Landing Page Optimization

Due to limited time or budget, the landing page is often given the least priority in a marketing campaign.

Some marketers feel that a great external campaign is more important than a good landing page. Our research has found the opposite to be true. Even a great campaign needs the correct conversion architecture, landing page design is key. … Continue Reading »

You’ll find this book an easy and informative read. Basically, this is a compilation of the ION blog posts and articles over a period of two and a half years. Here’s a great take away from Honest Seduction: Using Post-Click Marketing to Turn Landing Pages into Game Changers. … Continue Reading »

Before you can start building your landing page, you must define exactly what you want your visitors to do. The goal, or conversion objective, of your landing page should completely drive the development of the page.

To identify the conversion objective, ask yourself, “What do I want visitors to do when they see my landing page?” … Continue Reading »

“Testing is a no-brainer”, says Bob Brady of Business & Legal Resources … Continue Reading »

Build a valuable database by using your website to offer free reports that convert casual visitors into email subscribers … Continue Reading »

Analyze your landing pages through the eyes of your customers … Continue Reading »

How less is often more, according to the results of a few landing page multivariate tests at Business & Legal Reports and Kiplinger … Continue Reading »

A collection of great landing page optimization tips covering SEO, website design, A/B testing, and copywriting … Continue Reading »

We’ve brought in two of our favorite “test junkies” for this webinar on how to test and measure your landing pages called Landing Pages that Work: Using a Proven Testing Method to Increase Conversion Rates. … Continue Reading »

How a more robust registration headline on this membership website brought conversion rates from drab to fab … Continue Reading »

Marketplace landing pages are the gateways to sales

A landing page is any webpage where a willing buyer and seller can start a transaction. It’s the first page on your website where a visitor enters the ordering process.

A dedicated landing page is an indispensable part of your online marketing campaign. It is dedicated to converting traffic. It’s only reason for being, is to get that order. … Continue Reading »

Test your landing pages, because 9 times out of 10, snap judgments will prove you wrong

In case you haven’t heard, Susan Boyle is the unlikely star of Britain’s Got Talent, a televised talent show over in the UK (and a sister to the US-based “America’s Got Talent”.) … Continue Reading »

Use Author Index landing pages to create a directory of your author landing pages

Looking for keyword phrases to boost your results in search engines? How about a name?

If you’re looking for quick ways to build your page count and add content that is easily indexed by search engines, don’t forget your authors and editors.

The author index page is a list of all the writers contributing content to the website, much like a contributor’s page in the front of many magazines. These pages came into existence when publishers noticed that a lot of website traffic was arriving via organic search of their website’s authors. … Continue Reading »

Article landing pages are search engine superstars

Article landing pages are most often associated with search engine optimization (SEO), but are also used for attracting any type of organic traffic. This would include any text link given by a webmaster or editor who is referencing one of your webpages as a source of good information on a topic.

Article landing pages are organic landing pages and contain narrative content, with the objective of being picked up by search engines, capturing the users’ interest and leading them to browse more content. … Continue Reading »

With Topic landing pages, persistent navigation is the key to success

The key to success is to send users to landing pages that are specifically designed to fulfill their goals. Any page where there is a direct response transaction — whether or not money is exchanged — is a landing page. For every type of direct response transaction you initiate, there should be a landing page waiting for the user that is optimized to maximize its conversion rate.

A topic landing page, as the name suggests, is a page on a website that is about one particular topic, or category. This page is usually found in a site’s primary navigation, either on the right or left hand side of the screen. Occasionally, a user may also find topic pages in the horizontal site navigation, just below the nameplate, if the number of topics is limited (3-5). Topic pages are also often referred to as category pages, or section pages. … Continue Reading »

The Home landing page is your first opportunity to make a good impression

Organic landing pages are full of content that is designed to be attractive to both users and search engines. Essentially, an organic landing page is trying to be found by search engines.

Home landing pages are the first page someone sees when they type in your website address. The home landing page should tell your user exactly what you want them to do and how it will benefit them.

If your main goal is to get them to sign up for an email newsletter, the most important graphic, button or section of your homepage should be dedicated to collecting it. A floater can be a quick and easy way add unknown site visitors to your email database. … Continue Reading »

The priority code landing page lets you know where sales leads originate in order to control advertising expenses.

The priority code landing page is a hybrid dedicated landing page that’s part of the online order flow. A publisher might drive users to a priority code landing page where they can enter a proprietary combination of letters or numbers (alphanumeric code) in order to qualify for a special discount or express service. … Continue Reading »

Why it’s critical to have one authority page, ideally a Rapid Conversion Landing Page, as the reservoir for all your internal and external link juice.

We often write about the importance of researching, documenting and managing your keyword universe. It’s a process you must pursue and manage with discipline if you want any chance of getting Google to drive you consistent, targeted website traffic.

However, your keyword universe is only as good as the website architecture that supports it. If your site isn’t built according to and around your keyword phrases, your chances of attracting traffic from the search engines will be limited. … Continue Reading »

Landing Page Optimization: The value of A/B split testing for increasing response

This publisher’s “winning” titles routinely generate 50 percent more sales than the “losing” titles.
It was enough to make an experienced copywriter groan…

I have more than 25 years of experience as a direct response copywriter, but I recently had a rude awakening when the title I wrote for a paid report lost an A/B split test by a wide margin.

Here’s the story, with a few minor details changed to protect the victor’s identity: … Continue Reading »

February 2009 marks one of the select times where search engines help you index content yourself.

Earlier this month, Google told us “carpe diem on any duplicate content worries” in a blog over at Google Webmaster Central entitled “Specify Your Canonical”.

Before you go Googling “canonical” like I did, it means “reduced to the simplest and most significant form possible without loss of generality”. In this case, a “canonical” page is a page with the most authority, and the one you prefer to show up first in search results. … Continue Reading »

Think about every page on your site as a landing page and start converting all of your visitors into subscribers or buyers.
Many people think that a landing page is just one type of page. When you think of a landing page, what do you picture? A single page, long copy, highlighted text, lots of bolding and italicizing, strong headline?
Sure, that’s one design of a landing page, most likely a rapid conversion landing page or email capture page. Or maybe it’s a salesletter landing page selling a single eBook. … Continue Reading »

Aggregate, Extract and Summarize your existing content to create products that will build your email file.
One of the questions we get asked most often by our clients is: how to create those complimentary products that we give away in exchange for an email address. Some publishers don’t realize how simple it is to create dozens of these products just from repurposing your existing content—not by creating original content.
We’ve identified three different ways to create complimentary products using your existing inventory: … Continue Reading »

A checklist of 9 must-haves for a list-building rapid conversion landing page
We call an email-capture or name-squeeze page a Rapid Conversion Landing Page. Call it what you want, but what this page does is capture an email address, normally in exchange for a complimentary gift like a report or other product. To create one that works, there is a checklist of things that every RCLP must be able to pull off. … Continue Reading »

Rapid Conversion Landing Pages are used to entice a user to enter into a low-risk (AKA low-friction) transaction. This type of landing page is used when there is no cost to the user (a free offer) or when payment is delayed and includes options (a bill-me later offer). … Continue Reading »

Maximize conversion rates with solo orderflows and independent information products
Solo orderflows maximize conversion rates on a single product. Imagine you are a travel publisher and you offer six books on these topics: cruises, safaris, island getaways, business travel, family vacations and Disney. Since you only have one book on cruises, not several books on the topic, then you should use a solo orderflow. … Continue Reading »

Choosing relevant keywords for your rapid-conversion landing page will put you on page one and build your list by shaking hands with Google

In September 2007, we initiated a massive update to the original keyword research we had conducted when we launched Mequoda Daily in August 2005. Our plan was to take each of our existing primary keyword phrases (also known as the 10 topic pages you’ll find at Mequoda Daily) and run them through some keyword analysis to discover more niche, secondary terms that we “could own” – aka be in the number one position on page one in Google. … Continue Reading »

The same high quality copywriting and design elements can be used for online, email and postal mail sales pitches.

Multiplatform publishing in the 21st century means offering users many products on many platforms, and using the Internet to recycle, reuse and republish information in many different formats.

This involves taking the same information and turning it into any format a user could possibly want—from e-books to streaming video to email newsletters. Publishers not only save on material costs, but the same information is being cheaply repackaged and sold in a multitude of formats to maximize customer satisfaction and revenue. … Continue Reading »

Sell more products, at higher prices and great profit margins, with dedicated upsell landing pages

“Would you like fries with that?” is a simple, familiar hamburger stand upsell. The online version is a little more complicated, and requires a well-crafted, dedicated upsell landing page.

An upsell landing page is a conversion landing page. Like the sales letter landing page, the objective of the upsell landing page is to get the user to take the next step. It is designed to move the user along an order flow where an additional sale can be made. … Continue Reading »

Sales letter landing pages pre-date the Internet in that they resemble traditional direct response sales letters.

A sales letter landing page is a conversion landing page. Its objective is to convert the casual visitor into a paid customer.

Sales letter landing pages are traditional direct response sales letters designed to maximize the conversion rate for a paid product. Often, the very same sales letter landing page, with minor but significant modifications, can be used in both email and postal direct marketing programs. … Continue Reading »

Your online marketing campaign is worthless if you don’t secure the email addresses of visitors to your website and get their permission to follow up with them.

We’ve all heard the phrase a thousand times, since the dawn of postal direct response marketing, “the money is in the list.”

Make no mistake about it. List building with rapid conversion landing pages is the lifeblood of your online marketing campaign. You must build a database of loyal individuals to whom revenue-generating products may be promoted on a regular basis. … Continue Reading »

Requesting an email address in exchange for permission to send additional offers

Dedicated landing pages are hardcore, direct response pages. Their only goal is to get the user to complete a transaction.

Dedicated landing pages are designed to receive targeted website traffic and convert users into buyers or subscribers. They can coincidentally attract organic traffic, but are designed primarily to convert traffic, regardless of the source.

Dedicated landing pages are designed to receive targeted website traffic and convert users into buyers or subscribers. They can coincidentally attract organic traffic, but are designed primarily to convert traffic, regardless of the source. … Continue Reading »

Glossary and directory landing pages succeed when they provide users the information they seek—either a definition or a link to an article or product.

A glossary landing page, as the name suggests, is a glossary on a website that lists dictionary-like definitions of words, phrases or concepts.

Glossary landing pages attract traffic and include conversion architecture that urges users to subscribe or engage in some other transaction. Like the article landing page, the objective of the glossary landing page is to capture the user’s interest in the editorial content and lead him to a transaction. … Continue Reading »

The objective of the article landing page is to be picked up by search engines, capture the user’s interest and lead the user to a transaction.

Most website users are familiar with organic landing pages. Whether on an Internet hub, a retail site, or a membership website, organic landing pages contain content that is of interest to the user.

Generally, organic landing pages are wide open and full of content that the publisher has designed to be attractive to users and search engines. Essentially, an organic landing page is trying to get an Internet user to find it using the Google, Yahoo and MSN search engines. … Continue Reading »

All online direct response transactions begin on landing pages

Mequoda research indicates that on most websites, a maximum of 20 percent of the traffic arrives at the home page. In fact, on many sites, as little as four or five percent of website traffic arrives at the site’s home page, with the rest arriving at much “deeper” pages.

Unlike traditional direct mail or retail marketing, where the user experience is more linear, every page on your website is a potential landing page. That’s because a landing page is the first page a user sees when entering your site, and a user can enter your site and “land” almost anywhere. … Continue Reading »

Every website landing page should be designed with a complete organization, labeling, and navigation scheme that enables users to fulfill their goals effortlessly. But where do you start?

Learning how to increase landing page conversion rates can mean the difference between the success and failure of your Internet marketing program.

You can have first-class products and create a beautiful website, but if your site is difficult to use, it will be nearly impossible to get casual visitors to become loyal buyers. … Continue Reading »

You’ll write strong, engaging headlines when you use proven power words

The ideal headline for your sales letter landing page, print ad or email promotion is a statement of your product’s unique selling proposition or the promise that it’s going to satisfy a need or solve a problem.

The headline is an advertisement for an advertisement. It must grab the reader’s attention with such force that she can’t resist reading the next sentence. … Continue Reading »

Determining the appropriate keywords and keyword phrases for your website landing pages can be easy and absolutely free.

How sophisticated is your landing page optimization strategy? Do you know precisely what keywords and keyword phrases you’re targeting? Have you made a list and do you refer to it often?

If not—if you haven’t got a list of your targeted keywords—now is a good time to create it and keep it handy when writing your online articles and tips. … Continue Reading »

Send visitors to the front door, not the window

There are dozens of goals shared by Internet marketers across the globe.

Somewhere at the top of almost everyone’s list is “increase visits to the website.”

It is probably on your list, but is your website ready for a surge of visitors?

As we discussed yesterday, not every website is.

To ensure that your website is ready, a system has to be in place that directs users to webpages that are designed to answer their needs. … Continue Reading »

Are your landing pages converting enough users? Check out these benchmarks and find out

The most important website metric is conversion rate.

All of the other website metrics—like unique visitor count, click through rate and open rate—are to analyze how well users are being led to conversion. Conversion is the ultimate goal.

A conversion can be defined as a user signing up for a newsletter, paying for a product, viewing an advertisement or completing any beneficial task urged by your website. … Continue Reading »

Learn how one company is applying lessons from direct mail, and find out who won our Mequoda Summit Raffle for SIPA attendees

It’s widely known that direct mail campaigns are more successful when written with personalized information. Using the reader’s full name in the from-line or their job title in the copy will usually boost response rates.

This is proving to be true for email and landing page marketing, according to marketing software company Naehas, Inc. … Continue Reading »

Put an edge on your marketing campaigns by learning your customers’ language

Speaking to users in their language—whether technical or regional—is very important. The more they understand you, the easier it is to sell them products.

Thankfully, the Web has made it easy to learn your customers’ language.

You can learn their exact terminology by using WordTracker.

The program will tell you how often phrases related to your business are searched for in engines like Google, which will teach you your customers’ language. … Continue Reading »

The Internet is a constantly evolving medium. Websites get redesigned, either owing to new graphics, new content, or because the essential architecture is inadequate to serve the site visitors.

If the human factors haven’t been properly addressed — if visitors can’t easily find what they’re looking for or can’t order your product easily — you’ve got insurmountable problems that mandate you to re-engineer your website. The issue here is website usability.

In the time since we first published a review of the landing page for Andrew Harper’s Hideaway Report, some elements have been redesigned, but some have only gotten worse. … Continue Reading »

TimesSelect generated more than a half million new subscribers in its first 12 months

After previously having offered access to its archived content for free, and charging only for access to its celebrated, syndicated columnists, a new revenue model has emerged at the New York Times.

The Times now offers three levels of information. At the lowest level, most of the current day’s news is available without charge to all The New York Times website visitors. … Continue Reading »

A Mathematical Formula for Increasing Landing Page Conversion Rates

Last week at the SIPA event in Las Vegas, we heard from Jalali Hartman, Director of Strategy at MarketingExperiments.com who shared with us a formula for improving our landing page conversion rates.

In a presentation titled “5-Step Plan to Skyrocket Your Registration Funnel Conversion Rate”, Mr. Hartman shared with us the MEC Conversion Index, which is a mathematical formula for analyzing the probability of your landing page conversion rates. … Continue Reading »

As you may already know, most people arrive at a website and within less than 10 seconds can determine whether it’s clean, professional and worth their time. Your landing page delivers the first impression. It’s usually the most important page on your site. It needs to be a fast, effective messenger.

With a quick glance, visitors to your site should know exactly what your site is all about or what your business does. Determine what image and message you want the customer to “get” in those first few seconds, and design your landing page toward that objective. Anything that distracts from the central message or image you wish to project should be eliminated. … Continue Reading »

The most succinct copywriting tip we’ve heard in a long time came from Fred Gleeck at a product development seminar. Fred cited this maxim in a discussion of how to title your book. But the adage is just as valid whether you’re writing a headline for an advertisement or a press release, or a pithy subject line for a convincing email message, or a list of product benefits. … Continue Reading »

Copywriter reveals why many online sales letters fail to deliver

The Internet creates new challenges for marketers and wordsmiths, but a fundamental principle still applies

Experts tell us that in print ads, 75-80 percent of all buying decisions are made by reading the headline alone. … Continue Reading »

The four-legged stool technique was developed originally by Bill Bonner of Agora Publishing, strictly for selling financial newsletters.

Expert copywriter Robert W. Bly noticed, however, that these four elements also work for 90 to 95 percent of all information products.

The concept is pretty simple: a four-legged stool is very stable. If you pull one leg off, it’s only relatively stable—you can still sit on it, but not as comfortably as you would a four-legged stool. … Continue Reading »

The Secondary Promise is a lesser benefit that the product also delivers.

Although not as large as the Big Promise, the Secondary Promise should be big enough so that, by itself, it is reason enough to order the product… yet small enough so that it is easily believed.

This way, even if the reader is totally skeptical about the Big Promise, he can believe the Secondary Promise and order on that basis alone. … Continue Reading »

Rosser Reeves wrote a classic advertising book in 1961 titled Reality in Advertising. Many of us newcomers have never read this book, mostly because it’s widely unavailable.

But lucky for us, Robert W. Bly spent $95 for it on eBay and shared with us at this year’s Mequoda Summit Reeves’ three requirements of a USP (Unique Selling Proposition): … Continue Reading »