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…
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.
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.
Measuring the success of your metrics sounds like something from a Möbius strip, doesn’t it? But investing lots of money in reporting tools and testing and analytics and all the rest just doesn’t make any sense if it doesn’t produce business results. Fortunately, some of the biggest of Big Thinkers have been thinking about this for some time – and are sharing those thoughts with all of us. Here are the best ideas I’ve seen lately on developing a complete framework for web analytics to drive your business forward:
Leading off is Thomas McMahon at TopRank who offers up 10 reasons analytics are failing as well as suggesting tools that can help. While Thomas could use some more context on why his suggested tools help, his last three points in particular hit the problem squarely on the head. Fortunately, others have picked up the thread, such as…
One great example of how companies tie business results and web analytics together comes from this 3-part series from a few years ago [part 1, part 2, part 3] exploring how a catalog merchandiser can integrate web analytics and a catalog matchback analysis. Very cool.
And, just to wrap things up, this TED talk from Rory Sutherland looks at how details make all the difference. Which is the real goal of analysis in the first place: finding the details that make a meaningful difference.
Have a great weekend, folks. Catch you right back here next week.
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.
In all likelihood, your home page isn’t the most visited page on your site. And there may be other deserving candidates for improvement. But, assuming you home page is one of your top pages, it’s easiest to think of it as just a different sort of landing page.
As with any landing page, you still have to start by answering the following questions:
Who is the visitor?
Why did she come here?
What questions does she have?
How can you help her answer those questions?
You get extra credit if you also think about where the customer came from. But focus on those other four first.
Unlike a traditional landing page, the answers to your customer’s question is usually somewhere else on the site. But if you make your home page language match what your customer is looking for, you can draw them deeper into your site, improve your bounce rate and increase your customer’s satisfaction.
Does your home page answer your customers’ questions? Or is it a dead end? Because it really boils down to this: if you don’t care about your home page, neither will your customers.
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.
This week’s ecommerce digest looks at optimization and getting the most for your efforts as we look at tough times. Seth Godin, Linda Bustos and a nice human interest story all illustrate the point. Check it out.
Measuring the success of your metrics sounds like something from a 
Excellent references, all.
is pretty awesome, too.
