Your Landing Page!
Hi All,
We all have landing or "sales" pages. A lot of us spend a great deal
of time creating the BEST possible, one that will immediately cause
visitors to purchase your product or service. However sometimes
THAT is not the case.
The other day I came across this great article that just may help:
______________
Landing Page Usability: More Than Just The Curiosity Factor.
By Frederick Townes (c) 2006
A landing page is the page that visitors first see after
becoming curious enough to click on a link to your site. The
link may be found on search engine results pages, within a
specifically-targeted email, on the site's navigation toolbar
or within another website.
In many cases, these are links you pay for. The organic results
delivered by SERPs are free, but, unless your site appears on
the first two pages, it's unlikely that visitors will connect.
In many cases, the landing page is the site's home page - but
not always, even within SERPs. Landing pages can appear anywhere
within a web site.
Paid Links Demand ROI
If your landing page receives prominent display within search
engine results pages, congratulations. Upward of 50% of visitor
traffic found that landing page through an SE query. However,
only 20 to 25 sites can appear on page one of Google's SERPs.
What about the other 10,000 links Google delivers to its users?
Often, smaller sites employ paid links to drive site traffic.
Google Adwords, for example, is a PPC (pay per click) means of
building business. The important point is this: PPC programs
have to more than pay for themselves in order for your site to
remain a viable business.
Any form of paid linkage to one of your landing pages must
deliver a nice ROI. And to do that, you need a fully-usable,
engaging landing page. Otherwise, visitors won't stick around
long enough to read about your low prices and free shipping.
The Purpose of the Landing Page
While all site pages have a purpose (at least on well-designed
sites) a landing page typically has a special or singular
purpose: to sell a particular item, to announce a product sale,
to entice visitors to opt in, complete a questionnaire or
perform some other MDA (most desired action).
First determine the MDA the landing page addresses. Then, design
everything - from headlines and text to graphics and pictures -
to support the completion of the MDA.
Try to keep to one MDA per landing page. Again, the landing page
has a specific purpose. Extraneous information, slow-loading
videos and a confusing call to action are distractions, along
with affiliate links, text links and unnecessary animations. All
distract the attention of the viewer from your MDA.
Landing Page Design Principles
1. Create a headline that accomplishes the following:
- tells the visitors that they're on the right page;
- clearly states the purpose of the landing page - the MDA;
- engages the visitor, piques interest, encourages the reader
to continue.
The headline should be a grabber and appear "above the fold" -
the top of your home page. That's the most valuable real estate
on your site.
2. Use short blocks of text and single sentences surrounded by
negative space (white). Visitors tend to scan rather than read
the entire page, even if the text is pure poetry.
3. And because readers scan instead of read site text, use lots
of headers, sub-heads and bullet lists.
4. The first sentence of each block of text should provide the
critical information you want to impart, again because visitors
scan, often reading just the first sentence of a paragraph or
block of text.
5. Employ an unambiguous call to action. "Order Now!" "Call now
before you forget!" Leave no doubt what action is expected of
the visitor. Calls for action can appear throughout the landing
page text and a call to action should be the last thing visitors
read.
6. Choose a type font that's easy on the eyes. Avoid script fonts
and fonts with lots of curly-Qs.
7. If the landing page sells one or more products, provide
visitors with pictures of the products.
8. Prices, including shipping and handling costs, should appear
below the fold. But they should definitely appear.
Creating a Prominent Landing Page
If your landing page is also the home page, by definition
it has prominence to visitors and to search engine spiders.
However, if your landing page or pages are within the site,
it's important to make sure search engine spiders recognize
the importance of this page within the site - its prominence.
Spiders use a number of criteria to determine a particular
page's prominence within the context of the entire site.
Location is one criterion - the more clicks away from the home
page, the less prominent - at least to the limited capabilities
of current search engines.
Text is another criterion used to assess prominence. Keywords,
keyword density and an automated comparison of keywords in the
text against keywords in various HTML tags is another indicator
of a page's prominence.
Finally, the number of links pointing to a particular page is
an important factor in assessing page prominence. The more links
connecting other pages to your landing page, the more prominent
it will be to search engines when your site is indexed.
This is especially important when landing page product offerings
differ significantly from other products sold on the site. Search
engines employ a mathematical taxonomy to classify each site
within a particular category. So, if you market educational toys
but introduce a landing page offering children's books, it's
important for search engines to reevaluate the site's taxonomy
and to expand the site's classification to include 'sellers of
children's books'. One way to do this is to create links within
the site all pointing to the landing page.
Landing pages are useful as motivators, as site directories,
information sources and for many other valuable purposes.
However, the development of an effective landing page takes
careful thought and an understanding of what drives both
humans and search engine spiders.
Generate increased site traffic and improve your conversion
rate with a well-designed, well-written, well-placed and
well-connected landing page on your site.
==========================================
Frederick Townes is the owner of W3 EDGE Web Design.
W3 EDGE specializes in custom business web design and development, providing bleeding edge solutions to fit needs from small static sites to large dynamic sites requiring a fully customized CMS system. Contact them today to find out how W3 EDGE can help you make the most of your online
presence.
========================================+
We all have landing or "sales" pages. A lot of us spend a great deal
of time creating the BEST possible, one that will immediately cause
visitors to purchase your product or service. However sometimes
THAT is not the case.
The other day I came across this great article that just may help:
______________
Landing Page Usability: More Than Just The Curiosity Factor.
By Frederick Townes (c) 2006
A landing page is the page that visitors first see after
becoming curious enough to click on a link to your site. The
link may be found on search engine results pages, within a
specifically-targeted email, on the site's navigation toolbar
or within another website.
In many cases, these are links you pay for. The organic results
delivered by SERPs are free, but, unless your site appears on
the first two pages, it's unlikely that visitors will connect.
In many cases, the landing page is the site's home page - but
not always, even within SERPs. Landing pages can appear anywhere
within a web site.
Paid Links Demand ROI
If your landing page receives prominent display within search
engine results pages, congratulations. Upward of 50% of visitor
traffic found that landing page through an SE query. However,
only 20 to 25 sites can appear on page one of Google's SERPs.
What about the other 10,000 links Google delivers to its users?
Often, smaller sites employ paid links to drive site traffic.
Google Adwords, for example, is a PPC (pay per click) means of
building business. The important point is this: PPC programs
have to more than pay for themselves in order for your site to
remain a viable business.
Any form of paid linkage to one of your landing pages must
deliver a nice ROI. And to do that, you need a fully-usable,
engaging landing page. Otherwise, visitors won't stick around
long enough to read about your low prices and free shipping.
The Purpose of the Landing Page
While all site pages have a purpose (at least on well-designed
sites) a landing page typically has a special or singular
purpose: to sell a particular item, to announce a product sale,
to entice visitors to opt in, complete a questionnaire or
perform some other MDA (most desired action).
First determine the MDA the landing page addresses. Then, design
everything - from headlines and text to graphics and pictures -
to support the completion of the MDA.
Try to keep to one MDA per landing page. Again, the landing page
has a specific purpose. Extraneous information, slow-loading
videos and a confusing call to action are distractions, along
with affiliate links, text links and unnecessary animations. All
distract the attention of the viewer from your MDA.
Landing Page Design Principles
1. Create a headline that accomplishes the following:
- tells the visitors that they're on the right page;
- clearly states the purpose of the landing page - the MDA;
- engages the visitor, piques interest, encourages the reader
to continue.
The headline should be a grabber and appear "above the fold" -
the top of your home page. That's the most valuable real estate
on your site.
2. Use short blocks of text and single sentences surrounded by
negative space (white). Visitors tend to scan rather than read
the entire page, even if the text is pure poetry.
3. And because readers scan instead of read site text, use lots
of headers, sub-heads and bullet lists.
4. The first sentence of each block of text should provide the
critical information you want to impart, again because visitors
scan, often reading just the first sentence of a paragraph or
block of text.
5. Employ an unambiguous call to action. "Order Now!" "Call now
before you forget!" Leave no doubt what action is expected of
the visitor. Calls for action can appear throughout the landing
page text and a call to action should be the last thing visitors
read.
6. Choose a type font that's easy on the eyes. Avoid script fonts
and fonts with lots of curly-Qs.
7. If the landing page sells one or more products, provide
visitors with pictures of the products.
8. Prices, including shipping and handling costs, should appear
below the fold. But they should definitely appear.
Creating a Prominent Landing Page
If your landing page is also the home page, by definition
it has prominence to visitors and to search engine spiders.
However, if your landing page or pages are within the site,
it's important to make sure search engine spiders recognize
the importance of this page within the site - its prominence.
Spiders use a number of criteria to determine a particular
page's prominence within the context of the entire site.
Location is one criterion - the more clicks away from the home
page, the less prominent - at least to the limited capabilities
of current search engines.
Text is another criterion used to assess prominence. Keywords,
keyword density and an automated comparison of keywords in the
text against keywords in various HTML tags is another indicator
of a page's prominence.
Finally, the number of links pointing to a particular page is
an important factor in assessing page prominence. The more links
connecting other pages to your landing page, the more prominent
it will be to search engines when your site is indexed.
This is especially important when landing page product offerings
differ significantly from other products sold on the site. Search
engines employ a mathematical taxonomy to classify each site
within a particular category. So, if you market educational toys
but introduce a landing page offering children's books, it's
important for search engines to reevaluate the site's taxonomy
and to expand the site's classification to include 'sellers of
children's books'. One way to do this is to create links within
the site all pointing to the landing page.
Landing pages are useful as motivators, as site directories,
information sources and for many other valuable purposes.
However, the development of an effective landing page takes
careful thought and an understanding of what drives both
humans and search engine spiders.
Generate increased site traffic and improve your conversion
rate with a well-designed, well-written, well-placed and
well-connected landing page on your site.
==========================================
Frederick Townes is the owner of W3 EDGE Web Design.
W3 EDGE specializes in custom business web design and development, providing bleeding edge solutions to fit needs from small static sites to large dynamic sites requiring a fully customized CMS system. Contact them today to find out how W3 EDGE can help you make the most of your online
presence.
========================================+
posted by JJ Wright at 8:09 AM
0 comments
Ping your blog!