Landing pages and SEO: the disconnection so far

Despite their appar­ent dif­fer­ences, SEO and land­ing pages are more con­nect­ed than most mar­keters realise. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, this rela­tion­ship is often over­looked, lead­ing to missed oppor­tu­ni­ties for opti­mal dig­i­tal performance.

Tra­di­tion­al­ly, SEO strate­gies focus on craft­ing high-qual­i­ty con­tent, acquir­ing author­i­ta­tive back­links, and opti­mis­ing the web­site’s back­end infra­struc­ture. These ele­ments, no doubt, are foun­da­tion­al. How­ev­er, when land­ing pages are left out, we miss out on an excit­ing opportunity.

Land­ing pages, by design, are intend­ed to cap­ture a vis­i­tor’s atten­tion and dri­ve a spe­cif­ic action. If they are not opti­mised for search engines, you miss out on a vast amount of organ­ic traf­fic that could be direct­ed to these crit­i­cal con­ver­sion points.

More­over, an inef­fi­cient­ly designed land­ing page can serve as a bot­tle­neck. Even if oth­er parts of the site excel in SEO, a poor land­ing page can deter vis­i­tors, increase bounce rates, and ulti­mate­ly, hurt the site’s rank­ing on search engine results pages (SERPs).

Mean­while, when we talk about cre­at­ing effec­tive land­ing pages, the con­ver­sa­tion often revolves around per­sua­sive CTAs, com­pelling head­lines, and show­cas­ing social proof. Though these are essen­tial com­po­nents, SEO should be includ­ed in these dis­cus­sions too.

Inte­grat­ing SEO best prac­tices into land­ing page designs means the page is not just designed for con­ver­sions but also for dis­cov­er­abil­i­ty. When a land­ing page is opti­mised for search engines, it stands a bet­ter chance of being found by poten­tial cus­tomers. And when they find it, the per­sua­sive ele­ments of the page can then guide them towards tak­ing the desired action.

Giv­en this dis­con­nec­tion between land­ing pages and SEO, there’s a press­ing need to unite these two strate­gies. This would not only increase vis­i­bil­i­ty on search engines but also boost con­ver­sion rates once users land on the pages in question.

This arti­cle will explain exact­ly how land­ing pages are impact­ed by SEO and give you some top tips for opti­mis­ing them. Let’s dive in:

What are landing pages?

When poten­tial cus­tomers click on a mar­ket­ing cam­paign link, it typ­i­cal­ly takes them to a land­ing page.

Land­ing pages serve as the bait at the end of a fish­ing rod. They may be designed to cap­ture atten­tion, col­lect email address­es, pro­vide infor­ma­tion, attract web­site traf­fic, pro­mote prod­ucts, or secure sales.

Land­ing pages have a sin­gle pur­pose, and that’s how they dif­fer from reg­u­lar web pages. Vis­i­tors may “land” on them after click­ing on an email, advert, or search engine result.

Though land­ing pages can mas­sive­ly vary in appear­ance and pur­pose, they can be broad­ly organ­ised into two cat­e­gories: those that aim to con­vert and those that aim to inform. Here’s one way you could under­stand these two types:

Sales landing page

A sales land­ing page will be pro­mot­ing a ser­vice or prod­uct explic­it­ly. The whole page’s con­tent will be focused on the pur­pose of con­ver­sion, and there­fore may feel more “salesy”. This type of land­ing page may also be known as a lead-gen­er­a­tion page or a click-through land­ing page.

SEO landing page

When busi­ness­es begin to think about SEO, the range of pages that could be con­sid­ered “land­ing pages” broad­ens. In this cat­e­go­ry, land­ing pages are designed to deliv­er infor­ma­tion to the vis­i­tor (e.g., per­haps about a prod­uct, indus­try, or any­thing the user may search for) and gen­er­ate web­site traf­fic. These land­ing pages may be blog posts, event pages, or prod­uct pages, among others.

How do landing pages affect SEO?

There are sev­er­al ways that land­ing pages can impact the SEO per­for­mance of your web­site or web page. So, it’s worth check­ing out each of them if you want to improve your performance.

Firstly, think about user engagement metrics:

Search engines mon­i­tor how users inter­act with a page. High bounce rates, short vis­it­ing times, and low click-through rates can indi­cate poor rel­e­vance or user expe­ri­ence, which leads to low­er rankings.

Effec­tive land­ing pages that engage users and encour­age them to spend time on the page can improve these met­rics and pos­i­tive­ly impact SEO.

Next, think about search query relevance:

A well-opti­mised land­ing page with clear and rel­e­vant con­tent can help the page rank for tar­get­ed search queries. This rel­e­vance is gauged by search engines analysing the page’s con­tent, key­word usage, meta tags, and more.

Don’t forget about page loading speed:

Land­ing pages that are heavy, poor­ly cod­ed, or filled with large media can load slow­ly. Search engines fac­tor in page load speed as a rank­ing sig­nal because it direct­ly affects user experience.

With that in mind, consider mobile optimisation:

Since mobile phones are so wide­ly used for inter­net brows­ing, search engines pri­ori­tise mobile-friend­ly pages. Land­ing pages that are not opti­mised for mobile devices can suf­fer in mobile search rank­ings because they’ve not been cre­at­ed with UX in mind.

Next, consider the quality of your backlinks:

If a land­ing page is high qual­i­ty and offers valu­able infor­ma­tion, it is more like­ly to earn back­links from oth­er rep­utable web­sites. These back­links can sig­nif­i­cant­ly boost the SEO strength of the page. You may need to use out­reach tech­niques to encour­age these.

Plus, internal linking is crucial:

Effec­tive inter­nal link­ing from a land­ing page can dis­trib­ute page author­i­ty across mul­ti­ple pages, help­ing your whole site to rank well. It also helps search engines under­stand the site’s struc­ture and rela­tion­ships between dif­fer­ent site content.

If your site has duplicate content:

If mul­ti­ple land­ing pages have sub­stan­tial­ly sim­i­lar con­tent, search engines may con­sid­er them dupli­cates, which can dilute the page’s SEO val­ue and poten­tial­ly lead to rank­ing penal­ties. Be wary of this when cre­at­ing new con­tent and be sure to dou­ble check this isn’t your culprit.

Search engines like fresh content:

Reg­u­lar­ly updat­ed land­ing pages are seen as more rel­e­vant by search engines, espe­cial­ly for search queries where time­li­ness is crit­i­cal. So, when think­ing about boost­ing the SEO per­for­mance of your land­ing pages, be sure that you’ve ruled this out.

SEO is crucial to landing pages

Evi­dent­ly, if your land­ing page per­for­mance has a leak, it could be caused by a range of cul­prits. In addi­tion, the best-per­form­ing land­ing pages are often designed with both user expe­ri­ence and SEO prin­ci­ples in mind.

So, though you may think the most impor­tant parts of land­ing pages are their abil­i­ty to con­vert, their head­lines, and their CTAs, there are actu­al­ly sev­er­al cru­cial things to consider.

How to optimise landing pages for SEO

Clear­ly, there are mul­ti­ple ele­ments that con­tribute to land­ing page suc­cess – and that’s on top of the essen­tial CTAs, head­lines, lead cap­ture forms, and val­ue proposition.

Once you’re hap­py with your land­ing pages, it’s time to opti­mise them for SEO. We’ve sim­pli­fied this next step into 7 categories:

1. User experience (UX)

Opti­mis­ing user expe­ri­ence (UX) is piv­otal for the suc­cess of land­ing pages in SEO. A well-designed, user-friend­ly page ensures vis­i­tors can nav­i­gate through con­tent seam­less­ly, enhanc­ing their over­all expe­ri­ence and satisfaction.

Focus on a clean design with intu­itive nav­i­ga­tion, ensur­ing that infor­ma­tion is easy to find and under­stand. Page load speed is also a crit­i­cal aspect of UX; faster-load­ing pages keep users engaged, reduc­ing bounce rates.

More­over, ensure that your land­ing pages are mobile-respon­sive, as a sig­nif­i­cant por­tion of users access web­sites via mobile devices. A pos­i­tive UX not only keeps vis­i­tors engaged but also sig­nals search engines about the page’s qual­i­ty, con­tribut­ing to high­er rankings.

2. Technical SEO

Tech­ni­cal SEO encom­pass­es the back­end opti­mi­sa­tion that enhances a land­ing page’s vis­i­bil­i­ty and per­for­mance in search engine rankings.

Key aspects include opti­mis­ing meta tags such as title tags and meta descrip­tions for tar­get­ed key­words, ensur­ing URLs are struc­tured clean­ly and log­i­cal­ly, and util­is­ing schema markup to pro­vide search engines with detailed infor­ma­tion about the page’s con­tent. Addi­tion­al­ly, ensur­ing that your land­ing page loads quick­ly and is mobile-respon­sive is crucial.

Imple­ment­ing prop­er inter­nal link­ing strate­gies also boosts the page’s SEO, help­ing search engines nav­i­gate and under­stand the con­tent bet­ter. Pri­ori­tis­ing these tech­ni­cal ele­ments ensures a sol­id foun­da­tion for land­ing pages, enhanc­ing their over­all SEO effectiveness.

3. Keywords

Effec­tive key­word strat­e­gy is cen­tral to opti­mis­ing land­ing pages for SEO. Begin by con­duct­ing thor­ough key­word research to iden­ti­fy terms and phras­es that your tar­get audi­ence uses to find prod­ucts or infor­ma­tion relat­ed to your offerings.

Focus on key­words that align with the user intent and the con­tent of your land­ing page. Incor­po­rate these key­words nat­u­ral­ly with­in your con­tent, titles, head­ings, and meta descriptions.

Long-tail key­words, which are more spe­cif­ic phras­es, can also be lever­aged to attract a more tar­get­ed audi­ence. Avoid key­word stuff­ing; instead, aim for a bal­anced and nat­ur­al inte­gra­tion of key­words to enhance rel­e­vance and vis­i­bil­i­ty in search results.

4. Content

The con­tent you cre­ate to fill your land­ing page is per­haps the most pow­er­ful indi­ca­tor of suc­cess, although the nature and pur­pose of con­tent can vary sig­nif­i­cant­ly between sales and SEO land­ing pages.

On sales land­ing pages, con­tent is designed to per­suade and con­vert. It empha­sis­es ben­e­fits, fea­tures, tes­ti­mo­ni­als, and com­pelling calls to action. This con­tent is suc­cinct, tar­get­ed, and intend­ed to encour­age a spe­cif­ic user behav­iour, like mak­ing a pur­chase or sign­ing up.

In con­trast, SEO land­ing pages, often seen in blog posts or infor­ma­tion­al sites, pri­ori­tise depth, rel­e­vance, and infor­ma­tive­ness. Here, the con­tent is rich, address­es user queries, and is pep­pered with researched keywords.

5. CTAs

Effec­tive CTAs are essen­tial for guid­ing users towards desired actions on a land­ing page. For SEO land­ing pages, strik­ing the right bal­ance is crucial.

Google may per­ceive pages with an exces­sive num­ber of CTAs as spam, poten­tial­ly impact­ing their search rank­ings. Instead of over­whelm­ing vis­i­tors with mul­ti­ple CTA ele­ments, the focus should be on pre­sent­ing a sin­gu­lar, clear call to action that aligns with the page’s pri­ma­ry objec­tive. This ensures that the page offers gen­uine val­ue to its visitors.

For sales-ori­ent­ed pages, the CTAs should be com­pelling, urg­ing the vis­i­tor to make a pur­chase or take anoth­er con­ver­sion-dri­ven action. In all cas­es, the clar­i­ty and rel­e­vance of the CTAs enhance user engage­ment and SEO per­for­mance. CTAs are bol­stered fur­ther by their design and a full guide to CTAs can be read here.

6. Linking strategy

A robust link­ing strat­e­gy sig­nif­i­cant­ly enhances the SEO strength of land­ing pages. The two com­po­nents of this strat­e­gy are inter­nal and exter­nal linking.

Inter­nal links con­nect var­i­ous pages with­in your web­site, guid­ing users to relat­ed con­tent and improv­ing site nav­i­ga­tion. They also dis­trib­ute page author­i­ty and rank­ing pow­er through­out the site.

Exter­nal links, on the oth­er hand, link dif­fer­ent web­sites to each oth­er. While links to your web­site cer­tain­ly vouch for the cred­i­bil­i­ty of your con­tent, you’ll need to be sure that they are rel­e­vant and come from rep­utable sites.

Remem­ber, both types of links should add val­ue to the user expe­ri­ence and not appear forced or arti­fi­cial, as search engines pri­ori­tise gen­uine, user-focused con­tent in their rankings.

7. Maintaining and measuring

Reg­u­lar eval­u­a­tion and adjust­ment are fun­da­men­tal to the sus­tained SEO suc­cess of land­ing pages. Employ ana­lyt­ics tools like Google Ana­lyt­ics to track vital met­rics such as organ­ic traf­fic, bounce rate, and con­ver­sion rates. These insights will help deter­mine which strate­gies are effec­tive and which areas need refining.

Addi­tion­al­ly, keep an eye on key­word rank­ings to ensure your con­tent remains vis­i­ble for tar­get­ed search terms. As search engine algo­rithms and user behav­iours evolve, it’s cru­cial to update con­tent, refresh out­dat­ed infor­ma­tion, and refine SEO strate­gies accordingly.

Con­tin­u­al learn­ing from per­for­mance data, stay­ing updat­ed with SEO best prac­tices, and mak­ing time­ly adjust­ments ensure that your land­ing pages not only achieve suc­cess but also main­tain it in the long run.

Common landing page mistakes

Now that you know what you need to do, you might have begun brain­storm­ing your new strat­e­gy. But before you get start­ed, be aware of the fol­low­ing land­ing page mistakes:

• Lack of clear focus – If you try to achieve too many goals with a sin­gle page, vis­i­tors will like­ly get con­fused. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, this means reduced con­ver­sions. Make sure you know what you’re set­ting out to achieve before you begin.
• Incon­sis­tent brand­ing – Fail­ing to main­tain brand con­sis­ten­cy (colours, fonts, and mes­sag­ing) can dimin­ish trust and recog­ni­tion. Plus, let’s be hon­est, it does­n’t look as good.
• Over­load­ing with text – Using dense blocks of text with­out visu­al breaks is all too com­mon on the web. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, this makes con­tent much hard­er to digest and it leads to increased bounce rates.
• Neglect­ing social proof – Fail­ing to include tes­ti­mo­ni­als, reviews, or oth­er forms of social val­i­da­tion is a rook­ie error. Includ­ing these can seri­ous­ly boost trust and con­ver­sions, so don’t neglect this addi­tion to your page.
• Using gener­ic stock images – Using gener­ic or irrel­e­vant stock pho­tos can mas­sive­ly reduce the authen­tic­i­ty and relata­bil­i­ty of a web page. Don’t make the mis­take of think­ing peo­ple won’t notice – because they real­ly do. If you can’t take your own pho­tos, con­sid­er cre­at­ing your own unique designs with a tool like Canva.
• Skip­ping A/B test­ing – Not test­ing dif­fer­ent vari­a­tions of land­ing pages can lead to untold loss­es. Until you find out which ele­ments res­onate most with your tar­get mar­ket, you can’t be 100% con­fi­dent in your land­ing page. Con­duct test­ing to secure con­ver­sions and con­nect with your audience.

If this list has made you rethink all your past strate­gies, don’t wor­ry. These mis­takes are super com­mon, and they can be eas­i­ly rec­ti­fied with a bit of focus and strategy.

Connecting your new strategy

If we’ve con­vinced you of the cru­cial link between land­ing pages and SEO, you’ll prob­a­bly be revis­ing your old strat­e­gy. Here at pur­ple­plan­et, we offer a range of ser­vices to help busi­ness­es achieve their dig­i­tal goals. Whether it’s mar­ket­ing, web design, web devel­op­ment, or SEO, among oth­ers, our expert team can help you with your new goals.

Get in touch