Landing pages exist to generate leads and drive conversions. An SEO-friendly landing page is a strategically designed webpage that aims to rank well in search results and drive targeted leads or conversions. These pages focus on specific, relevant keywords and search intent, and always include a clear call to action (CTA).
While customer experience has always been (and still is) the top priority of all marketers and SEO experts, a poorly designed landing page can negatively impact conversions and revenue, ultimately affecting the success of an entire campaign.
It’s important to keep in mind that a landing page’s search engine visibility is also crucial. If the page doesn’t perform well in search engine results and cannot be easily found, all efforts invested will be wasted, and conversions will not be generated.
In this blog, we will explore some of the best practices for creating SEO-friendly landing pages that not only rank higher in search engines but also come up roses when it comes to user experience.
Best Practices for SEO-Friendly Landing Pages
Powerful Keyword Strategy
A successful landing page is built on a powerful keyword strategy that focuses on user search intent. Selecting long-tail keywords that are relevant to your audience is key. It’s important to use keywords in the content where they fit naturally and not just anywhere.
Remember that you are writing for humans, not robots. Using irrelevant keywords or complex terms will not help you climb the search engine results pages (SERPs). In fact, search engine algorithms recognize keyword stuffing and penalize websites that use this technique. Therefore, it’s crucial to avoid overusing keywords and ensure that they are used logically and in context.
Structurize your Content
While selecting the right keywords is important for optimizing an SEO landing page, it’s not the only factor to consider. Equally important is structuring your content in a way that makes it easy for search engine bots to read and understand. This helps search engines correctly index your landing page. A study by SEMrush found that pages with clear and logical content structure had a 2.2 times higher chance of ranking in the top three positions of Google search results.
To achieve this, it’s essential to optimize various elements such as the title tag, alt tags, meta description, headings, internal links, images, and videos. By doing so, you can enhance your landing page’s visibility and improve your chances of ranking higher in search engine results.
Pay Attention to URLs
In Search Engine Optimization (SEO), even small details matter, and your landing page URL is no exception. The URL communicates information about the content and helps people find it easily. It also reflects the structure of your website and how a particular piece of content is positioned within it.
To optimize your landing page URL, it’s important to keep it short and concise, ideally between 50-60 characters and no more than 65 characters. This helps search engines and users understand what the page is about and improves its visibility in search results.
Faster Page Speed is a Must
One of the most crucial factors that can affect your Google rankings is the speed of your landing page (or the whole website for that matter). Slow page speed can result in high bounce rates, as users tend to get frustrated with slow loading times. This, in turn, can negatively impact your rankings. According to Google, pages that load within two seconds have a bounce rate of 9%, while those that take five seconds to load have a bounce rate of 38%.
Furthermore, a study by Backlinko found that pages with faster loading speeds tend to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). In fact, the study found that the average loading time for a page in the top 10 search results is less than 2 seconds. Faster loading speed not only helps with better rankings but also ensures an excellent user experience.
To understand different factors that affect page speed, you can use Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool which also provides you with insights on how to make your website faster and better. Additionally, you can make some simple changes yourself such as optimizing images and videos, removing redirects, and more. If you develop your landing page in WordPress, this article (4 Ways a WordPress Developer can boost site speed!) is a real find on how to enhance your page speed.
Produce High-Quality Content
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Have you ever wondered why people would visit your website? Usually, it’s to purchase a product or service or to gain knowledge. However, what if your website doesn’t provide quality content? Visitors are likely to click away and move on to a more worthwhile site.
Therefore, it’s crucial to produce high-quality content that is both shareable and relevant. Nowadays, when people come across something they like online, they tend to share it on social networks. So, if your content is good and shareable, it will reach a wider audience without much effort on your part.
Conclusion
To ensure a successful landing page campaign, the first step is to make sure that your target audience can easily find your landing page on search engines. Once users are on the page, it’s essential to ensure that they can quickly find what they came for. The key here is to provide an excellent user experience.
By following the best practices mentioned above, you can significantly improve your landing page game. Remember to keep your target audience in mind, create compelling content for your landing pages, and ensure that your URLs are working correctly.
If you need further assistance with building efficient and conversion-optimized landing pages, reach out to us by email at contact@42works.net.
