed your latest marketing slogan into a search engine, would a recognizable CPC ad appear for your company taking them to your site for more information? If not, then you could be missing out. Likewise, the only thing they may remember from your print ad or trade show booth is your company name, so make sure your ads are appearing when someone is searching for you by name (and don’t just bank on your company appearing on the first page of organic results).

Go vertical. Google AdWords allows you to display your ads across their content and partner networks. However, the content network is not always great for the B2B market, as it relies on Google understanding the contextual content of pages and then only bringing your ad back on the pages that are relevant. To make ads more effective, you can specify the sites you wish your adverts to appear on by creating a placement targeted campaign.

Another option for reaching a more focused, relevant audience is vertical search engine advertising. Because of their more segmented nature, vertical search engines reach a very targeted audience, and often produce far better quality traffic at the same or smaller spend levels than you’ll find with their general search engine counterparts.

Go local versus international. Is your business local or international? If it’s international, you may need to set up campaigns on a country by country basis and tailor your keywords and ads to the various languages, time-zones, product variations, specific landing pages, etc. Also, determine your business’s capabilities. If you can only deliver locally, there is no point displaying your ads to the whole US. Google allows you to target your ads (based on users’ IP addresses) to a named state or town, a radius around a specific location, or even a specified geographic area of your choice.

Use CPC management tools (Google AdWords). In addition to Google’s keyword tool, there are two others that are particularly helpful. The first is AdWords Editor. It’s a free tool that offers you great control over multiple and/or large campaigns. The benefits include uploading bulk campaigns and keywords, making multiple changes to any part of the campaign, getting stats across all campaigns, etc. The second tool is Google’s Search Query Performance Reports. These reports show you what people are searching for to trigger your ads, which you can then use to adapt both your CPC words and the content on your site for SEO.

Hopefully you’ve discovered a few new ideas from our list of top tips for effective CPC advertising. Adding these to your repertoire of online marketing tools can help improve your current (and future) online advertising campaigns without expending a vast amount of resources.

Matt Lester is the Search Marketing Executive for Kellysearch.com, a comprehensive online buyers’ guide and vertical search engine, with more than two million company listings from over 155 countries worldwide. The Back To Basics column appears periodically at Search Engine Land.

In September 2007, I was offered the role of ‘Social Media Manager’ at a company in Cape Town, South Africa, which I took without much hesitation. I knew my job would focus on the ‘general’ projects such as proposals, running campaigns, and devising social strategies for clients who had something they wanted to generate a buzz about online. Little did I know I would be training up the other team members completely from scratch on the subject, but I can confidently say it was the most enjoyable part of the job. Here are 15 of the most important things about social media marketing I taught to those completely new to the approach.

1. You must get involved in the top social media sites to understand them thoroughly. My thought process behind this was that the only way to start understanding the type of content that works is by being exposed to the stories, titles, and content on a daily basis. Therefore, this mainly involved using Digg, Reddit and StumbleUpon on a regular basis.
2. You must be a real user. When getting staff to start using these sites I encouraged them to forget about the client side of things. I simply asked that they vote for what they found interesting, whether it be fashion, cars, or music, and then add content submitters as friends if they wanted to read articles on the same subjects. At no point did I tell them to focus on our clients’ needs or topic areas, as then there would be no interest in the social side of social media.
3. Not everything you try will work. I’ve spent hours on a content piece that had all the hallmarks of popular social media content. It was a list post, was relevant to current events, and had a catchy title. Nonetheless, it didn’t make the Digg homepage, received minimal votes on StumbleUpon, and no bloggers really picked it up. Just because the content is good, it doesn’t guarantee success. All pieces of the puzzle have to fit together, and you never know in advance what’s going to click with social media users.
4. Digg failure doesn’t mean campaign failure. I dislike the fact people think Digg *is* social media marketing. What people have to understand is it’s not Digg that can drive the links to your website—it’s the people that notice your content from Digg. Remember, they can notice your content from a lot of other places as well. As an example, two articles that didn’t make it on Digg but attracted a lot of links from social media sites include 50 Beautiful Things You Can Do With Vaseline and The 22 Worst Place Names In The World.
5. Results can’t be guaranteed. If you’re responsible for social media marketing, it’s important to convey to account managers that not everything can go viral. Just because we’ve made the Digg homepage, the StumbleUpon buzz page, or had over 100 bloggers write about an article previously doesn’t mean it will happen again—and we can’t guarantee it for clients. This is very similar to why you shouldn’t guarantee search engine rankings because you can’t control them.
6. Going niche is often better. If I were helping a client to spread an article about environmental issues, I would expect to have much better success on the likes of Hugg and Care2 than I would on Reddit or any other general news sites. Focusing on a niche might send fewer visitors, but these visitors will likely find the content more relevant and are more likely to talk about you and help expose your content to like-minded people.
7. Don’t try to game the systems. Voting submissions between site friends is one thing, but really trying to game the systems with sites like Subvert and Profit will almost always be obvious to the community—and do your clients or your own reputation no good.
8. Respect client brands in the process. When promoting content for huge automotive companies and consulting with them to network with the top bloggers, I made it clear they must never try to force things on people, and our staff must never spam the content anywhere. This could only get ourselves or the brand in trouble.
9. Go light on selling or promotional messaging. Any advertising in content is a huge turn-off to social media users, so minimize anything related to buying or selling products. Instead, make content that’s not directly about a company or product, but rather more of a byproduct of what they are about. For example, don’t write about how great your client’s cars are, but rather about the greatest cars in the world.
10. Engage in communities. Whether this be on social networks, forums, blogs, or social news sites, it’s important to really embrace and engage with communities. From joining groups on Facebook and discussing a topic to leaving comments on blogs or helping users on forums—all of these things can help build online presence and get people to notice what you are all about.
11. Offer people value. Value means different things to different people. Some people want content that makes them laugh; others want to know how they can hack a wireless network. A lot of content you see on Digg and Mixx is created for people on Digg and Mixx, and the authors of the content understand they have to offer value whether it’s in newfound information, an interesting study, or even a funny image people can share with their friends. If you aren’t offering people value you are just marketing at them, not to them.
12. Create something that is honest. Sony was famously outed online when the company created a fake blog called All I Want For Xmas Is A PSP (no longer live), where two people were trying to get others to promote their wish for a PSP. Turns out these people were actors. Sony subsequently was subjected to a backlash of brand bashing, which really highlights the risk involved in a dishonest marketing campaign.
13. Understand the benefits. If I’m asking others to spend a large amount of time engaging in popular sites and watching what content gets a lot of reviews on StumbleUpon and makes the Digg homepage, I need to make sure they understand why they’re doing this and how they (and subsequently, our clients) will benefit. In my initial presentations I explained that doing well on social media sites can easily lead to a lot of traffic and a lot of link potential.
14. Keep track of what is going on. A few months ago, graphic and logo designer David Airey was on the Digg homepage with news of somebody stealing his domain. As soon as he got it back I submitted the news to Digg and it made the homepage as well. I only submitted because I knew the original story had been on there in the first place. Keeping up to date involves knowing what people want to read about, the memes on the web, and new ways or sites that get people’s attention such as Pownce or Mixx.
15. Social media marketing is only one strategy. Although it can bring great results, it shouldn’t be totally relied on and certainly should not replace any existing SEO or PPC campaigns. I am also a fan of ad buy to get people to content that may encourage them to interact with a site.

My December article, Think Beyond The Click: How To Build Landing Pages That Convert, received some great feedback, and raised some questions, so I’ve decided to address a few more important topics about landing pages. Readers commented that the success of a landing page depends on its audience and how many different landing pages are used to educate possible conversions. Many also brought up the issue of tracking the results of a landing page and any promotional campaign you’re running to drive traffic to that page. I’ve decided to dig a little deeper into these issues.

By sharing some insights from a recent marketing campaign that was designed to build awareness and generate leads for our ad sales team, we’ll aim to give you some tips on how developing smarter landing pages can give online marketing a boost.

Landing pages (one or multiple?)

Deciding how many landing pages are appropriate for a product or service can be difficult. In some industries, having multiple pages can be extremely beneficial while other businesses might do better just to have one. To develop a successful strategy, a company must understand its relationship with the audience. If the visitor is likely to know a lot about the product (for example, you’re targeting a group of prospects who have previously expressed an interest in your product), then there may be a need for only one page; however, if prospects are unaware of the product or if the prospects’ relationship with the product is new, multiple landing pages with more information may be necessary to build that relationship and explain the product.

When targeting a diverse group of people, customizing multiple landing pages may be the best option. By using multiple landing pages and also qualifying questions on those pages, marketers can gauge a prospect’s specific interest and then direct them to the most appropriate landing page for their needs. For example, Kellysearch.com’s potential advertisers may be searching for different types of ad campaigns. One prospect may want cost-per-click (CPC) and another one a banner program. They may not even know what online marketing options are available. During its advertising campaign, Kellysearch used banner ads with a series of landing pages, as opposed to just one, to direct prospects to the most appropriate product for their needs. The result was a higher rate of movement through the various landing pages than in previous campaigns.

Tracking & follow-up

If you’re conducting an online ad campaign in order to drive traffic to your landing pages, then it’s important to determine how you’ll measure success for all parts of the campaign. Depending on its goals, a company may measure success in a number of ways, including: impressions, number of times an ad is rendered for viewing; click rates, percentage of impressions that resulted in clicks on an ad; progressions, how visitors move through the series of landing pages; and form-to-lead, the number of visitors who filled in information when they came to a request for information page.

Kellysearch worked with interactive marketing agency Tangible Impact to determine the campaign’s impressions, click rates, progressions, and form-to-lead. By looking at all four metrics, we could determine how many visitors reached the landing page from the banner ads, how many landing pages they visited, and how many visitors to the landing pages completed the lead form. This information is easily broken down and can provide a simple cost-per-lead number to help evaluate the return on investment (ROI) of a campaign. The average form-to-lead conversion was 8.8 percent; however, the traffic coming from one site with a Kellysearch banner ad yielded a 13 percent conversion rate, while another site didn’t yield any conversions.

This conversion information is important for understanding where the potential audience is, where to conduct follow-up campaigns, and what landing pages to use for future campaigns. It can also assist you in negotiating future costs based on the results. Another lesson learned from our campaign was to make sure to keep track of which landing page a lead came from throughout the entire conversion process. Kellysearch tracked its form-to-lead conversions, but when leads were forwarded to the sales reps for follow up, we didn’t track which landing page the leads came from. If you don’t track the source of leads through the entire conversion process, when leads turn to conversions you won’t know which pages had the best final conversion rate.

Testing landing pages

As I’ve mentioned in other articles, it is important to test landing pages before launching the entire project. These tests are small-scale trials to help gauge success. In the banner campaign mentioned above, we started out with a multi-page format. By testing our pages we found that our advertising messaging didn’t carry from the banner through the multiple landing pages. In other words, the message that had initially taken hold of the prospect was lost in the conversion process, and so were some of our prospects. With the testing, we recognized the issue and will make a stronger connection in future campaigns between the banner ad messaging and each landing page.

The most important thing to remember when considering the use of one or many landing pages is the relationship with the audience. While developing one page is the least time and resource-intensive course of action, it may not be the most beneficial if the audience has a diverse set of needs. It is also important to test a campaign to ensure that it resonates with the correct audience. Also, always consider the tracking and evaluation process before you start the campaign. If done correctly, landing pages can provide a thorough and well-developed measure of your success.

Julie Mason is general manager of Kellysearch.com. The Back To Basics column appears periodically at Search Engine Land.

The Nielsen Company recently completed a survey asking consumers their opinions on advertising, including offline and online. When asked “To What Extent Do You Trust the Following Forms of Advertising?”, paid search ads were ranked near the bottom compared to other forms of advertising. This should not come to a surprise to any paid search marketer, but it’s also not bad news, either. Paid search marketing, when done correctly, fills consumer needs.

And if your ads aren’t attracting clicks and conversions, you’re simply not recognizing or filling those needs. Here are a few things to consider if your paid search campaign isn’t delivering the kinds of results you’d like.

Do not make marketing decisions based on consumer surveys

The poor showing of paid search advertising in the Nielsen survey shouldn’t come as a surprise—and the findings are worth very little when it comes to making any major business decisions for search marketers. It is not that I do not believe the numbers—I do. I also believe The Nielsen Company is a very reputable company, and I have no reason to question their numbers.

But there’s a simple unspoken truth that this survey doesn’t address: We all dislike advertising when we do not want advertising.

When someone is asked if he or she trusts advertising, saying “no” seems like a logical choice. We know what consumers think about advertising. I am just as guilty. I change the channel constantly just to avoid commercials. I am also not shopping. This is the very reason mass marketing is dying. Consumers are bombarded with messages that are unrelated to the task they are performing, such as watching TV or driving.

It is true that most users will not click on paid ads. However, as any expert in paid search marketing will tell you, we do not want “most” users—we want buyers. If your paid search ads are targeted with specific keywords and well placed on the search result page, then some buyers will click on your ads.

Advertising works when it’s not advertising

The simple fact is, if done well, advertising works. Not only does advertising work, but paid search marketing provides the best return on advertising spend available. Again, it is important to state: “when done correctly.”

Consumers need advertising. The catch is not to make adverting seem like a nuisance. If a consumer is in the market for “widget A” and an ad for that product is shown to them, then the ad is not a nuisance. In fact, the ad is filling a need to the consumer.

That is what paid search marketing is at its core. Pay-per-click marketing provides a service. It makes it easy for shoppers to find what they want more quickly. Thanks to quality ad scores, consumers today are even getting more of what they want. Paid “spam” ads are not as prevalent as they use to be. This means that consumers are finding useful ads.

I am often told, “Oh, you place those ads. I always ignore those.” It’s a habitual response, just like:

• “I don’t like television commercials.”
• “I never read billboard ads.”
• “I don’t listen to radio commercials.”

Well, for many people those statements are simply not true. Of course you do. We all do. How else would you know what products to buy? It’s not coming to you in a dream. You know because you saw the advertising. The catch was you didn’t even realize it was a “commercial.”

As the title states, if paid search is not working, then you are doing something wrong. Advertising does not get more targeted than paid search marketing. If you can not convert a user to purchase “Widget A” when he is in fact looking to purchase “Widget A,” then clearly you must be doing something wrong. The customer should be seeing your pay-per-click ad as filling a need, not another “commercial.”

I realize there are price constraints that do not allow certain keywords to be purchased and still return a profit. However, there is still a list of niche keywords that can be purchased. There is always an angle that can return a strong profit with pay-per-click. It takes research to find those keywords.

I would love to hear your story. Is paid search not working for you? If it’s not working, share your frustrations over on Sphinn and let the community help you get your campaign on track.

John Ellis is the Senior Online Marketing Manager for ResortQuest Vacation Rentals. The Back To Basics column appears periodically at Search Engine Land.

Landing pages are an important tool in any online marketing campaign. They are one of the best ways to convert web clicks into clients, and can help to maximize your online performance. Here are some tips for getting started and building an effective landing page that meets the needs of your clients.

What is a landing page?

A landing page is a web page that a visitor reaches after clicking an online ad or a link, and contains detailed information about the specific product or service that is mentioned. The landing page should be considered part of the marketing campaign and shouldn’t just be another page on your website.

When you start developing a landing page you should really consider its purpose. What are you hoping visitors will do when they get there? Is your goal to sell a product, help visitors learn more about a service, or do you want them to provide you feedback? All of these goals would need different landing pages.

An effective landing page makes your visitors’ lives easier by providing them all the information that they need without having to scour your site or the web for answers. Using landing pages can significantly impact your conversion rate. A survey by Atlas OnePoint found that the average conversion rate when companies used their homepage as the destination for an advertisement or link was only 6 percent. However, companies that used targeted landing pages had almost double the conversion rate, with 12 percent of their visitors converting.

Landing pages can also improve your search engine optimization because they are filled with keywords about your business or product. Search engines want to provide the most relevant results, so these keyword-rich pages can improve your rank.

How to make a superior landing page

Content is an important part of a landing page, but knowing what to include and what to omit is very important. Your landing page should do one of three things—give your prospect reason to convert, enable them to do so, or resolve any concerns the prospect may have about converting. If any of the information on your page does not accomplish this, then it shouldn’t be there.

The site should provide relevant, focused, and detailed information about a specific product or service. It is most beneficial if this can be included on a single page. According to website optimization firm, Interactive Marketing Inc., this can increase conversion by 55 percent. This information should also be visible “above the fold,” or without the need to scroll down.

It is important to keep in mind who your audience is and make sure that the information you provide is relevant to them. This may mean you need to develop multiple landing pages for a single product. This will allow you to target your message to each specific audience.

Landing pages, as mentioned earlier, have a purpose, either to ask people to buy or to provide them more information—to meet that goal, your page needs to have a call to action. This can be a simple button asking people to purchase a product or click to read a free report. The button should be clearly labeled and should explain what you want customers to do.

Having a well designed page can heavily impact your conversion rate. Eye-tracking studies and other research have given online marketers new information about how users interact with websites.

People tend to look at the upper left hand side first, then at the headline and then at the left side of the page. To maximize your success, the most important information should be in these positions.

Additionally, the look and feel of your page should be consistent with your other marketing materials, and it should appear trustworthy. Users want to see a design that is consistent with the advertisement or link that brought them to your page so they know they’re in the right place. If you change your advertising campaign, you should change your landing page as well.

The impression your site gives visitors is crucial. A Stanford study found that 46 percent of web sales are lost on sites lacking the critical elements to build trust. The number one reason people indicated they don’t buy from a site is because it had an unprofessional look and feel that lacked credibility. Building this trust is crucial if you’re trying to gather personal information about your website’s users. The most common answer submitted on personal information forms online is Mickey Mouse. If you want fewer “Mickey Mouses” on your prospect list, this key is building trust.

The headline and page title on your landing page are very important. The page title is in the bar at the top of your web browser, and the headline is the biggest piece of text on the page. These two items have the greatest potential to impact your conversion rate. Include the keywords or phrases you used in the advertisement to get visitors to the site. Position these items where your eye travels first—the top left of the screen.

You now know the key to developing an effective design and helpful content, but what if you don’t have an in-house web designer or the resources to hire someone to design a landing page for every online marketing campaign? Luckily, there are online sites that help you create your own landing pages relatively easily and inexpensively. These sites don’t require that you know HTML, and designing a landing page can be as easy as creating a PowerPoint slide. For example, Marketo.com offers landing page creation tools and hosting.

Landing page optimization

To improve your landing page—test and test again. There are a few elements that are very important, including load time and headline.

Try to keep load time under 5 seconds. Cater your page to the slowest dial-up connection so as not to lose these visitors. Web analytics software can tell you how many of your visitors are using a slow connection, and a variety of sites, such as iWebTool, offer free tools to test your page load time.

Headlines can alter conversion times, so test a variety of them to see which is most effective. Headlines should tell the benefit to the customer, not necessarily the product features.

A landing page is also a good place to test different prices for your product if you display them online. An Allbusiness.com article about the psychology of pricing noted that prices that end with odd numbers, especially 7s or 9s, tend to be associated with lower prices than even numbers.

Finally, test the call to action to find one that delivers the highest conversion rates. This includes the buttons themselves. Large, red buttons tend to have the best conversion.

Tuning your landing page

Just building a landing page isn’t enough; to be effective, the page must be routinely updated. Updated content can boost your search engine optimization, it can help you track what content generates the best conversion, and it can improve traffic. The more you update, the more reason people have to visit your page. A Marketing Sherpa eye-tracking study showed that consistently updating and tweaking content can increase traffic by 40 percent.

One of the most important things to update is pricing changes. A landing page that misquotes a price will frustrate and most likely turn off a prospect. In a recent survey, Enquiro found that users of B2B websites preferred to see pricing information but it is often unavailable. Supplying a price range may help customers determine if you are within their budget, without requiring you to list specific prices.

Finally, make sure that none of the links are broken and remove any outdated links.

Landing pages are a great way to provide your customers the information they need in one convenient location, and they can help you convert web clicks into clients. While they may take some work to set up and maintain, they can drastically improve your online marketing efforts.

Julie Mason is general manager of Kellysearch.com. The Back To Basics column appears periodically at Search Engine Land.

Our newest Search Engine Land column, Back To Basics, launches today. Back To Basics focuses on the core elements of search engine marketing, from keyword research to understanding web logs, basic search advertising techniques, and more.

In today’s debut article, Julie Mason looks beyond the click to the landing page that users first see when visiting your site after a search, and how to maximize the impact of the experience to gain a conversion, or even better, a customer for life. Read on in Think Beyond The Click: How To Build Landing Pages That Convert.