by Daniel Hadaway

In September, Google announced a new factor for landing page quality score that they will be considering when serving up paid search ads. This new factor is whether or not the website for the advertiser is mobile-optimized.

If your website is mobile-optimized, Google is more likely to show your ad higher up in the paid search listings. Google will be determining the quality of your site’s mobile experience based on several factors including:

• Basic Site Navigability
• Prioritization on Content
• Minimal Flash
• Simple Layout
• Mobile-specific Features
• Touch-specific Features
• Landing Page Load Time

The thinking behind this change is that a poor mobile experience will negatively affect a user’s opinion of a brand or company. According to Google, 61% of users are unlikely to return to a website (on a computer or phone!) if they have a poor experience with the site on their mobile phone.

If your website isn’t mobile optimized, and you’re running paid search ads, you may want to consider hiring a professional team to optimize your site. It will lead to more conversions for your business, and a lower cost-per-lead over time!

While efforts can be made to lead a prospect towards doing business with you via Paid Search, Display Advertising, Social Media, and Email Marketing- none of them are as directly responsible for obtaining new customers as a landing page.

So, what makes a great (effective) landing page? While definitely not exhaustive, here is a list of the Big 3 indicators of landing page success. Get these three items in place, and you’ll be well on your way to a land filled with unicorns, double rainbows, and most importantly: full pockets.

1. Obvious Contact Info

It’s amazing how many aesthetically pleasing, and psychologically convincing landing pages are out there that miss out on this simple concept: Make it easy for customers to call or email you!

Many times a prospect is ready to jump, but has that one nagging question that is holding them up; “Can your product do XYZ?”, “How does your service compare to Company X?”. Answering these questions is often the last hurdle you have to overcome before a potential client turns into a customer.

Why not make it easy for a prospect to get that answer? You should put your contact info near the top (preferably in the header) in a large font, with conspicuous placement so it’s impossible to miss! Remember- with a landing page, you’re rolling out the red carpet for potential customers… Above and beyond is the name of the game here, (we can play Hungry Hungry Hippos later).

2. Clear Call to Action

What is it that you want from a prospect? Do you want them to sign up for an email list? Buy a product? Request a brochure? Something else?

Make sure it’s bold and plain-as-day what the next steps are for your prospects. Having a clear call to action is an easy way to achieve that. If you want people to sign up for your email list, you might say “Sign up for our email list!”.

Craft a clear and concise call to action, then place it prominently on your landing page.

3. Simple Means to Act

Once you’ve told a prospect what you’d like them to do via you newly-awesome call to action, it’s time to give them an easy way to do it.

If you have a form to fill out, make sure you aren’t turning people off by how long the form is, or the depth of information required. Only ask for information that is reasonable and necessary for your business to deliver on your end of the deal.

If your call to action is “Request a Free Brochure”, then have a form only asking for a user’s name and address, (or email address if sending it via email).

If you’d like people to visit your full website, make sure you link to it prominently with a button or some kind of contrasting element.

Bonus Tip: Studies show that users like to be led through what they perceive as a process. Try putting an arrow that points to the right alongside your buttons, links, or form-submit buttons. This small addition can have a huge impact on your landing page click-throughs.

While there’s much more to crafting a stellar landing page than just these three concepts, the items listed above are the bare-minimum to ensure some level of success with your landing pages. If your landing pages are missing these items, take a few minutes to add them. You may just find your bottom line growing – and you’ll finally be able to invest in that unicorn farm you’ve been dreaming about.

So you’ve got a killer online display and paid search campaign; or maybe you’re starting to gain traction with an email marketing campaign. Congratulations, you’ve managed to create interest in your product or service and motivate prospects to do something very difficult: take action!

Your next challenge is to motivate your prospects to actually buy into your product or service. If the links in your other marketing campaigns are directing customers to the home page of your website, chances are you aren’t seeing the results you’d like from your marketing campaign.

But don’t worry! You can get the results you want through the use of a well-crafted landing page…

Click here to continue reading –

What is a landing page?

A landing page, also known as a lead capture page, is the page that appears when a potential customer clicks on an advertisement or a search-engine result link. The page will usually display content that is a logical extension of the advertisement or link, and that is optimized to feature specific keywords or phrases for indexing by search engines. Basically, it’s a web page custom-tailored to customers coming in through an advertising campaign.

3 Tips to Maximize Your Landing Pages

1. Don’t Give Users a Choice!

While you may have 5 different product options or service plans, you should focus on one option that you will push on your landing page. Studies show that if people feel there are too many choices to consider, they simple won’t choose one at all.

You can still list other options, but make sure one stands out visually from the rest. That way, customers can still choose the option that suits them. If they’re confused, you’ve provided a suggestion that will keep them from choosing none of them!

2. Lasso Eyeballs!

Usability studies and eye-tracking research shows a clear pattern in the way people scan the contents of a web page. Their attention always goes first to the boldest or most contrasting visual element of a page.

What is the one element of your landing page that you want people to focus on? Take that element and surround it in a contrasting color. If you aren’t comfortable changing the colors on your landing page draw an arrow to it, put a circle around it, or put a big check mark next to it… Do something bold to lasso those eyeballs and make sure they see what you want them to see!

3. Show the Next Step

People lose interest fast. No matter how compelling your content is, people simply lose interest after a few seconds. Now, to clarify, they aren’t necessarily losing interest in your product or service, but they quickly grow weary of all of the content on a page if they feel it isn’t leading somewhere. Many people visiting your landing page are already sold on what you have to offer and just want you to get to the point.

A great way to cater to impatient readers is to prominently display the response mechanism that allows them to take the next step in the process. This can be a contact form, a phone number, an email address or even a coupon that can be printed out. This will make users feel as though they are moving forward in a process and are not just being sold to.

These are just a few little additions/changes you can make to your landing pages that will increase conversion rates. If you’d like help crafting your landing page or want a custom landing page from the ground-up, visit our website here and click “Contact”.