When the iPhone was first released, everyone marveled over its amazing simplicity and user experience. The world fell in love, and the mobile industry was changed overnight. Other phones, if they weren't smartphones, were suddenly viewed as cheap and not very useful. We have all experienced this same truth at the websites we visit. We inherently equate a great design with an upstanding company and a bad design with a company not quite as reputable or as good. [caption id="attachment_158424" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Image via Shutterstock[/caption] Because of this reality, buil [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | How To | Search & Conversion | Search Marketing: Landing Pages | SEO - Search Engine Optimization

When faced with creating a conversion-focused SEO landing page, what should our copy focus on? There are so many things we can do -- so many directions we can go -- that it becomes hard to know what to choose. Do I go with statistics or stories? Facts or feelings? Data or discounts? If one of these is good, isn’t a mix of all of them better? Blending Content Types Doesn't Work We know we're blending when we start adding adjectives to our sentences. "Our solution is the most cost-effective, easy-to-use, colorful, highest-intensity, waterproof, process-oriented available on the mark [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Search & Conversion | Search Marketing: Landing Pages | SEO: Writing & Body Copy

For many years, I've been participating in sessions/panels in which I critique PPC landing pages volunteered by audience members. As crowds go wild for this type of session, I've decided to use this space to focus on effective landing page elements and provide several examples thereof. #1 Use Credibility Indicators Include credibility indicators on your landing page such as testimonials, reviews, awards, social media information (Facebook likes, number of tweets, etc.), and seller ratings (on Google, this info is pulled from Bizrate and other rating sites). Here are some specific ideas [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | How To: PPC | Paid Search | Search Marketing: Landing Pages

Annual US retail spending is roughly $4 trillion according to the US Commerce Department. And while e-commerce is growing very rapidly, it remains less than 5 percent of total retail sales. Historically, most search marketers have focused almost exclusively on e-commerce sales. But a new study finds that the real impact of paid search is offline. Six-to-One Impact in Offline Stores Based on two years of research conducted by retail marketing firm RevTrax, the study discovered that "for every $1 of e-commerce revenue generated from paid search, marketers can expect to see approximately anothe [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Search Marketing: General | Search Marketing: Landing Pages | Search Marketing: Local Search Marketing | Search Marketing: Shopping Search Marketing | Top News

For a long time, I thought utilizing a strong Landing Page Optimization program was only available to large companies with large budgets. The software to create landing pages on the fly by keyword is pricey, and the learning curve is significant. If you have the time, budget and manpower to utilize a design team and software that builds a landing page for every paid, organic, social and email marketing keyword or blast you send -- Awesome! The reality is, most of us do have time and budget limitations. Getting permission to spend thousands on software isn't likely, but that doesn't mean [...]

Related Topics: Beginner | Channel: Analytics | How To | How To: PPC | Search Marketing: Landing Pages

Billing itself as one of the "best kept secrets in Silicon Valley," Adchemy is a technology provider that promises to help search marketers "dynamically" create more relevant ad copy and landing pages at scale. The company recently released its WordMap application, which is intended for very large campaigns with millions of keywords but where the ad copy and landing pages are more general and thus unable to reflect the variety and nuance of the more specific associated keywords. Adchemy says that it can "dynamically generate tens of thousands of paid-search ads directly related to intent [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Search Marketing: General | Search Marketing: Landing Pages | Search Marketing: Local Search Marketing | Search Marketing: Search Term Research | SEM Tools: Keyword Research

Many search marketers have experimented with call tracking and measurement as a way to capture online-to-offline consumer activity and determine which ads and campaigns are generating calls. But there has also been debate about whether unique phone numbers required by call tracking harms SEO especially for local advertisers. Some new developments in the field make a compelling argument for call tracking and analytics, at the very least among enterprises or large advertisers trying to generate calls to call centers. Search marketing platform Kenshoo earlier this summer introduced what it cal [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Google: AdWords | Search Marketing: General | Search Marketing: Landing Pages | Search Marketing: Local Search Marketing | SEM Tools: Keyword Research | SEM Tools: Web Analytics | SEO: Local

Welcome to Search Engine Land's newest column, Conversion Science. Here we'll focus on the Three M's—methods, math and marketing, all beautifully intertwined—for maximizing the quantity and quality of your conversions through search and search-related media. To kick things off though, I'm going to debunk a common misunderstanding about doing things "scientifically" and reveal why marketers have a far greater advantage in this arena than you might realize at first. The scientific method Back in high school, you probably learned about the "scientific method." It's the system [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Search & Conversion | Search Marketing: Landing Pages

Heatmapping tool Feng-GUI helps graphic design and conversion optimization professionals gain that much-needed distance from their work. The tool lets you upload an image and the software returns an attention heatmap overlaid on the image—even without any people having seen the image! This is called predictive heatmapping. So how does it work and what good is it to you? The answers to that plus some real case studies, after the jump. What is an attention heatmap? An attention heatmap is a combination of two elements: eye-gazing, and predicted attention. Eye-gazing simulates [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Search & Usability | Search Marketing: Landing Pages

There are quite a few testing techniques available in the market. In this post I will dwelve into the two commonest testing methods: A/B tests and Multivariate tests. What is the difference between them? How can you choose which one best fits your needs?

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Google: Website Optimizer | How To: SEM | Search Marketing: Landing Pages

Search marketers can learn a lot from scientists. Scientists spend their life testing things, one after the other, incessantly trying to discover new interactions between atoms, molecules, viruses, bacteria, etc. One of the greatest scientists of all time, Albert Einstein, said, "A theory is something nobody believes, except the person who made it. An experiment is something everybody believes, except the person who made it." Want everyone to believe in your website? "Experiment" with it—in other words, test it and tune it for optimal performance. Websites are laboratories, not sculpt [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | How To: Analytics | Search Marketing: Landing Pages | SEM Tools: Web Analytics

All landing page tests are not created equal. What you test on your pages—and what you learn from those tests—can better inform tactics and strategies throughout your entire marketing program. Here are four kinds of landing page tests that can help you learn about your market. Beware butterflies and magic bullets How much can you learn from landing pages? Some landing page optimization experts will warn you about reading too much into the results of a particular landing page test. There are often multiple factors at play in a given experiment, and it can be difficult to pr [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | How To: SEM | Search Marketing: Landing Pages

Are your landing pages feeling tired? Is your conversion rate stagnant? Not quite sure what to try next? To re-energize your post-click marketing, it can help to step back and evaluate your approach from several different perspectives. Here's a quick exercise, the Landing Page Wonder Wheel—as in, "I wonder how to improve my landing pages?"—that can give you fresh inspiration. The Landing Page Wonder Wheel consists of eight dimensions on which you rate your current landing page creative and management capabilities, on a scale of 1 to 10. A 1 means you're not doing very well there, [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | How To: SEM | Search Marketing: Landing Pages

Over the past year, the term "post-click marketing" has come up more frequently in search marketing discussions, especially in the context of improving conversion rates and overall search ROI. At SMX West earlier this month, Gordon Hotchkiss of Enquiro unequivocally declared that post-click marketing moves the needle for their clients more than any other aspect of search marketing. So what exactly is post-click marketing and how can you leverage it in your search marketing program? Here's a brief introduction. Post-click marketing > landing pages The simplest definition of post-cli [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Features: Analysis | Search Ads: Behavioral Targeting | Search Marketing: Landing Pages

My earlier article, A Completely Different Kind of Landing Page Optimization, discussed the rationale for delivering segment-specific landing pages to different niche audiences in your search marketing. Instead of having a one-size-fits-all landing page that you try to continually optimize ad nauseum with different variations of content (headline, body copy, image), segment optimization focuses on building separate pages for each distinct group in your audience. Having segment-specific landing pages is straightforward when you can identify segment-specific keywords. But what if you can't un [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | How To: PPC | Search Marketing: Landing Pages

What exactly is landing page optimization? For most search marketers, optimizing landing pages means A/B testing and multivariate testing (MVT). It means using tools such as Google Website Optimizer to experiment with different arrangements of a page - or different variations in the content of a page - to maximize its conversion rate. We may ask questions about many different elements of a page. Which headline works best? Is the offer button better with "complimentary shipping" or "free shipping"? Does a picture of the product compel more people than an image of a friendly customer service [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | How To: PPC | Search Marketing: Landing Pages

One of the reasons that "local search" has struggled in some quarters has been the challenge of tracking the internet's influence on in-store or local transactions. This is a theme I heard raised by large retailers at a ShopLocal partner event a couple of weeks ago and one that came up several times in various contexts at SMX Local-Mobile. Marchex is seeking to address that challenge with the integration of the company's various advertiser-facing assets and technologies in a single toolset that offers enhanced tracking capabilities. The company is calling this a next-generation local advertis [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Search Marketing: Landing Pages | Search Marketing: Local Search Marketing

Driving prospects to your website is only half the battle. What can B2B marketers do to entice visitors to take desired online actions...and improve conversion rates? Here are eight easy-to-implement tips designed to improve landing page relevance, persuade action, build credibility, and maximize response rate. Improve relevance. Searchers like nothing more than to see an ad or a natural search listing that exactly matches their query. And it's even better when these same words are visible on the page they click through to. A tight alignment between a searcher's query, the search li [...]

Related Topics: B2B Search Marketing | Channel: Analytics | Search Marketing: Landing Pages

Do you want to know how to reduce your cost per conversion by up to $10.67 and improve your quality score at the same time? Let me tell you a story about how I used two easy landing page optimization tricks to do just this. Shorter forms reduced cost per conversion by $10.67 For context, my company provides on-demand marketing software including lead management and landing page optimization. One of my jobs is to generate qualified leads for the sales team by sourcing prospects using Google AdWords (as well as other channels) and nurturing the prospects until they are qualified leads. [...]

Related Topics: B2B Search Marketing | Channel: Analytics | Search Marketing: Landing Pages

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 [...]

Related Topics: Back To Basics | Channel: Analytics | Search Marketing: Landing Pages