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Posts Tagged ‘Page Optimization’

There’s a lot of discussion on this blog about optimization, conversion optimization, inbound marketing, search engine optimization… even multivariate testing and landing page optimization. Sometimes we forget that many sites are still in the 1990’s and are hard-coded HTML pages sitting unchanged on a server!

A CMS is a Content Management System. It allows non-technical users who don’t know HTML, FTP, JavaScript or the hundreds of other technologies to build, maintain and update their web site. Last week, I received a frantic call from a charity I host at no cost asking if I could update their events page since their web guy was unavailable.

I logged in via FTP, downloaded the file and made the necessary edits via Dreamweaver. I then lectured them that all of this work was really unnecessary. Another recent customer had sent their marketer off to HTML training so that they could have their site updated. This was also unnecessary. While a knowledge of web technologies is helpful, a good content management system can provide your company with all the tools needed to keep your site updated daily while removing the education and technical obstacles.

For the cost of the classes or the ongoing payments to the web guy, these companies could have implemented a robust content management system that they could control.

For one such customer, Paper-Lite, a document management system provider, we utilized WordPress. There are a number of other able content management solutions on the market, but this one had all the bells and whistles and was easily adaptable to the customer’s requirements.

Virtually every domain registrar now offers their own content management system or has auto-installation of other content management systems. My only advice would be to stick to a platform that has wide adoption and a large development community with it.

Keep in mind that installing a free CMS is not free, though. Maintenance upgrades are a must! Being the big boy on the free CMS block also lends itself to more criminals attempting to hack your platform. A free CMS hosted on a cheap hosting platform will also not withstand a ton of traffic – requiring you to beef up your infrastructure.

The benefits outweigh the risks if you have a good handy-man to keep your CMS healthy, though. Along with installing and configuring the CMS:

• We did some back-end optimizations for search engines with the right plugins and theme formatting.
• We customized the login page so their customers could login and see restricted content.
• We configured and tweaked a quote plugin to rotate customer quotes on the home page footer.
• We purchased and installed a robust form solution so they could capture inbound marketing leads.
• We updated an htaccess file to redirect old links to new paths to the same content. We also installed a redirection plugin to handle additional redirect requirements. This is often a step that’s overlooked by web designers and can kill your optimization. Make sure your old links still work… just point them to the new content!
• We installed themes and plugins so the site would render perfectly on iPhone, iPod touch and other mobile devices. People are utilizing mobile devices to browse sites more and more… is your site readable on these devices?
• We configured breadcrumbs on sections of the site with deep navigation so customers could navigate easier.
• Of course, we configured Webmasters, Stats plugins, and Analytics as well so the company could monitor its traffic.

Perhaps most important, we continue to help the company adopt to the new platform and utilize it effectively. A CMS like WordPress can be a bit daunting at first. I can assure you it’s much easier than explaining FTP and HTML, though!

Lastly, although WordPress is a worthy blogging platform, I honestly believe it’s a much better website content management system. Utilizing WordPress for blogging at a company can take quite a bit of effort… that’s why solutions like Compendium were developed. If you want a CMS platform for your site that offers a lot of tools and integrations, though, WordPress is a great solution.

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Today’s PPC Hero Landing Page Optimization Podcast will focus on the KidsCoats.com PPC landing page, submitted by Alan. Alan submitted the page because he’s looking for ideas to increase his conversion rates.

The PPC Hero team has provided an analysis of the well-formatted elements of the landing page, as well as some ideas which could be tested to continually improve PPC conversion rates. Our discussion focuses on the following areas:

• PPC ads/keywords – Branded terms are pretty much always going to convert at a higher rate than most other keywords, but using longer-tail keywords or more descriptive keywords may help with conversion rates as well. We also discuss how specialized ad text gains search volume and lowers your cost-per-conversion because these keywords are likely to have a higher conversion rate than the generic “girl’s coats”.

• Landing Page Graphics – The design of the page matches the content: fun kids coats. However, we do suggest testing a plain background. The brightly spotted background distracts from the design and color in the coats, so a plain background will help the products pop more. Also, the logo at the top is slightly pixelated and might look more sleek if it were cleaned up a little bit.

• Landing Page Navigation – The links at the top of the page should be the most important – if the mailing list sign up and size charts are not your most important links, move these down and replace them with higher priority links. On the landing page itself, you could test having each of the photos lead to product categories, not individual products, as another way for people to easily navigate to what they want. A third point on navigation we mention here is the mailing list signup. If you want people to sign up for your mailing list, you might want to put a box where they can submit their address directly next to the call at out the top of the homepage. People are more likely to fill it out if they can do it without having to navigate to a different page – there’s more immediacy.

• Landing Page Trust building – We mentioned a few things that you can highlight to build credibility with users including: About Us, Returns Policy and Secure Ordering Symbols. These should all be at the top of the page. You could also highlight benefits of the products’ quality like: machine washable, superior workmanship, or special orders available.

Visit the www.KidsCoats.com site and follow along with the PPC Hero team’s suggestions for various elements of the landing page!

Download MP3 podcast files:
1. PPC Hero Landing Page Optimization Podcast – KidsCoats.com (13.3 MB, .mp3)

You will need the Adobe Flash Player to listen to the podcasts.

Here is a quick snapshot of KidsCoats Landing Page:

KidsCoats.com Homepage

Are you interested in having your landing page critiqued by the PPC Hero team? Don’t be shy! We’d love to hear from you. Check out our submission guidelines and send us your information!

Today’s PPC Hero Landing Page Optimization Podcast will focus on the first4lawyers.com PPC landing page, submitted by Lee. Lee submitted the page because he’s looking for ideas to increase his conversion rates, and specifically for thoughts about the website’s overall appearance and calls to action. We don’t have a sampling of the ads and PPC keywords First4Lawyers uses for this landing page, so this podcast is focused on on-page conversion optimization.

The PPC Hero team has provided an analysis of the well-formatted elements of the landing page, as well as some ideas which could be tested to continually improve PPC conversion rates. Our discussion focuses on the following areas:

• Page aesthetics & trust- a clean site design establishes credibility & encourages user engagement, but reducing clutter and adding trust symbols such as association & certification logos can convey trustworthiness to website visitors.

• Conversion methods- multiple, prominently visible conversion methods on the page give users many opportunities to convert. Language changes could improve calls to action and color changes could draw more attention to some of the conversion methods offered.

• Website and landing page content- the site offers a plethora of useful information for potential clients and answers questions clearly. Testing some navigational changes on the landing page for important site content could help users find the information they’re looking for more quickly.

Visit the www.first4lawyers.com site and follow along with the PPC Hero team’s suggestions for various elements of the landing page!

Download MP3 podcast files:
1. PPC Hero Landing Page Optimization Podcast – First4Lawyers.com (7.8 MB, .mp3)

You will need the Adobe Flash Player to listen to the podcasts.

Here is a quick snapshot of First4Lawyers Landing Page:

First4Lawyers.com Homepage

Are you interested in having your landing page critiqued by the PPC Hero team? Don’t be shy! We’d love to hear from you. Check out our submission guidelines and send us your information!

This morning we’re launching our $16,000 SEM Sweepstakes Giveaway!

What does this mean exactly? This means we’re giving away $16,000 worth of SEM prizes. These prizes include:

• 100 copies of some of the best SEM books around! The topics range from paid search, search engine optimization, and landing page optimization!
• Exclusive access to excellent SEM software. Those who enter may win subscriptions to some of the best SEM management software available!
• One lucky grand prize winner will receive a free PPC account audit or a free SEO website audit from the Hanapin Marketing Team (who write PPC Hero and SEO Boy).

Plus, everyone who enters will receive PPC Hero’s unreleased new publication detailing the team’s experiences, tips, and cautions in inheriting very large PPC accounts, as well as access to the brand new SEO Boy keyword rankability tool!

We’ll draw winners at random starting on October 12, so go to the contest site and enter to win! Best of luck!

Today’s PPC Hero Landing Page Optimization Podcast will focus on the Greensboro500.com PPC Landing Page, submitted by Nick. Nick said in his submission that this page is about 8 months old, and conversion rates have been declining since that time. They are geotargeted such that ads only appear to searchers within a ten mile radius of their office.

The PPC Hero team has provided some tips on some elements of the site and PPC account structure that could be modified to provide a better user experience, PPC quality score, and increase overall conversion rates. During our discussion we focused on these areas:

• Keywords should be placed in specialized ad groups by searcher intent, and should also appear in the ad text for their ad group and on the landing page.
• Using “trust symbols” such as association membership symbols or security symbols on the site can increase visitor trust and increase the likelihood of conversion.
• Including a link to your privacy policy is important both from a user standpoint and for your landing page’s quality score with Google Adwords.
• A concise contact form is appropriate, but the page should give users an idea of the benefits they will directly receive by filling out the contact form, direct them to fill out the form, and make it more apparent (in a headline for the form) what action you want them to perform.
• Using different methods to geotarget searchers may assist in reaching a wider, but still very relevant, audience.

Nick’s core keywords include:
houses for sale, houses for rent, rent to own houses, homes for sale, homes for rent

Download MP3 podcast files:
1. PPC Hero Landing Page Optimization Podcast – GreensBoro500.com (12.7 MB, .mp3)

You will need the Adobe Flash Player to listen to the podcasts.

A sample ad text reads:

Greensboro Houses
$2000 Total Move In!
Quick, Simple Process.
www.Greensboro500.com

Here is a quick snapshot of GreensBoro500’s Landing Page:

GreensBoro500 Home Page

Are you interested in having your landing page critiqued by the PPC Hero team? Don’t be shy! We’d love to hear from you. Check out our submission guidelines and send us your information!

Today’s PPC Hero Landing Page Optimization Podcast will focus on the Business Plan Pro PPC Landing Page, submitted by Nicole. Nicole said in her submission that this page was a redesign of BusinessPlanPro.com. In the initial testing phase, the new page did about 10% better in conversions. However, after implementation the new page showed an overall decrease in conversions, so she switched back to the original page. She would like to know what is wrong with her new page.

With these challenges in mind, our fearless PPC Hero team has provided some tips on solving some of these problems. During our discussion we focused on these areas:

• If Business Plan Pro is the main driving keyword for this site, then the keyword density could be enhanced.
• Opportunities to improve the flow of the landing page.
• Include more features and benefits.

Nicole’s core keywords include: Business Plan Pro, Business Plan Software, Business Plan, Business Planning software, Writing a Business Plan, and Business Plan Template.

or if you want to use another podcasting service, just use this link to add the feed.
PPC Hero Podcast Feed

Download MP3 podcast files:
1. PPC Hero Landing Page Optimization Podcast – BusinessPlanPro (14.5 MB, .mp3)

You will need the Adobe Flash Player to listen to the podcasts.

Here are a couple quick snapshots of BusinessPlanPro’s PPC Landing Page and it’s homepage:

Business Plan Pro's PPC Landing Page

Business Plan Pro's Homepage

Are you interested in having your landing page critiqued by the PPC Hero team? Don’t be shy! We’d love to hear from you. Check out our submission guidelines and send us your information!

• If you want successful PPC ads, you have to do much more than just insert calls-to-action and hope visitors will respond. Great ad-writing is all about the language – understanding the language of your customers and enforcing the bond between ad and landing page.
• Are PPC marketers sneaky bastards? You bet! Just kidding. Actually, Greg over at SEM Geek has interesting take on landing page optimization. This post focuses on how a PPC manager can get landing page changes made when working with slow-moving clients.
• Adam Goldberg has written the second part of his ‘Giving Credit to Keywords Where Credit is Due‘ series over at Search Engine Land. Here he is analyzing the top-of-funnel keywords and their performance and ROI. Very good case study (of sorts).
• PPC Without Pity posted this week on How To Increase PPC Conversions. The post, unsurprisingly focuses on landing pages as a decisive factor in increasing conversions. We are big advocates of testing landing pages and this is exactly why!
• There are many paid options when it comes to promoting your company/product, but have you ever considered using the AdWords location extensions? Get on the Google Map and ensure your business locations can be found!
• It can be tough getting feedback about the quality of your advertising campaigns. Google is now allowing advertisers to check the pulse of their ads and brands through display ad feedback and the use of content network served gadget ads.
• To Google it or to Bing it? According to Cedric Chambaz of Microsoft Advertising blog, each generation comes up with their own branded verbs. Bing is fresh, but will it prevail?
• On Tuesday, Google announced its TV for All contest. Google TV Ads allows smaller companies a way to advertise easily and affordably on television. Their contest will run through October 5^th. I’m going to start my story boards right now!

It’s common knowledge that a professional website design can increase conversion rates and sales. A professional website design ensures trust and credibility with your users. Over at www.seoboy.com (our brother site) there is a post outlining a few do’s and don’ts on creating a web design that conveys trust and credibility to help increase conversions. But website design and landing pages can play a part not just in SEO, but in PPC too. Actually, there is an entire series posted on SEO Boy that gives tips on creating that sense of trust and credibility with your users in order to increase conversions. Check it out when you get time.

Now, back to PPC landing page optimization. The tactics I describe in this post will not only improve your Quality Score which can increase your ad position for a lower cost, but can also help convert more people that come to your website.

Now, I will admit that most of these tips are for lead generation, not all of these tips would apply to an ecommerce website.

1. Call to Action/Buttons – It’s no secret that adding a call –to- action or a button that is large and very noticeable on your PPC landing pages will help increase conversions. Anything that draws attention to a user is more likely to get clicked on. Tell people what you want them to do on your landing page, don’t just assume they’ll know automatically.
2. Minimal Navigation – The key to successful PPC landing pages is keep the user to from getting too distracted. Remove the top, left or right hand navigation from your main site on your PPC landing pages. Simply have your company logo at the top left of the page with a link to your homepage. That will be enough for people to click on if they need more information before converting.
3. Important information above the fold – Some people who are searching for a service like yours are sometimes in a hurry. If they enter your landing page and don’t see what they need to do within the first 5 seconds, they’re likely to bail. Be sure that your call to action, button, or form is above the fold. Be sure to check Google analytics to see what resolution size the majority of your users are currently using. This will help your designers make the important information above the fold for most of your users.
4. Easy-to-scan copy – I’ve worked on clients before that use way too much industry language in their PPC landing pages. You have to think that if an executive is looking for a service they’re likely to ask their assistant, intern or even a receptionist to do research before they engage in anything. While the executive may know all the industry jargon the assistant or intern may not. Also, these people who are searching for many companies are in a hurry, and simply just scan the copy on your landing page and don’t necessarily read through it all the way. So break up your copy into several paragraphs instead of one large paragraph. And I like to use the rule of thumb to put your benefits or advantages of choosing your company in a bullet list or numbered list so it stands out more prominently.
5. Few images to convey professionalism – Some PPC landing pages I have seen have a lot of well, dorky images that don’t convey any professionalism whatsoever. This can really turn off a potential client and make you look untrustworthy. Have one to 2 images on your PPC landing pages that show professional looking people, smiling as if they have just engaged in yoru services and are incredibly happy. Also having too many images on your PPC landing page will make your load times longer.
6. Fast loading times – One factor of the Google Adwords Quality Score is the load times of your pages. If it takes more than 10 seconds to fully load your pages that’s way to long. It should take less than 5 seconds. Large flash files, too many images, or animated graphics could hinder your fast load times. Also, if I have to wait for a flash animation to load before I can get information about your services, I’m more than likely not going to stick around or come back.
7. Dynamic headlines – Using dynamic headlines on your PPC landing pages is a great way to better target what the user is actually typing in the search box. Dynamic headlines are generated by tracking URLs that will insert the specific keyword into the headline. This is like using dynamic keyword insertion in your PPC ads, only it’s for your landing pages. If the page headline is more targeted to what the user typed in the search, they’re much more likely to continue reading and complete an action.
8. PPC keywords in your landing page copy – Many people think this is only true for SEO, but you still need to include your PPC keywords in the copy of your PPC Landing page. This will not only help improve your Quality Scores, but will also help your users connect better to your copy.
9. Short contact form – You could potentially be driving away qualified leads by having a contact form that is too long. If your contact form is running below the fold, it’s too long. You should be able to see the ‘submit’ button above the fold. Look at your current forms and only require the information you truly need. If someone sees a very long form, they may think, ‘This is going to take too long to fill out’ and could possibly skip that process altogether.
10. No Clutter – This is really a no-brainer, but unfortunately too many people make the mistake of dumping too much content on their PPC landing pages. You should have one main goal of your PPC landing page, not 3, 4 or 5. Remove any extra copy that isn’t necessarily useful to the user. Remove any unnecessary images or icons.

If you need any persuasion to make changes to your existing landing pages, just take this for an example: if you were to make changes on your landing pages, and increase your conversion rates by .5%, add that to your current sales and see how much of an increase that is. You would be surprised how much additional revenue .5% would drive.

If you have any additonal PPC landing page tips that will help increase conversions that I have not mentioned feel free to add them in the comments section!

• Live Landing Page Optimization Conference – Indianapolis, IN
  The fastest, least expensive way to increase your sales is to optimize your web pages. But optimization can be difficult. The challenge isn’t developing a way to test (there are many tools for this). The challenge is discovering what changes to test.
  (tags: landingpages optimization onlinemarketing)
• Alterian
  Social media monitoring and analytics comes of age with Alterian’s acquisition of market leader Techrigy
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• uniQlicks – All About uniQlicks
  uniQlicks is a user-friendly yet powerful tool for managing the ads on your websites. uniQlicks will help you track unique clicks on your ads, prioritize those ads getting the best clickthru rates, and even protect your AdSense account from invalid clicks.
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  iGoDigital allows you to marry the relational and serendipitous characteristics of the in-store shopping experience with the efficiency, convenience, and flexibility of online shopping.
  (tags: shopping ecommerce advertising interactive targetedmarketing)