Landing Page Basics :: Part 3

Focus, Focus, Focus
The most critical aspect of your landing page is making sure the page is focused directly on your potential buyer or subscriber. How you choose to focus will depend on your marketing strategy and how you expect to get visitors to your landing page.

SEO vs. PPC
There really isn’t a choice between organic placement (Search Engine Optimization [SEO] through content keywords) and paid placement (pay-per-click [PPC])—they go hand-in-hand. Most categories are filled with so much content as it is, through personal sites, blogs, corporate websites, and other content filling avenues that any keywords that people would use to search to find your landing page already contain an abundant source of website results via search engines. You cannot rely on happenstance (read Search Engine Optimization) to get people to your site if you expect to generate conversion for your product or service in the short term. Search for any keyword you can think of and it’s likely that 99% of the time you will not find landing page websites at the top of the search results.

Paid placement of advertisements through Google AdWords, Yahoo Search Marketing, or MSN Ad Center are recommended as first-action tools for your marketing efforts to generate visitors. Google AdWords is the easiest tool to start with but if you’re a serious marketer with a serious offering, you should consider using Yahoo and MSN as early as the second quarter of your marketing plan.

Landing Page Integrity
A reliable, and simple, approach is to build a content-rich site that includes a variety of focused keywords that directly relate to your product/service. This approach is long-term focused and integrated with a defined set variables within your larger Internet marketing strategy.

Seems simple, doesn’t it?

But there is where most people fail in creating a landing page. You need to research your potential audience and then generate a list of keywords that your audience is likely to search for. If you have a product or service that can benefit large groups of people, then develop a strategy that can communicate the benefits to a large number of people.

Remember that you can distribute your audience into segments. If you have a landing page offering a sports energy drink and your landing page is focused on the benefits of exercise then someone looking for a sports energy drink may click out of your page if the information they see isn’t directly related to exactly what they are searching for—something they can drink before, during, or after exercise. If this is the case, your strategy will need to consist of generating pages that will adapt to the variables in your potential visitor base. You will create one page that is focused on the benefits of exercise and another that may focus on the benefits of drinking a sports energy drink before, during, and after exercise. Using this approach you will develop multiple advertising campaigns based on keywords associated within each (generic benefits of exercise and

A great place to start searching for keywords is to use the Google Ad Words Keyword Tool. This tool allows you to view a recommended list of keyword based on your entry and will provide you with the competition that exists within that keyword, the previous month’s search volume, and the average search volume. You can also enter a website of your own or a competitor’s site to find site-related keywords.

Example:

Keyword list Google AdWords Keyword Tool generated for “sports energy drink”:

– sports energy drink
– sports energy drinks
– sport energy drink
– energy drinks and sports
– all sport energy drink
– cytomax sport energy drink
– sport energy drinks
– sports drink energy booster
– sport and energy drinks
– sports drinks vs energy drinks
– sports drinks and energy drinks
– energy drinks sports drinks
– energy drinks in sports
– energy drinks for sports
– proven effective as a sports drink energy booster

There were also other suggested keywords. Here are a few:

– sugar free sports drink
– sports drink
– sports drinks
– energy drink
– sport drink
– sport drinks
– healthy energy drink

The term “exercise” has a much higher search volume than “sports energy drink” so you will want to consider having a separate ad campaign sent to a landing page that is focused on exercise and related keywords. The keyword list for “exercise” was very long and contained at least a handful of keywords that may be associated with a sports energy drink. Here is an example list:

– exercise program
– aerobic exercise
– weight training
– exercise plan
– exercise routine
– diet and exercise
– benefits of exercise

Action Items:

1. Use the Google Ad Words Keyword Tool to generate a list of all the possible combinations of keywords that related to your product/service.
2. Segment this list into associated groupings that are targeted at the various segments of your visitor base.
3. Use this list as the basis for generating your marketing copy and ad campaign strategy.

Autore
Kris Kiler is an experienced marketing consultant and entrepreneur. He founded a successful Internet services and publishing company, and was President & CEO for six years. He is a coauthor of 101 Ways to Generate Top Book Sales: A Handbook for Authors Ready to Plead Insanity and cofounder of TrainManagers.com.