The truth is that, even though landing pages are a staple when it comes to lead generation tools, marketers often think that conversion issues have to do with content or design. And while this could be true, sometimes it’s not the case. Sometimes, all you need is to use your landing page builder properly and create SEO-optimized landing pages. This will help your conversion rates rise organically by attracting leads through your SERPs.
So, let’s see how you can do just that.
Landing Page SEO: What You're Doing Wrong
There are many factors that contribute to your landing page’s poor rankings. Perhaps you’re trying to rank for difficult keywords, or your landing page doesn’t load properly. Or maybe it is a content issue or even a CTA issue.
A landing page with a hard time ranking could be optimized to the nines and ready to convert and still not reach its target audience. This is because marketers use fewer words and little to no distractions when a landing page’s focus is conversion. On the other hand, SEO is all about acquiring organic traffic through keyword optimization and density. So, while you may be using a state-of-the-art landing page builder that can – and will – help you create a landing page that’s super-focused on conversion, the case might be different when it comes to rankings.
Of course, ranking and converting are not mutually exclusive – otherwise, we wouldn’t be talking about either type of landing page. SEO is there to bring more traffic and nudge people in the right direction through helpful content and relevant links. Both elements are distractions and could be seen as huge mistakes when designing a landing page.
Outbound links help content rank but could lead users away from your CTA. The same goes for long-form, keyword-optimized content. It may be fantastic for SERPs, but it could be lethal for capturing leads. The same goes for longer web sessions – it’s not uncommon for users to focus on content so much that they forget why they’ve landed on a specific page in the first place.
Now you know why your page might fail to rank. Let’s see how you can get it to give you better exposure, SERP rankings, and more leads.
SEO-Focused Landing Pages: The Two Tips You Need to Know
Since you need to use your landing page builder to optimize your landing page in a way that Google and other search engines will love, you’ll need to understand what makes search engines tick. This will, down the line, help you boost your conversion rate and ROI by nurturing leads and bringing your brand to the forefront of the consumers’ minds.
Your Keywords and Content
The first thing to keep in mind is your hows and whys. Why are you creating an SEO landing page? Is it something that will serve your audience and brand down the line?
Remember that you miss out on your old SEO efforts every time you create a new landing page. So, make sure to create evergreen content and target evergreen keywords for that effort. Also, use a landing page builder that allows you to create a custom URL that will target your main keyword directly.
Let’s assume you’re a marketer for a real estate brand, and you need to create a landing page that will help you attract more customers. In that case, you will need to look for keywords in your niche.
So, assuming your real estate agency is located in San Francisco, you’ll need to make great use of the “real estate in San Francisco” long-tail keyword. Use it on your landing page’s URL.
After that, create content for your real estate landing page that will make sense. It must be valid, helpful, and, most importantly, legitimate and not salesy.
Create content that will correspond with the keywords shown in the picture above. You don’t need to use everything word-for-word, and you can always include keywords related to San Francisco landmarks and activities.
In terms of design, ensure all valuable information is above the fold, and your alt-text is on point and optimized for your desired keywords. Actionable verbs that are connected to your CTA are also very useful, as they allow users to understand what their next move should be when it comes to your page. For example, suppose you’re a local business; placing a call now button on your website can increase call volume to your physical location(s), allowing you to create new customer relationships regularly. Also a phrase as simple as “Keep reading” could prove to be very valuable for lead nurturing and, eventually, customer retention. Combine that type of content you can build links on like you would for other types of long-form content like videos and blog posts, and you’ll see more users stumble upon your landing page.
Speed vs. Value
Marketers would argue that value could be short-form – and they would be correct if we were not talking about SEO results. You need to find just the right amount of valuable content that will be long-form and evergreen but not heavy on loading times.
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Three seconds or more could harm your web sessions, and hitting the back button way too fast will give Google the impression that your landing page is not what users were looking for. This can, in turn, make things worse for your rankings, as search engines seem to value longer sessions a lot.
This is where you’ll need to find a landing page builder that uses CDN, making your landing pages responsive and boosting your SEO efforts along with customer loyalty. And on that note, let’s consider your mobile design.
Much like social media shares, mobile optimization doesn’t directly affect SEO. However, poor loading times and broken elements will indirectly harm your efforts.
Your leads will most likely stumble upon your landing page while using their mobile, as the study below suggests:
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This makes mobile optimization a part of SEO. So make sure your landing page is responsive and allows users to give you their data without encountering anything that is out of place.
The Takeaway
SEO is something that changes all the time, and marketers can never be 100% sure that their efforts are not in vain. However, creating an SEO-driven landing page that can also convert is equal parts tricky and rewarding.
Just make sure to create keyword-optimized content without being too salesy or boring. Lead users to the next step with actionable verbs that pinpoint the natural order of motions users have to go through before becoming leads.
And lastly, invest in a landing page builder that will give you all of the data and analytics options you’ll need to track your growth.
