Internet Marketing Centricity

Google Adds Additional Landing Page Quality Factor: Destination Load Times

Google announced a few weeks ago that it will use the load times of your destination urls as another factor in the Quality Score for your landing page. The landing page quality score impacts the minimum bid for each of your keywords.

According to Google, "you can see a keyword's load time grade on the Keyword Analysis Page.

• If your keyword is graded This page loads slowly, your landing page quality and Quality Score will be negatively affected.
• If your keyword is graded No problems found, your landing page quality and Quality Score will not be affected. The one exception is if your keyword is graded No problems found and marked Load time is faster than the average in your server's geographic region. In this case, your landing page quality and Quality Score may be positively affected."

This is a good idea from Google. Most searchers will click the "back" button if your destination page takes too long to load anyway, so this "rating" may help you identify issues with load times that have been costing you money.

Rob Reed
Terrakon Marketing
Search Engine Marketing Firm

Landing Page Optimization: Five Elements that Can Impact Conversion Rates

Optimizing your landing pages is probably the most significant activity you can do to increase conversion rates for your pay per click advertising. Just a small improvement in your conversion rate can lead to a significant increase in profits. In fact, a good landing page is usually the difference between making or losing money in paid search.

While there are many elements you should continually test to beat your control, I’ve listed just a few elements that typically impact your conversion rate – upward or downward. Keep in mind, there are very few “truths” on the Internet. What I mean by that is just because one element works on someone’s website, does not mean it will have the same impact on your website.

Always be testing!

Here are five different elements you can test:

Headline
The headline on your landing page is probably one of the most important elements to test on your landing page. We’ve seen significant jumps in conversion rates simply by adding or changing a headline.

Testimonials
Generally, testimonials on your landing page or during the conversion path are a good idea. However, it is very important that testimonials are written so they are believable and verifiable. There are so many unethical internet marketers today that you must be really careful how the testimonials are phrased on your landing page. In addition, it is critical that testimonials are placed in the proper position to garner the best conversion.

Price
This will be more difficult for some, but if you have a manageable way of adjusting your product or service pricing, then try different price points to see which brings you the most profits. Don’t assume a lower price will generate more conversions. There are studies that show a higher price can sometimes lead to increased conversions – and profits. A higher price point can sometimes result in a better perception of quality and utility.

Button Text
We’re all used to the standard action buttons on websites like “Submit.” Try testing more descriptive text on your action buttons to see if you can move the needle on conversions. A few examples include, “Download Now,” “Request Free Quote,” “Sign-Up for Newsletter,” etc.

Credibility Logos
There are a lot of unethical individuals and businesses on the Internet. If someone has not experienced this first hand, they surely have heard the stories. Credibility logos or seals as they're typically called, can help build trust with visitors. Studies have been done which show they can improve conversion rates. There are seals for a variety of purposes such as privacy, secured site, secured transactions, verified businesses, testimonials and more. The combination of credibility seals you select and positioning of the seals is very important.

While these five elements are not the only important variables you should test, these should be enough to get you started and could make a significant impact if you haven’t tested these elements in the past.

Rob Reed
Terrakon Marketing
Pay Per Click Consulting and Landing Page Optimization

Landing Page Optimization: Include a Privacy Policy Web Page

Google wants users to have a positive experience when they click on the search results in either Google's organic or paid listings. An important component of the user experience is the page they are taken to when they click on an advertisement - the advertiser's landing page.

Google reviews (electronically and/or manually) each landing page and calculates a landing page quality score - a component of your keywords' overall Quality Score. According to Google, a high landing page quality score can impact your AdWords account in three ways:

• Decrease your keywords' minimum bids
• Increase your keyword-targeted ads' position on the content network
• Improve the chances that your placement-targeted ads will win a position on your targeted placements

One of the factors in your landing page quality score is how you handle visitors' personal information. Google's guidelines on personal information:

• Unless necessary for the product or service that you're offering, don't request personal information.
• If you do request personal information, provide a privacy policy that discloses how the information will be used.
• Give options to limit the use of a user's personal information, such as the ability to opt out of receiving newsletters.
• Allow users to access your site's content without requiring them to register. Or, provide a preview of what users will get by registering.

So, if you want to optimize your landing pages, one of the things to include is a privacy policy that can be easily seen/accessed by both your human visitors and the Googlebot as well. I recommend a separate web page labeled "privacy policy" with links from each page on your site to the privacy policy.

If you want to include a trust element (credibility indicator) which can leverage your privacy policy and may provide a small bump in conversions, check out the Truste website for one of their privacy seals.

Landing Page Optimization: Selecting the Right Level Can Make the Difference

Hopefully, you've learned that directing all visitors to your home page is not a "best practice" when it comes to selecting a landing page for your pay per click advertising. If you sell products through your site, though, what is the best landing page to use - the category page, the specific product page or something else?

Of course, the best answer is that it depends on a number of factors and your individual situation. The only way to really know is to conduct valid and statistically significant tests using different combinations of keyword phrase, ad copy and landing page that generates the best conversion rate. I can, however, give you some ideas to test which worked for one of my apparel clients.

In general, if a searcher is looking for a product by style or model number (e.g. TrueVis 555-32 Straight-Leg Pants), we go directly to the product page. If technically possible, I would try to have the specific product along with other similar styles or models below or adjacent to the searched product with title, "Other Styles You May Like" or some similar text. Think about it. How often do you walk into a store with something specific in mind only to walk out with much more or sometimes something completely different?

What about a little more general search like "red pants?" This is where you sometimes have several options. First, how many different styles of "red pants" do you offer? If you only offer two or three different styles, don't you think a lot of visitors are going to be a little disappointed when they click your ad and see three small images of red pants and a lot of white space? If you don't have a large selection of "red pants," then consider using your "pants" category as a landing page - even though you know the searcher is looking for "red pants." We were able to significantly increase conversion rates for several keywords where there wasn't a "full selection" of styles by using this strategy.

What if someone searches on "pants?" If your ecommerce site is set up correctly, you may still have a couple of options from which to choose. Let's say you show eight product images per page and carry eighty different styles - so ten pages. Most websites will have hyper linked numbers 1,2,3,etc., but a "best practice" is to also include a "view all" link where all of the cagegory images can be seen on a single page by scrolling. So, is it better to send visitors to the single-page category page or send them to a query page where all of the items appear on one page without the need to click the numbered hyper links?

In many, but not all cases, we improved conversion rates by using the "view all" query category page. Keep in mind that it will take longer to load a page with all of those images, so be sure to consider this when testing your options.

By the way, this is really easy to test. Create two identical ads using different destination URLs for each and track which ad produces the highest conversion rate.

Rob Reed
Terrakon Marketing
Pay Per Click and Landing Page Consulting