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 shoul [...]

Related Topics: Back To Basics | Channel: Analytics | Search Marketing: Landing Pages | SEO: Writing & Body Copy

Your landing page is a key part of any successful paid search campaign, and by now, the value of testing and optimizing your landing pages has become accepted wisdom. However, many testing methodologies—especially multivariate testing—are complex and are only appropriate for sites that get hundreds of conversions a day. Small- and mid-sized companies simply do not have the volume required to achieve statistical significance in a timely fashion except using simpler A/B testing approaches. In this article, I will share a new formula and Landing Page Test Calculator that will tel [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Paid Search | Search Ads: General | Search Marketing: Landing Pages

Since the 1990s, usability experts and site visitors have been chanting the same web design mantra: Make your site easy-to-use, professional... easy-to-use, professional... Research into how people interact with sites shows that visitors make snap judgements—often within seven seconds of landing at our virtual doorsteps. In fact, the Stanford Guidelines for Web Credibility Study found (not surprisingly) people evaluate a site largely on its visual design. If the site looks professional, that look enhances the company's credibility. An outdated, non-intuitive, unprofessional si [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Search Marketing: General | Search Marketing: Landing Pages | Small Is Beautiful

Online maps: we use them everyday for purposes as varied as finding out how to meet our friends at a new restaurant to sending out invitations to our child's birthday party. Maps are valuable graphical presentations of how to get to a certain place. Most companies that depend on local customers are beginning to recognize that including their full physical address as well as a map on their web site is a must. But often, if a map gets included at all, it is slapped on a web page without much thought. With just a bit of effort, you can include maps that are truly useful to your site visi [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Search Marketing: Landing Pages | Search Marketing: Local Search Marketing | Small Is Beautiful

Ever see one of those movies that show some super-secret government agency with plush high-tech interior offices that belie the exterior location? You know the ones I'm talking about. The secret spy base in headquartered in a rundown part of town in a dilapidated building that nobody but a squatter would give a second look. But as the camera moves inside we are shown a state-of-the art facility worthy of a Manhattan high-rise office in the 22nd century. Sometimes SEO is just like that—but the opposite, actually, with companies obsessing over superficial metrics like top ten listings. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Search Marketing: Landing Pages | Small Is Beautiful

Conversion rate improvement, for many of us, is as much a part of the overall process of optimizing a paid search campaign as, say, "off-page factors" are to SEO. Recall the holistic view taken in last month's column, Your Paid Search Performance Is Relative. I spoke about the potential for widening the gap between your company and a competitor by looking beyond just simple bid management, to improving conversion rates, working on the business model, and other larger issues of business process. The end result of doing these things can be a virtuous circle, allowing you to bid higher, to [...]

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

If your goal is to make Google richer with no gain for your yourself, then stop reading. You don't need to worry about landing pages or conversions. But if your goal is to grow your own business using search, then you must pay as much—or more—attention to converting traffic into leads as you do to getting traffic in the first place. To understand how to improve conversion rates for B2B lead generation sites, let's take a look at the search marketing campaign of KAYDON Bearings. I'll analyze and comment on the mistakes they are making (in my opinion), and offer suggestions for [...]

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