Shoreline Media Landing Page & Website Optimization
The page you send customers to after clicking your ad, commonly referred to as a landing page, can have a huge impact on your Organic and Paid advertising effectiveness and budget. By following a few landing page best practices, you can work to improve your Ad Quality Score, which typically leads to more cost-effective results.
At Shoreline, we always suggest sending the user to a tailored landing page, rather than a homepage, so they don’t have to click around to find the content they are looking for. When a user feels confused or must click around different areas of a page they tend to exit the page.
Why is landing page optimization important?
Your landing page experience also affects ad rank position, Quality Score, and overall cost. This is also important for your Organic SEO strategy. So if your landing page is causing users to consistently leave without making a purchase, this may cause your ads to show less often, or not show up at all.
PRO TIP: We do not suggest just making edits but making small edits such as button colors, button text, placement, etc., and A/B test the changes with the original formatted landing page.
Decreased Bounce Rate
The better tailored that your landing page is to a specific audience, the less likely they will be to click away or bounce immediately. If you drive traffic to a highly-targeted landing page instead of a generic one, this is likely to maximize your conversions, and reduce your Cost Per Click (CPC).
Improved Ad Position
Google notices when people find your landing page more relevant than others. The more useful information and the better experience your website provides, the more likely your ad will show in a higher position.
Improved Quality Score
Landing page relevance plays a large part in how Google Ads calculates your Quality Score. The more relevant your landing page is to your chosen keywords, the higher your Quality Score will be. When you improve your Quality Score, this helps your ads rank higher, and results in you paying less per click.
Increased Links & Authority
When you feature relevant and interesting content on your landing page, your site visitors are more likely to share your page with others. This results in greater brand exposure for you, at zero cost.
Landing page optimization best practices
The Shoreline team is focused on delivering users the best possible results. Therefore our Organic and Paid Strategies work so well together. While the Paid strategies work on showing your ads at the very top of the pages the Organic strategy works on showcasing your business below those ads in the maps and organic results under the maps section.
What do customers want to see on landing pages?
Use a clean and concise design.
This is one of the most important pieces to a site and something The Shoreline Developers mention daily. Make sure that your layout is simple, clear, and not distracting. A professional design indicates that your business is legitimate and investing in its own success. If a user has to click on all of these different areas for info you lose them. Keep it simple with an easy call-to-action such as a button, chat, form, etc.
Make your landing page easy to navigate.
The number one rule for landing page best practices is giving customers what they want. Make sure that it’s easy for your customers to navigate their options.
Relevant
The website that visitors click into should be useful and applicable to what they’re looking for. Page layouts, titles, etc. should be consistent.
Trustworthy
If a landing page is poorly designed or lacks product or service explanations, this sends a signal to users that the brand or website may not be completely honest or credible.
Easy
Users shouldn’t have to click through a million links to find what they’re looking for. A landing page should be simple and straightforward. They do not need any flashy bells and whistles.
Reliable
A landing page should be consistent and accessible, no matter the platform. If there are any issues such as a slow page load time, this may cause visitors to leave the site prematurely.
Call to actions
Match the call to action on your ads to your landing page. Whether they are coming from organic Searches, Social media Ads, Google Ads, or any type of search, users like seeing calls to action so they can get their questions answered. Buttons, Forms, Chats, etc. are all great ways to do this. Using HeatMaps will allow you to study data of new visitors and returning visitors’ actions such as where their mouse goes, when they stop scrolling, etc. to help show the journey and interest. This is done on the main landing page or homepage to collect data. Basically, make sure they stand out.
Make your call to action buttons sufficiently large.
If your call to action buttons are too small, your visitors won’t be able to spot them. Consider enlarging your buttons so that they’re more visible and eye-catching.
Get straight to the point.
Skip the long, complex introductions. Get to the point and give your customers the information that they’re looking for immediately.
Provide a consistent experience.
Consistency is THE most important. You should provide the same brand experience to all your customers, regardless of whether they’re browsing your website on a tablet, desktop or mobile device. To do this, either create a mobile-optimized landing page to use with your mobile ads or design your site to be mobile-responsive.
Avoid too much Flash or JavaScript.
Certain features like flashing ads or pop-ups are often hard for our crawlers to read and may make the Google Ads system think that your page doesn’t offer relevant content. These can also slow down page load time.
Keep your landing page consistent with your brand.
Users expect a seamless experience. If your landing page isn’t consistent with your brand, consumers may question whether your business is legitimate. Easy to navigate, easy to read, no flashy areas that they have to search for.
Use the same value proposition on your landing page.
This also ties into the trustworthiness of your website. If you’re offering free delivery in your ad, then your landing page should also highlight free delivery.
Don’t use pop-ups.
When users click on your ad, they expect to be taken directly to your landing page. Pop-ups may annoy or scare away potential customers by asking for too much information, too early on. Popups can be used but stay clear from using them on important landing pages.
Make your landing page load as quickly as possible.
Your page load time plays a big role in ensuring a good user experience. If a page takes too long to load, users will often get frustrated and leave the page, indicating to Google that your page isn’t the best option. Use Page Speed Insights to determine whether your page is up to par.
Optimize any images used.
The number of images you use affects your page load time. Ensure that images on your landing page are relevant, and that they aren’t too large.
Verify any facts or claims and don’t exaggerate.
If you state that you offer “24-hour shipping” or the “largest selection of sneakers online” on your website, make sure you can deliver. Don’t exaggerate and mislead your customers; this may lead to negative reviews.
In Conclusion
Make it an ongoing effort to optimize the landing pages that you utilize in your ad campaigns, Organic Strategy, Social Media Strategy, etc. so that you can provide your visitors with a better experience. When you work to minimize your bounce rate and improve your quality score, this helps you to boost conversions.
Trust Shoreline.
Categorised in: The Shoreline Blog
This post was written by Shoreline Content Team
