Know-How Exchange : SEO/SEM

Once you get started and want to get some data to help you track what is working and what is not. Remember marketingprofs offers the "test lab" AB split testing service

https://www.marketingprofs.com/cs/?adref=cs_tnav (scroll to the bottom)

Dear eMarketingGuy,

There's a GREAT guide on landing pages available from MarketingSherpa. I've found the guide to have great tips, and through my own AB testing, I've found the suggestions to be successful.

Some things to note that I've found:

1. Always land the ad respondent on the most appropriate page on your website. As an example, last year, I searched for "cribs" and a Target ad came up. Target's landing page was their home page. How frustrating! I had to then search on Target's site to get to the cribs section. Just like on your website, the fewer clicks it takes to get someone to their destination, the more likely they will convert.

2. Sometimes you may want to design special landing pages -- pages that are not part of your website normally. Studies show that these special, targeted landing pages tend to work better than regular pages on your website. The Sherpa book has great case studies on this. It's worked so well that we now ALWAYS create special landing pages for our PPC clients.

3. You may want to test pages with a navigation and without one. I've found that landing pages that DO NOT contain my regular website navigation converted more people. I believe it's because it presents the person with only ONE call to action, not many other choices to distract them.

4. Use the keyword that the person searched on in the landing page. Leads to more conversions!

5. Use an image if possible.

6. Try to keep the copy short, sweet and to the point.

7. If the goal is to have someone fill out a form, consider putting the form directly on the landing page. Remember -- try to have the least amount of steps possible to get to the conversion.

Lastly, as Carl mentioned, use A/B or multivariate testing. So test several landing page versions at the same time and see which ones work best. Try tweaking all sorts of things, even small things like an image on the left vs. an image on the right. You'll be amazed at the differences you see in conversion rate.

If you have any further questions, feel free to contact me directly as well.

Janet Driscoll Miller
[email address deleted by staff]