Landing pages are the place where it all begins for your customer. Or ends, depending on how well the page performs. Want your pages to do their duty? Then let’s begin, shall we…
We started off earlier this week looking at how to find landing pages worth fixing (as well as demonstrating our most important landing pages by way of example the day before that).
But once you have figured out what pages you’re going to fix, what do you do? Easy. Just follow these 4 steps:
- First, find out where your traffic is coming from. I showed you how to find your Top Landing Pages yesterday. Now, in Google Analytics, click on the link for the first page you’re going to work on. Check out the Entrance Sources for the page (other analytics programs offer similar functions). In the example below, most of the traffic (88%!) comes from search:
- If, like the example above, most of your traffic comes from search, check out the Entrance Keywords report. It will show you which terms your customers are using most often to get to this page. If the traffic isn’t coming from search, you’ll need to visit the linking sites driving the highest traffic to see what their link text is. In either case, make a list of the top words customers use to find you. I cannot emphasize that enough. These terms are half the battle.
- Work from your list and incorporate those terms into your title, copy and call-to-action. This does not mean “keyword stuff.” The point isn’t to load the page up with the word (remember, you already rank for it or draw traffic because of it); you’re trying to guide the visitor through using their own words.
For example, if your top term is “affordable office furniture,” be sure your headline is (something like) “Affordable Office Furniture from $99″ and that your call-to-action includes “affordable office furniture” too. “Shop Now” is good. “Shop for Affordable Office Furniture” is better. (Though testing which one works better is always best).
- Finally, it’s not enough to get visitors to want to buy. They also have to want to buy from you. So, as you’re improving the page’s relevance using the technique above, you also want to improve your customer’s trust in you. How can you do that? unbouce has a great list of simple techniques that will improve your customer’s trust.
Getting customers to engage with your brand requires getting them to stay on your site. These four tips are the beginning of building that engagement. They’re not fool-proof; bad design, copy or call-to-action can still kill you. But they’re the first step into getting your landing page to work for you.
Did I miss something that’s working for you? Tell us all about it in the comments.
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I get asked all the time, “what’s the most amazing thing you’ve seen lately?” And I’m continually amazed by how often I have I am amazed. What amazes me:
I could go on.
The point is, magic happens. Sometimes, as with The Beatles Sgt. Pepper or Joss Whedon’s Dr. Horrible’s Sing-along Blog, in the name of art. Or Art. And sometimes, as in the examples above, in the name of commerce. But always in the name of taking people – your listeners, your viewers, your customers – somewhere new. Teaching them something. Making their dreams real.
Seth Godin once listed how you can be remarkable, which is very much the same thing. The key to both: put aside your fear. Tell it to come back tomorrow. Today is for magic.
And if you do it today, why not tomorrow, too?
Are you getting enough value out of your small business website? Want to make sure your business makes the most of the
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wwgd
You know A/B testing is always the right answer, right? Why? Well, here’s everything you need to know. Whether you call it kaizen, continuous improvement or what-have you, companies like P.F. Chang’s recognize significant benefits through incremental improvement. They’re not looking for the “big bang” approach. They’re continuously growing by continuously improving.
Here’s a quick math problem for you: If you increase your sales/conversion/traffic/profit by just 4% monthly, how large an improvement will you see 12 months later? Not 4%. Not even 48%. Nope. You’ll see a 60% improvement over the course of 12 months. 5% monthly will drive almost 80% improvement and 6% will double your numbers in a year’s time. That’s nothing to sneeze at, now is it?
Apparently, it works with people, too. As David Brooks notes in the New York Times,
“The traits that correlated most powerfully with success were attention to detail, persistence, efficiency, analytic thoroughness and the ability to work long hours.”
Sure, slow and steady isn’t exciting. Or flashy. Or “cool.” Who cares? You want to win, don’t you? Focus on continuous improvement and steady, solid improvement. The results will come.
Think I’m nuts? Know of places where swinging for the fences is the right approach? Tell us about it in the comments.
Are you getting enough value out of your small business website? Want to make sure your business makes the most of the
local,
mobile,
social web?
thinks helps you understand how to
grow your business via the web, every day. Get more than just news. Get understanding.
Add thinks to your feed reader today.
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