SEO Landing Page Content: Best Practice Guidelines

In the most basic sense, digital marketing is an attempt to get more people to your website through search engines. With that said, whilst getting that #1 position on Google is the holy grail of any SEO campaign, there’s a question that still stands:

When people click through to your page, what are they greeted with?

Regardless of whether you are running a small Shopify SEO campaign or one of the largest digital marketing agencies in the world, where your audience is being directed from search engines can make or break your chances of online success. So, to help you keep your site welcoming to newcomers here’s a crash course in landing page content!

Why are Landing Pages Important?

As digital marketers, we do everything that we can to ensure that our clients are getting conversions. Therefore, it’s important that each step of the customer experience be as effective and streamlined as possible. People don’t want to trudge through complicated checkout systems and improperly-designed web pages. So, for every stumbling block, there is a strong chance that your visitors will simply give up and move on to another provider.

So, how does this relate to landing page content?

Well, it’s an introduction to the customer experience that your visitor is about to have. First impressions are important, and if a customer isn’t impressed by the first page they get to, you’ve likely lost them. Are they searching for a specific product or service? Then it’s your job to make sure that they can get to said product or service effortlessly.

What Makes Good SEO Landing Page Content?

While the answer to this question is intrinsically linked to both the industry you’re in and the demographics you are looking to target, that doesn’t mean there aren’t commonalities. Some things to keep in mind include:

The Perks of Landing Page Preparation

When creating a landing page, ideally, you want to have a solid plan in place detailing what you’re looking to achieve. For example, are you looking to create a page that is purely SEO-focussed (optimised primarily for search engines and audience growth) or conversion-focussed (optimised primarily to create conversions and drive sales)?

While the practical difference between these two methodologies will be discussed later in the piece, it’s important that you have distinct goals. This is partly because it will give you more direction when creating your landing page content, but it also allows you a more targeted way to determine the success of a page. Take Shopify for example. If you were to litter your category pages with content, your products will be pushed below the fold. However, with Magento SEO services, you will have more flexibility over where your content appears on the page.

The Eye-Catching Headline

This is where your visitors’ journey begins and will set the tone for everything that comes after it. A great headline grabs the reader’s attention, tells them what product/service the page is offering, and doesn’t overstay its welcome. Short, punchy, and informative is always the way to go.

The Complementary Subheading

Following the reader’s eye, the subheading should cement what it is that you’re looking to achieve with your page. If your headline has convinced them to keep reading, it’s the job of your subheading to tell them that they chose wisely. Because of this, a subheading can be more descriptive than the initial eye-catching headline; emphasising the initial point while adding an element of persuasion to the equation.

The Intrigue of Imagery

The phrase “a picture tells 1000 words” is more than just a well-worn cliche. Humans process images far faster than words, and they will, therefore, be more engaged by pictures than a thick wall of text. Ideally, images should be large, high-quality, visually appealing, and relevant to your product or service. Whilst that HD photo of a daffodil field may be stunning, it isn’t likely to help you sell used car parts.

Imagery shouldn’t be an afterthought. The visual appeal of your landing page will always be a strong influencing factor for those that are new to your product or service. So, it’s important that your chosen pictures work with the page’s design and layout. Ideally, imagery selection will happen during the design stage of your landing page, so that both layout and pictures can be made to complement each other.

Whilst all of the points above are pivotal in developing effective landing page content, there is one factor that ranks above and beyond. That would be whether or not your content has been optimised for both readers and search engines alike.

Finding the Balance

When business owners, or internal staff members of a business, take on the task of creating SEO landing pages themselves, they often do one of two things:

• Create landing pages that are full of personality and information, but aren’t at all optimised for search engines. Or;

• Create barely-legible pages that are so filled with keywords that their content barely registers as language.

Depending on your background, it’s likely that one of these considerations feels far more important than the other. On one hand, well-written content can draw in potential customers, giving them a tone and voice that they can associate with your brand; allowing them to feel more comfortable spending money on your products or services. This is absolutely vital, especially for those that are looking to create recurring customers, as it also gives customers a reason to remember you.

However, whilst high-quality content will help you to turn visitors into customers, it’s SEO optimisation that will get them to your website in the first place. By setting out a cohesive and well-researched keyword plan and implementing those keywords effectively throughout your page, you are telling Google that this page is a relevant resource for that specific search term. Search engines don’t read in the same way that humans do, and working to accommodate the preferences of their algorithms will give you the best chance of improved rankings for that page.

The point I’m trying to make is that one isn’t necessarily more important than the other, because both serve different purposes and are used to benefit different areas of the customer experience. You can spend time, resources, and money creating an easy entrance to your landing pages, but it won’t mean anything if there’s nothing worthwhile on the other side.

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In short, if you have traffic going to a specific landing page, then you need to make sure that page is as optimised for conversions as possible. At Digital Next, our team of copywriters, web designers and SEO specialists is dedicated to providing our clients with exceptional landing page content that drives conversions. To learn more, contact us today!