How To Optimize Your Landing Page

The Cape Cod landing page for SunPower by BlueSel.
by: Dev Sperling | search engine optimization

I spoke to a colleague recently that works for a corporate company as a loan originator. They mentioned having a landing page through their company and were looking for ways to better optimize their page, both from a conversion perspective and an SEO perspective. In today’s blog post, we’ll be breaking down what a landing page is, what  landing page optimization is, and how to optimize your landing page for both conversions and SEO.

What Is A Landing Page?

Sometimes referred to as a capture page, destination page, or a static page, a landing page is a standalone page web users are brought to after clicking on a search result, online ad, or the link in an eblast, newsletter, or social media post. Landing pages educate, encourage, and attract. Lead generation is the most common goal of a landing page.

Below are screenshots of landing pages we’ve created.

The landing page for Destination Salem's free travel guides.

The Cape Cod landing page for SunPower by BlueSel.

 

The contact section from BlueSel's landing page.

 

A landing page for the nonprofit, Bridgewell.

 

The section of Bridgwell's landing page that describes their services.

 

The 'Request More Information' section from Bridgewell's landing page.

 

The landing page for Be Better Now.

 

The testimonial and special offer from the Be Better Now landing page.  

What Is Landing Page Optimization? 

Landing page optimization is the process of enhancing or improving each element on your landing page to increase conversions and improve SEO. The biggest reason why landing pages fail is they don’t meet their audience’s needs. Unintuitive design, non-descriptive or misleading headlines, unrecognizable calls-to-action are all contributing factors. 

To work effectively, landing pages need to be curated for a specific audience and have a clear call-to-action. In today’s digital world, landing pages are often the first exchange people have with a business. They most often offer users something in return for their contact information, and we highly recommend businesses apply that to theirs to offer value. These offers are usually ebooks, subscription to the organization’s newsletter, or a free trial of a product.

If a landing page is meant to be read or convert, a good bounce rate is 60%-80%. If your goal is to drive traffic or have the user visit multiple web pages, a healthy bounce rate would be between 30%-60%.

Optimized landing pages can improve the overall ranking of the website they are on and can give more insights to Google on what your organization is about.

How To Optimize Landing Pages For Conversions 

Use Your Data

As we said before, the biggest reason why landing pages flop is they fail to meet their target audience’s needs. Design your landing pages based on the information you already have about your audience. Be sure to use the information you have of your audience from your website. It’s important to note that you make the most improvements to your landing pages by pushing them live and then making tweaks as insights and data come in about your audience.

Limit the Number of Calls-To-Actions 

You don’t want to overwhelm web users. Stick with one call-to-action and keep your text limited. People only read 20% of the content on a webpage so long sentences and paragraphs don’t work well. Just have the bare necessities.

Have Consistency

You need to make sure the messaging, design, and tone matches the search result, ad, social media post, or newsletter that brings visitors to the landing page. You want your page to match the expectations the visitor had based on their previous interaction.

Write A Catchy Headline

The amount of time it takes you to create a landing page is the amount of time it  should take you to think about the headline. Your headline is just as important, if not more important, than your landing page itself. Because no one’s going to click to your page if there’s no incentive to leave the page they are on. 

Keep The Most Important Information Above The Fold

The term ‘above the fold’ comes from the newspaper world. Digital folds are the points at which the user must scroll to gain more information.

Put In Testimonials

Testimonials help build trust. They are proof people love your business and they can also let visitors determine if they are the right fit to work with you.

How To Optimize Landing Pages For SEO

Have A Custom URL

A custom URL containing certain keywords can make the page more alluring for search engines. Make sure the main keyword for your page is in your URL.

Determine Relevant Keywords

Keywords are the words that you want search engines to rank your page for. You can do a Google search or use Search Console to determine the best keyword for your landing page.

Strategically Place Your Keywords

Once you determine your keywords, you’re going to want to place them strategically on your landing page. The areas you should consider are title tags, meta description, and your copy.

Have A Fast Page

Page speed has never been more important. We see fast page speed as one of the six pillars that makes up SEO. People will X out of your landing page fast if the page load is slow.

Don’t Do Once & Forget


SEO requires ongoing work. Check out this blog post we published back in May to learn why. As such, you want to make sure you use Google Analytics and Google Search Console once a month to see how your landing page is performing and how it can be better optimized. These two tools can inform you what people are searching for to find your landing page, how long users stay on the page, and if there are any technical issues with the page that need fixing.

At Sperling Interactive, we are masters at crafting optimized landing pages for conversions and SEO. We’d be happy to perform an audit of your landing page and give you feedback on how to improve it. We can also create a landing page for you and run a campaign around it. Give us a call at (978) 304-1730 to learn more about us and how we can serve you.