The main purpose for which a landing page is created is to acquire leads. Put simply, it is about encouraging users to provide contact details for themselves – mainly e-mail – or about engaging in other interactions, e.g. related to the purchase of a specific product. However, remember that the role of such a website does not have to end with the moment when you finish its promotion. Properly optimized, it can be used as an effective tool for many months or even years (!) After publication – without having to invest in its promotion. How to do it?

Landing page optimization – what to remember

Properly prepared Internet content – not only landing pages, but also e.g. blog entries – can serve you for a very long time and bring benefits like perpetuum mobiles. This is the key advantage of inbound marketing, i.e. a strategy focused on customer involvement so that it actively seeks content published by a given brand.

Sounds beautiful in theory, right? The question, however, how to move from idea to reality? In the case of a landing page, you will extend the life of such a website, optimizing it accordingly, with organic search in mind. In many cases, organically generated traffic increases the likelihood of conversion up to 7 times, i.e. the visitor will take the action you expect as its creator. Therefore, when creating a new landing page, it is worth ensuring its adaptation to modern SEO requirements – so that traffic on it begins to propel itself.

Landing page optimization for SEO – key principles

How to optimize landing page for SEO? You must remember a few important rules – both technical and related to the content and its structure. Here they are.

Create a good meta-title
Metadata, although often neglected, is actually one of the key elements from the SEO point of view. Particularly important is the meta-title, i.e. the title of the page, which is displayed on the bookmarks bar. Although you, as a user, may not pay attention to him – Google already. Also remember that this title appears in search results. If it is properly attractive, it will attract the eye and attention of the recipient.

And what is a good meta-title for a landing page? Should be:

– short
Ideally, it should be between 50-60 characters so that it can be fully displayed in the results.

– readable
It should contain key information about the content of the landing page – be substantive and content. Individual meta-title segments can be separated with the “|” character.

– optimized for keywords
It is worth placing the key phrase for the landing page in it to strengthen SEO conversion. Remember that the keyword should appear as close to the beginning of the title as possible – then it is considered relevant.

– unique
The meta-title for the landing page should be different from that e.g. for the page with the company’s offer or business card.

Optimize landing page URL

Another important element from an SEO perspective is the structure of the URL. Forget the long string of meaningless numbers and letters. Make sure it is:

– short – the recommended URL length should not exceed approx. 65 characters (including the domain address, which means that you have a dozen or so characters to use an attractive phrase);

– separated by slashes, which will indicate its place in the structure of the page – for example, a landing page for an ebook page about trends in SEO in 2020 may have a structure in the style: http: // namedomain / content-marketing / SEO / trends2020. Remember that in this case you must also create content for subpages from the next levels;

– optimized in terms of keywords – the most important keywords should be located closer to the left side of the address.

Optimize headers

The most important is the H1 header. The keyword used in it should coincide with that used in the meta-title. But beware! Using the expression itself as H1 can be harmful – both from the viewpoint of the search engine and users. The landing page header is a key lure for the recipient – it must be attractive, intrigue and attract attention, and above all – inform you about what the page is about. Therefore, place the keyword in a natural context – e.g. in the form of a question or a typical advertising slogan. It should be as close as possible in terms of content to the meta-title. 

Prepare an attractive and legible meta-description

Meta-description is the description of the page that appears in the search results under the title. It has invaluable value both in terms of SEO and as an advertising message in itself. So make sure that the description of the page you prepare:

– had the right number of characters – the optimal is approx. 150 – 160 characters with spaces (this will be displayed in search results),
– clearly informed what information your landing contains,
– contained keywords that would further strengthen positioning,
– it was written in the language of benefits – e.g. rhetorical questions or CTA will work well.

Optimize images

Although images have less value for search engines than content, properly placed in the code of the page, they can bring SEO benefits. Also, don’t forget that image search with Google Images is becoming increasingly popular. That is why it is so important to apply several principles of graphics optimization. Remember to:

– give each graphic file a short, “natural” name that reflects the content of the image and fits in the keywords – for example, if you upload a photo of a restaurant, let the file be named, e.g. restaurant_in_boston.jpg,
– prepare alt-text, i.e. text that will be displayed instead of a photo, with a structure and content similar to the name of the image (in the example above, the best alt-text would be “a restaurant in Boston”).

Image metadata can also be a good place to “smuggle” synonyms for key keywords or a variation of them.

Organize the data on the page to make it suitable for “rich snippets”

“Snippets” or fragments of content on the page, are now appearing in search results. Of course, provided they respond to a specific query entered in the search engine by the user. To increase the chance that your content will go to “featured snippet” structure it. Various types of bullets and definitions work well in the role of fragments cited in SERPs.

Be careful with the number of fields in the lead acquisition form

Let’s repeat once again: the goal of creating a landing page is to get leads. To do this, you must place the appropriate form on the website for sending data. It should reach the top of the page and, ideally, move as the user scrolls the website. Before you design it and put it on the site, think about what data you REALLY need to get valuable leads?

Do you really need: name, phones number, place of residence or zip code? Or maybe you just need the email address and username. Remember: the more information you ask, the less likely a reader of the landing page will provide it. Think about it: How would you like to give your personal data to an unknown person?

This issue is also relevant from an SEO perspective. A large number of fields in the form means a more negative attitude of the recipients to the website, and thus – a high bounce rate. The point is that after seeing a long form to fill out, visitors can close the page after a few seconds. And this is a clear message for search engine algorithms: the landing page does not provide valuable content, so it is not worth showing it in the results.

Proposal? Limit the number of fields in the form to an absolute minimum – this way you will get many more leads.

Work on building links

What makes a website’s search engine value increase? A large role in this process is played by links leading to landing pages from external websites. The more such valuable links, the higher your position in search results. Therefore, it is worth encouraging readers to share links to the site – especially on blogs and social media.

Of course, the very value of the landing page helps – so, for example, the benefits that can be obtained by the person who will provide their contact details (even a specialized e-book, blog templates, good quality graphic materials, access to video course etc.). However, this is not all you can do. Building links to landing page will strengthen:

– giving access to the promised materials (or other, additional) for providing a link to the page in social media, e.g. on Twitter,
– giving the option to embed the landing page offer on another page (by providing embed code linking to the website) – e.g. in conjunction with an affiliate program.

The methods presented above will allow to significantly extend the time needed to acquire leads through a landing page – bringing long-term benefits. However, these are only some of the methods that you can use in your inbound marketing strategy. If you want to learn about them and implement them effectively – follow our Blog and fan page on Facebook