What are the 13 best practices for optimizing your landing pages? The article delves into the crucial impact of a landing page on the success of a Google Ads campaign, underscoring the significance of keywords, ad copy, and page content. It provides a comprehensive guide on enhancing your landing page for higher conversions, such as accurate conversion tracking, clear call-to-action, keyword integration, informative content, fast-loading speed, responsive design, intuitive navigation, visual appeal, useful footer, product/service showcase, structured content, social proof, and conciseness. The ultimate objective is to refine the landing page to effectively engage and convert the desired audience.
When you get to the point of choosing your landing page for your Google Ads campaign, you might think that the job is done and that the rest is just a formality. Don’t make that mistake! The choice of your landing page plays a major role in your campaign’s performance. The success of your Google campaign is based on three equally important factors:
- Your choice of keywords, which must match the intentions and vocabulary of your audience
- The writing of your ad, which becomes your link between your keywords and your landing page
- The content of your landing page which directly influences the conversion funnel.
Without good keywords, you will not be visible to the right people.
Without good ads, you will not attract the attention of your target audience.
Without a good landing page, you will not be able to convert.
Here are 13 tips to create a landing page that help to boost conversions.
1- Make sure your conversion tracking works
It may seem obvious, but it is something people often forget to check. Make sure that the tracking of your conversions really works. What we mean by “really works” is testing your tracking methodology. Check that it triggers properly, that the attribution is right, and that the data is available in Analytics.
2- Add a call to action above the fold
Think carefully about your call to action so that it matches the exact action you want your target to perform. You also want the wording to be clear and quickly illustrate the added value you have to offer.
For example: you are running a campaign for your new book offering a free preview of it. A call to action saying ‘Contact us’ is not appropriate in this case. ‘Download now’ is certainly not very original; however, it can work in most cases if there is no alternative option. On the other hand, ‘Read the first 4 chapters for free’ would be ideal.
3- Include keywords in your content
Your ad is the extension of your keywords, and your landing page is the extension of your ad. Therefore, there is a direct correlation between keywords and landing pages. To gain more relevance in the eyes of Google (because you send consistent signals to the algorithm) and support the buyer’s journey (because you clearly display the nature of its search), make sure that your landing page contains the main keywords of your ads.
It can be very difficult to use the same landing page across all of your campaigns, so keep in mind variety is key!
4- Respond to the initial request with informative content
Because Google is a platform that brings together both an active search audience and advertizers offering solutions to these searches, it is essential that your landing page is filled with useful information related to the initial query. Users give little of their attention, so be careful not to waste the precious seconds you are given. Be accurate, direct and easily readable. Feature key selling points and/or benefits. Above all, don’t save the best for last. Clearly display what your best advantages are at the top of your page.
5- Have a fast loading speed and a secure website
These are two factors that Google likes to focus on in its quality score analysis. Beyond that, a site that loads quickly reduces the chances of losing the connection with the user between the click and the navigation on the website. Having an https site can have a positive impact on the trust that is perceived by your users.
6- Responsive and mobile-friendly graphic design
Let’s tackle the technical aspects. Your page must absolutely have a responsive graphic design in order to be readable on all devices. With the variety of devices available to people today and the proliferation of users on cross-device buyer’s journeys, it is essential that a website (a landing page in this case) can be navigated with a positive user experience.
7- Make navigation simple and straightforward
Why send traffic to a landing page when you have a whole website at your disposal? Because you want to limit your target’s options to the actions you have chosen. Therefore, if people come across a page with only one form to fill in, they will be much less distracted by a full menu that gives them as many reasons to stray from the campaign objective. At the same time, you don’t want to remove all navigation either, at the risk of taking visitors “hostage” and risking them leaving the page without an action. Ideally, make sure that your menu includes the essentials without adding unnecessary superfluous items to prevent conversions.
8- Give priority to the visuals
A bit like a first impression, you want your visitors’ landing page experience to be relevant and memorable. Be mindful of your aesthetics and graphics to visually entice visitors to stay on your page and explore its content. Use a dynamic structure, highlight certain portions of your text, vary sections with contrasting colours. Above all, give visual coherence to your overall design.
9- Don’t (ever) neglect your footer
A footer serves many purposes! Like displaying company contacts. You will want to add a footer to your landing page. It also allows a company to feature a small description of the company, useful links, and access to social media pages.
10- Showcase your products or services
You only have a few seconds to convince visitors. You may not get a second chance. You therefore have to make the most of the time you’ve got. Don’t skimp on relevant! Showcase your offer with your most beautiful images (avoid images on a white background only), vary the visuals and formats (animations, videos and photos), and above all, play with different contexts for your products. In short, put into action what you have to offer.
11- Structure your content
As previously mentioned, you have to provide relevant information to target audiences. That being said, don’t inundate visitors with too much content. Use titles to highlight benefits and simplify messaging. Don’t be afraid to list valid points and use infographics. The human eye is drawn to lists as they are easy to read. Structure your content to tell a story from the broadest standpoint to the narrow details.
12- Highlight your social proof
Because nothing beats the actions and words of customers: give them a voice. If you have testimonials from your customers, post them. If you have pictures of your customers using your products, share them. If you have awards or a large community, show it. This will give your brand authority and social proof.
13- Keep it short !
Despite what the previous points may lead you to believe, keep your landing page as short and to the point as possible (while respecting the tips in this article). Don’t stray from your goal. Keep your messaging concise; even if you need content to answer potential customers’ questions, don’t go overboard with the content.
For some help in the field or simply to hire a certified agency, contact us!