This article was written just after I came back from the UK in June 2009 where FIFA World Cup 2010 fever was everywhere. Due to jet lag I was awake at around 5 AM Melbourne time to watch a few matches, which started me thinking about how an effective website landing page needs to be like a champion forward, whose job it is to keep hold of the ball and score a lot of goals.   

Once you have a website set up, you’re competing for web traffic with all the other websites that use similar keywords and target the same audience as yours. Read more about How to Drive Traffic to a New Website.

But getting web traffic is just the first step.

To win the match you need to score goals.

Website goals are conversions; when someone takes an action such as signing up for your e-newsletter, buying a product or enquiring about your services.

For the best chance of scoring a goal, create customised and targeted landing pages.

What is a landing page?

A landing page is the page that someone is directed to once they click on a link.

• For Google AdWords Sponsored Links, it is the page that the ads are linked through to.
• If you’re promoting an event, the page where people can find out more about the event and register is your landing page.
• On Twitter, people regularly tweet shortened links that are directed to sales landing pages or article landing pages that include a Call to Action.

Aim for your landing pages to be like Ronaldo and Rooney, great strikers who are able to keep the ball in play and ideally, kick a lot of goals.  Avoid have landing pages that are like the sloppy players who lose the ball to the competition because they aren’t focused or skillful enough.

How can you create a super fit landing page to increase the chance of scoring a goal?

Relevant content.

Good landing pages contain content that is directly relevant to what the searcher is expecting to find. Make the content relevant by using the same keywords in the headline and body text of the landing page that you used in the ad copy.

Example

To promote one of our free E-Books, we share the tweet below on Twitter, which includes a shortened link to our landing page.

“FREE ebook > Top 11 Website Mistakes and How to Avoid Them http://bit.ly/589BsC”

The link is directed this landing page that has the headline “Top 11 Website Mistakes – Free E-Book!” which matches the words in the tweet.

Include a Clear Call to Action

Make your Call to Action really clear so that it is easy for people to figure out where to click sign up, buy, download etc.

Try using a prominent button or image that includes clear action words.

Example continued…

On our landing page, we’ve included two buttons that say “Download FREE E-Book”.

Avoid making your readers’ scroll to find key information.

The fold is the imaginary line at the bottom of your monitor.  The area Above the Fold includes the information that you can see when you first visit a website, without scrolling down.

Adding all your key messages important Above The Fold makes them prominent and easy to find.

Example continued…

On our landing page we’ve included the Call to Action button twice.  Once Above The Fold for people who know they want to download the E-book and get straight on with it, and once Below The Fold, for those visitors who’d prefer to read more about the E-book before downloading it.

Ultimately, aim for Landing Pages that are like Ronaldo; Well put together, effective at scoring goals and able to attract media attention.

It’s also worth remembering though that even Ronaldo can’t go it alone, he needs a strong team behind him, just like you may need to work with a strong team of web professionals to ensure that all your landing pages are in tip top shape. And hopefully they score far more goals than the teams in the World Cup matches that I’ve watched so far!

What makes your landing pages successful?

Happy Scoring!

Search-Mel