80 percent of all sales on the internet start as the result of an organic search, hence the importance of optimizing landing pages to drive sales of our products or services.
As designers, our efforts must work well with content creators and marketing strategists who target the right audience through their SEO efforts so that search engine results will lead searchers to the right place to find the relevant data for which they were searching.
Whether a visitor comes to a landing page as the result of an organic search, which is a self-initiated search or due to a non-organic search as the result of a clicked advertisement or pay-per-click PPC, we must convert that search into an answer to our call-to-action (CTA).
Things to consider while optimizing the landing page:
Since none of us have a crystal ball to determine what the visitor’s initial search was related to, we must utilize Google Analytics to discover what that was, as well the probable reasons for high bounce rates and low landing page conversions. And then, utilize that data to optimize our landing page to improve sales. The key optimization techniques to focus on are the following:
- Reduce load times
- format content to point to “hot” sale items using keywords relevant to the product
- utilize internal links
- create exceptional meta tags & descriptions
- make the most of trust signals: favorable comments and testimonials
- include a call-to-action within content utilizing links
- match images and captions on the landing page to images on the product page
High bounce rates that are not caused by long loading times, most only wait 2 or 3 seconds, are directly attributable to improper use of keywords that can add additional costs to PPC.
A sure fire way to avoid high bounce rates is to provide the reader with rich content that is relevant to their search. If the reader is genuinely interested in the content, there is a strong likelihood they will stay longer and engage internal links to “hot” selling products or services, which should translate to a sale.
Using internal links while matching images and captions on the landing page to exact matches of images and captions on the product page lets the reader know immediately that their click took them to the page they wanted to go to so they could view the product or service for which they had an interest.
Closing the gap
We must measure how our efforts integrate with other methods contained in the overall marketing strategy, and then consider how the performance of those efforts stacks up versus actual sales. How our efforts convert visits to cash or contacts.
We must bridge the gap between how our content performs with the opportunities provided as the result of SEO efforts that translate into visits and how the content on our landing page translates to sales, whether it is our Home page, a blog spot, or product pages.
In order to truly close that gap, optimization efforts must point readers to product pages that relate to their search. Only then will a true conversion occur, whether that conversion is simply getting the visitor’s email for follow-up or a direct sale, that visit must be of some value to the website’s business.
Once that visit occurs, we have only seconds to spark the visitor’s interest enough to stay. And, once they decide to stay, our content must lead them to the place they came to visit in order to build a solid relationship between the visitor and the product or service offered. Without a trusting relationship between the visitor and the brand, in most cases they will leave without registering.
The time and effort that went into the SEO endeavors of the writers and market strategists must be borne out through the conversion efforts of the designers through landing page optimization with the ultimate goal of an answer to a call-to-action.
