Landing Page Conversion

We are pleased to announce the “launch” of our UK Local Search to compliment our Australian Local Search efforts.  Both these site are compressive UK and Australian Business Directories.  Based on Wiki participation there is absolutely no cost to you.  Add you business now or claim your listing and add many of the features that are completely free - like Google Maps.

Hi All,
AussieWeb Local Search and We Call You Now was one of the successful presentations at the Melbourne Search School. We are happy to announce that we will again be presenting at the Sydney Search School on the 1st of November 2007.
You can follow this link to read the testimonials from the Melbourne Search School: http://www.searchschool.com.au/about.html
As a special offer to our readers, you can save $100 by using this registration link:
https://subscribe.reedbusiness.com.au/default.asp?offergroup=SS07WB13&pubid=181
Hope to see you in Sydney on the 1st of November 2007
Monte Huebsch

Everyday, millions of products are sold and researched online. Most of this web traffic is driven by search engines like Yahoo and Google. SearchSchool is a one day seminar designed to introduce Search and Search Engine Optimisation techniques. It is aimed at helping small to medium business owners and managers maximise their website’s search engine results.

The inaugural SearchSchool seminar series will be held in Sydney and Melbourne and will attract delegates that have little to no knowledge of Search Engine Optimisation. The programme has been designed to introduce, explain and provide tips on each topic and is ultimately geared at helping business owners improve their online return. Topics include Fundamentals of Paid Search Marketing, Fundamentals of the WWW & Web design, Social Media Optimisation and Analytics.

SearchSchool will be convened by Barry Smyth, Director of Search Strategies. Barry started Search Strategies in 2006 having spent a number of years in the search engine marketing world and has run successful search marketing campaigns for high profile Australian & International companies. Individual sessions will be run by industry experts who are Australian leaders in Search. They are:

Peter Dowse, Marketing Manager, Smartype
Cameron Winslow, Managing Director, Vertical-Leap

Robbie Hills, Managing Director, 24/7 Real Media

Monte Huebsch, CEO, AussieWeb

Joshua Hay, Operations Manager, E-Web Design & Marketing

Rod Jacka, Managing Director, Panalisys

Fred Schebesta - Director - Freestyle Media
Tom Petryshen, CEO, Amplify
Andy Jamieson, Director, Switched on Media

SearchSchool has been developed by Reed Business Information (RBI) and will be organised by their in-house Events team. RBI is Australia’s leading and largest B2B publisher and information provider. With magazines like Australian Doctor, New Scientist, B&T Weekly, Travel Weekly and many other market leading publications, RBI provides Australian decision makers with the highest quality information available. Their extensive product range comprises magazines, supplements, directories, online industry portals and e-newsletters. They provide a strong mix of print, online and direct marketing opportunities and have developed the most advanced internet portals in the B2B industry.

“Our goal for SearchSchool is to give delegates an entry-level checklist of items that they can immediately implement to help improve their website’s search engine ranking - and ultimately increase their web traffic” said John La Rosa, RBI Events Technical and Content Director. “It’s also important that delegates understand the fundamentals of the web, how their customers use search engines and the tools available to help them track this new traffic.”

According to Mandy Eyles, RBI Events Sales & Marketing Director, “SearchSchool offers a great opportunity for organisations that are looking to engage with small-to-medium business owners, demonstrate their products, develop new business partnerships and will also deliver a strong ROI”.

Sponsors of SearchSchool 2007 include NetRegistry, Yahoo Search Marketing and Lenovo.

SearchSchool will provide a unique networking opportunity for small to medium business owners and offer solutions to help grow their company online – and into the future.

For further information contact:

Mandy Eyles, Sales & Marketing Director, RBI Events

P: (02) 9422 - 2774

E: mandy.eyles@reedbusiness.com.au

W: www.searchschool.com.au

Here is a simple, yet effective way, to research the “best terms” to use for landing page optomisation.  Use the results of your PPC reports to target the best converting search terms!

Use this information to add, alter and refine these terms in your existing web site.  This will allow you to have both organic results, as well as positive ROI on your PPC. 

Don’t think that SEO and PPC are exclusive.  They collaborate in the overall performance of your online marketing.  They can and should work together.

Use the data you know that has a positive ROI for PPC to “tune” your web site and improve organic listings.

The Google “quality score” is a BIG issue if you want your site found in the Top 1 to 3 listings on the left hand side of a PPC program.  This has just been updated in August 2007 and you can read Google’s explanation on this link.

While a poor score won’t knock you out - it will raise the minimum bid price - ouch!

Google goes even further with this Landing Page and Site Quality guidelines.

While all this stuff is useful and valuable we wish to add a few comments of our own.

If you use Audio, include a transcript.  Google can’t “read” MP3’s

If your whole site is built in “Flash” you have a BIG issue.  Google can’t see the Flash content.

Add text readable captions or image tags to images.

Avoid tricks and gimmicks like pop-ups, under’s and fling advertisements.

This should help you stay our of trouble and improve your quality score.

Monte Huebsch - CEO of our AdWords qualified company.

The most important part of the link to your site, is the link!  The link needs to contain your key words to have real value. 

Let’s look at two examples:

1. We run a Local Search Directory in Australia and you can have a free listing in it, just follow this link:
2. Get a free listing in an Australian Local Search Directory.

So which is better? 

The second one is.  And here is why.  While the first one has a nice call to action, with “follow this link”, the link itself does not contain the keywords we want to optomise.

While the second one may lack the call to action, all our keywords are in the link AND the underlining of the text indicates to most web users that this is a “hyperlink”. 

The only real was to get high quality and search engine credit for your links is to make sure that they contain the keywords you are optomising for.

Monte Huebsch CEO AdWords Qualified individual.

One of the key tactics to receive a high organic search ranking is to have “in bound” links.  (Note: recently Google changed their link value algorithm.  They now rate an in bound link higher if it is not a reciprocal link). 

So how and where do you get in bound links?

• Authority sites
• Blogs
• Articles
• Press releases

Of these, I like Blogs and Press Releases best.  Authority sites are great - but usually take lots of work to get.  Blogs are easier, as you can respond to a post.  Articles can assist but often the search engines discount the value because of seeing “duplicate content”.  Press release can cost money but they are usually an authority site and can get picked  up in traditional media. 

Avoid link farms, free for all (FFA) sites and other “black hat” tactics.

More about “links” in the next post.  To be continued…..

This landing page that you are viewing is built using “blogging” technology.  There are alternatives. 

At AussieWeb Conversion, you can see samples of single landing pages that are used from Google Pay Per Click AdWords ads.  These pages are built using the principles of Neuro-Linguistic Programming and accessibility principles but forward by Jakob Nielsen, that is they do not scroll in standard screen resolution.

These type of pages have proved very successful, with conversion rates of 5% to 30%.  Both the NLP and no-scroll elements are supported by the concept of an “exchange of value”  as discussed in the Landing Page Conversion post.

Regardless if your page scrolls or not, applying NLP principles to your efforts will help with conversion, even if they do not embrace the published concepts of Search Engine Optomisation.

Remember, the desired outcomes are conversion, so not complying with all the SEO principles may be a viable alternative.

Monte Huebsch

It you have read this prelude http://www.landing-page-conversion.com/about/ then you are aware that successful landing page conversion needs an offer.  After years of working with “offers” below in no particular order are “lessons learned”.  Enjoy!

• An offer that is information, like a white paper or a research report is the lowest risk and achieves the highest rate of capture for many landing pages.
• If the site, after the landing page, sells physical good - free shipping is often a successful offer.
• If you offer a discount remember two key points.  Budget shoppers will leave you for a lower price.  They are never loyal.  Make sure your offer is an industry “best offer” as the visitor will do comparative shopping. 
• Value adds often beat a discount.  This is the McDonald’s “super size” me approach.
•  A “first purchase” discount can work but only if the site appeals to spontaneous purchasers.
• Extended warranties, like 12 months for used cars etc have proven to work.
• Overnight or rapid delivery works for buyers who seek immediate gratification
• Reports that have a “Top 10″ or are a “How to” often work well.
• Offering a “free audit” of a web site, loan or physical fitness works well.
• Waiving setup fees or “application fees” can work.
• A post sale “rebate” is often better then a discount as it appear more honest.
• Extending a subscription can work well.  Buy 10 months and get a full year.

If you have any experiences you would like to share, we would love to hear them.  Just leave a comment!

In our last blog post we did a case study that demonstrated an increase in the client’s turnover by 4 times!  This was accomplished by one of our earliest designed audio visual landing pages.  Since then, we have tested and “evolved” these pages.  The major changes have been three fold:

1. Shifting from web site “screen capture” to pictures
2. Adding “captions” to all images
3. Including the company name in the upper right hand corner

To see a sample of our current offerings check this page.

Next week we will be discussing some of the experiences that have taught us how to structure an effective “offer” that gets results.