An Introduction to SEO for Landing Pages

Everyone has heard about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for websites. But, did you know that you can optimize your landing pages for search as well?

The reason people optimize their website is to increase their organic (unpaid) traffic, which is one of the cheapest ways to attract your target audience — the same approach can be applied to your landing pages.

When someone uses a search engine such as Google to ask a specific question, you want to be there with the answer. If the landing page answers their question, they will reward you by becoming a subscriber or customer.

What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO), is a practice used to make your website and landing pages more visible (rank higher) in the organic results of search engines.

What is a Landing Page?

SEO-Landing Pages are those pages that are optimized for search engines and that you get to when you click on an (organic) link in Google’s hit lists.

The goal of a landing page is always a conversion. That is, a purchase, a deal, the download of a white paper, an inquiry, an appointment, etc.

If you have links to your site in one of your newsletters, it is often a good idea not to put them on one of the normal pages of your website. Instead, it is recommended to have your own landing page.

Meanwhile, a good landing page:

• is focused on a single theme
• is as short as possible
• is optimized for the context from which the visitor comes (formulation of the link, image world or message of the ad…)
• dispels the last doubts (e.g. through testimonials, guarantees, seals of approval…)
• uses forms with very few fields
• has exactly one call to action (CTA)

How to create an SEO-focused landing page

First, you’ll want to optimize your URL, page title, and H2s for your target keywords. When it comes to your URL, a custom domain does have its advantages for landing pages, but you might instead prefer to leverage the SEO of your existing domain. Either way, ensure your URL is keyword heavy.

Above the fold, the page should include the key selling points and a call to action. There should be few other distractions here. This is established best practice for conversion-focused landing pages as well, but that’s where the similarities end.

Using a simple vertical design and repeating the call to action as you scroll down, you’ll want to add as much value for the reader as possible — the more useful and interesting the content, the more likely you are to attract backlinks and boost your rankings. In addition to that, you should also engage in link-building strategies.

Why it’s important to optimize your landing pages for search engines

Landing pages that are optimized according to SEO best practices will drive more traffic of people who need your services. How?

• Search engines will better understand the purpose of your page and rank it higher in search results, which will in turn lead to more traffic.
• Visitors will easily find your page when they need it the most — this improves their experience, which brings more conversions.
• Optimized landing pages will increase your Page Quality Rating, which brings other benefits like cheaper and more effective AdWords campaigns.

Where do I place my landing page on the site?

How do I best anchor landing pages in the hierarchy of my website?

If you want the landing page to benefit from the search engine authority of your domain, then use a subpage as the URL (for example www.yourwebsite.com/yourgreatestproduct-promotion.html)

If long-term SEO optimization is more important to you, a domain of your own (like www.yourgreatestproduct-promotion.com) may be the better choice. Because if the search term appears in the URL, the page will be weighted higher at Google.

Always consider the main purpose of a page. If it is conversion, then focus on the optimization possibilities just shown. If it is the attraction of new visitors via search engines, then follow above all the classic SEO tactics.