If you want people to find your landing page in the search engines it first needs to be optimized. This means your page must contain keywords people are searching on to get found. If you spend hours writing persuasive copy but doesn’t include the keywords people would use to find your site you won’t attain good rankings in the search engines.
7 Steps for landing page optimization
1. Do your keyword research first
Research your keywords before writing your web content. Use free keyword tools such as the Google External Keyword Tool or Wordtracker to find keywords that are being searched on each month. For instance the keyword phrase “website promotion strategies” receives 91 global monthly searches (since I last checked) and 58 local monthly searches using Google’s keyword tool. Therefore I included this phrase in the web copy of my ebook “Website Promotion Strategies”
Where to place keywords in your landing page
2. Meta Tags
These are the tags that search engines use to find your website. The title meta tag is the most important one so make sure your main keywords appear at the beginning of this tag. The next tag is the description tag which should describe what your site. This is what people see in the search engines that will cause them to click to your site so make sure you create a well written description. The keywords meta tag no longer carries much weight in the search engines however it’s still worth adding your main keywords to this tag.
3. Headings
Search engines give more weight to keywords placed in headings (ie H1, H2, H3) than in the body of your content. Make sure you include your main keywords in these headings however don’t over do it otherwise it won’t read naturally.
4. Introductory paragraph
Search engines typically look for keywords at the beginning of your web page. Therefore weave several of your main keywords into your introductory paragraph.
5. Content body
This is the main content of your landing page so integrate your keywords throughout your writing. Don’t always use the same keyword phrase. Instead include keywords related to your product. Always keep in mind you are writing primarily for your readers not the search engines.
6. Testimonials
Testimonials provide great credibility to your readers. Don’t create fake testimonials as this will devalue your content. When asking for testimonials provide some samples to make it easier for them to write one. Make sure you include keywords within the testimonial.
7. URL
Selecting a website address for your landing page is not easy because most good domain names are already taken. Get creative by adding a word to the end of your main keyword. For instance if you were selling chocolates you obviously can’t use chocolate dot com but perhaps modify the name to:
ChocolateShopper dot com
ChocolateChannel dot com
Landing page optimization is the first step in obtaining good rankings in the search engines. The other major component is link building which I’ll cover in another article.
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[…] my last article I discussed the Top 7 ways to optimize your landing page. This is only one aspect of Landing Page SEO. The other crucial step is link building often called […]