Building a Landing Page

Last week, we discussed the importance of a landing page to an SEM campaign; today we will expand upon creating a landing page that improves your Quality Score.

As a refresher I would recommend re-watching the Hal Varian video.



When Hal Varian discusses landing pages you will notice he mentions three things that a landing page should be:  Filled with relevant and original content, easily navigable and transparent.

Relevant and Original Content

A good start would be a company profile section stating what it is your company provides to consumers.  When creating the language of your profile keep in mind the words and phrases you are targeting in your SEM campaign.  If you are a recruiting agency, targeting the search queries "data security analysts" and "java programmers" then a good idea for your landing page might be a section called "Current Opportunities" and listed in it are: data security analysts and java programmers.  For original content, consider a video and photos but make sure they are small and easily loaded so you do not hurt the easily navigable portion of your landing page.  Other good ideas include a map and hours of operation. Lastly, make sure you have a call to action. For a lot of businesses the best call to action remains a phone call. If this is the case place a large "CALL US TODAY...###-###-####" button in a clear and obvious position on your landing page.

Easily Navigable

With a landing page "less is more" is often the case.  You want your landing page to be straightforward and to the point.  Place the link to your website in a very clear and obvious spot.  If you are using multiple tabs on your landing page, ensure that every page is easily found and keep the content as condensed as possible on each page.  Lastly, I'd advise against using flash.

Transparent

Similar to content, in that your landing page should demonstrate exactly what it is you do.  The key to keep in mind, is that SEM campaigns like any other search, work best when:  The consumer, search engines and the advertiser are all working together to ensure that; the consumer finds what he wants, the search engine returns what the consumer wants and the advertiser appears for those who are looking for them.