A Landing page is a specific web page that a visitor ultimately reaches after clicking a link or an advertisement. Landing pages are important if you are running a pay per click campaign. Some people may disagree on this as they believe there is little or no use in spending time on them at all. These are usually the people who have never attempted to optimize their landing pages. Several large and medium sized businesses use pay per click. Some have even taken the step to make all their ‘buy’ pages landing pages.

Benefits of landing pages

Landing pages have everything a visitor needs to make a decision and purchase all on one page. Some people may think that it’s not necessary and just a link to the home page is enough. If you do that, a visitor would need to surf to find what he/she wants. Majority of them won’t. It is easier to hit the back button and try another site. Landing pages go hand in hand with your ad. If your ad is mentioning a specific product, the link should take them to the page featuring this product. Your site’s landing pages should be accessible from your site map. It needs to be indexed but doesn’t need to be viewable by your visitors unless they are coming in from your PPC ad.

Some inside secrets:

Some people may leave your landing page without scrolling down or reading the content on the page. Whatever layout you decide to go with, keep in mind that if visitors can’t find what they need within 10 seconds, they are more likely to move on to someone else’s page. Make sure your photo and content are in immediate view of the visitor.

Use the same heading for your title page on your landing pages. This will help reassure your visitors that they are on the right site. Use words for your hyperlinks. Worded links tend to catch visitors’ eyes first. Use this to your advantage. Links can be whole sentences if so desired. Bold any words that may be of interest to the visitor. Words such as free, guarantee, low prices and other similar words will guide the reader to where you want them to go.

Some small factors that can make a big difference in sales.

* Changing colors
* Lowering shipping charges occasionally, and indicating it to the visitor
* Reassuring buyers with a money back guarantee
* Limiting navigational options
* Simplifying content i.e only listing the information a visitor needs to know to make a purchase.

Test other layouts. Try adding different photos, text, fonts and colors. Make each landing page different. Then compare your clicks vs sales. The landing page with the highest conversion may be the one that works best. If you see a remarkable difference in your click to sale ratio, implement the same layout to the other pages. Your conversion rates should move up. Remember to keep your pages simple. In this case, less is more. Remember to keep a close eye on your conversions and adjust accordingly. You should see your ROI increase.