March 27th, 2010 by Nick

A homepage is a familiar part of any website, and many people may automatically take ‘landing page’ to mean the same thing whenever they hear of the term. In truth, landing pages are defined as where your website’s visitor lands when he or she clicks on a link to your site. This means that they will not necessarily end up on your homepage, which is a matter of vital strategic importance to search engine optimization. In fact, depending on where the link was directed, the visitor may find themselves on any one of your site’s pages.

The reason that landing pages are so important is that SEO is all about both quality and relevance, and not only to search engines but to the human user as well. In short, if a user does not get the exact thing he is looking for with just one click, chances are that he will quickly leave. Landing pages therefore have a very high stakes, ‘make or break’ quality. A relevant and thoughtfully produced landing page can increase your sales over your homepage, while a badly crafted one can rapidly lose you visitors. As they say, you only get one chance to make a first impression and the content of your page is the major factor here.

There are several qualities that are essential to a landing page that is effective, that is, one that provides a high conversion rate of visits to sales. Above all, your page will need to lead your visitor to do that you desire them to do. All the time, as with other aspects of search engine optimisation, it is important to think not just like a search engine spider but like a user, considering what would lead them to becoming rapidly engaged by, trusting and then investing in your company. Any page on your website that is indexed by search engines could be a landing page, and therefore on a good website subject to SEO. Your landing pages need to be specific, as users with specific requirements will visit them, whether they come from an advertisement, a blog post or a search engine result page.

Landing pages can be optimised in a number of ways. You could make your headlines bolder and clearer, making use of eye-catching supporting imagery. Keeping your language simple, easy to understand, concise and to the point quickly grabs the attention of your visitor. Quickly and visibly list the major reasons why the visitor should invest in your company’s services. Remember to make your landing page look professional, smart and trustworthy.

You will need to ensure that the landing page’s look, content and structure all fit in coherently with the rest of your site, aiding any further navigation that your visitor may require before buying, which should, in the spirit of ensuring that your visitor doesn’t quickly abandon his visit, of course be as little as possible.

For more help and advice on how to create a great landing page, as well as on a range of other search engine optimisation tools and services, just get in touch with SearchEngineOptimization.co.uk today, a professional SEO company.

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