CyberFootprint

This is a guest post by Gagandeep Singh, who is working as freelance writer and writes mainly on internet marketing, landing page optimization and SEO. You can see his work at landingpageoptimization.org. I’ve decided to include it because a part of the PROs job more and more often includes online copywriting. Here is a way to do it well.

Landing page is not just a page where the visitors come after clicking at the PPC advertisement link, but it is also a place where a prospect can become your loyal customer. To ensure that that the landing page gives you desired results, you should make it as search engine friendly as possible.  Here are a few useful tips to optimize the lead capture page for the search engines.

Select appropriate keywords

Before writing a single word for your landing page, it is essential to conduct keyword research. People use keywords to hunt for requisite information in the search engines. Hence, your landing page should have those keywords that your prospects would use to search for products that you sell. From the category of online keyword research software, Wordtracker and Adword Keyword Research Tool can prove to be quite helpful.

At one point of time, the sites were indexed according to keyword density. Higher keyword density assured a better position in search engine end result page. In the present day, search engines have become more intelligent. They no longer rank the sites on the basis of keyword density. Via latent semantic indexing, they search for context between the words and index the document accordingly. Thus, in addition to primary keywords, you would have to find different variations of the given keyword.

Make sure that the content is concise and relevant

After the keyword selection process is over, its time to write the content of your landing page. The content should highlight the salient features of your product as well as enumerate its benefits. The keywords should be evenly dispersed, but the density should not be more than 1%. Don’t hesitate to use bullet points wherever possible, for this improves the readability of the text. The tone of the content should be active and personal.

Furthermore, the content should be relevant. If you are selling a health care product, then don’t talk about computer repair. Make sure that on the whole the content is simple, comprehensible and well-structured. Last, but not the least, remove all the spelling, grammatical and typographic errors. To master this craft of copywriting, you should start reading Copyblogger.

Avoid inserting too many graphics, images and links

A large number of irrelevant graphics and images would distract the viewer, and take him away from your landing page. For this reason, use only necessary graphics and images. Likewise, do not place more than one navigational link. This link should take the prospect to your website. Inappropriate links would confuse the visitor and divert his attention somewhere else.

Pay attention to the fonts and color combination

The fonts should neither be too big nor too small. Moreover, avoid selecting stylish fonts. Simple fonts like Verdana or Times New Roman provide excellent readability, even though they can look a bit boring. The background should not bear any complicated design. Light-colored background with dark colored fonts is the best for a search engine friendly landing page.

HTML code and tags

The HTML code should be as simple as possible. The simplicity will help the spider to crawl without any hindrance. Also, validate the web page after it has been created. This will help you to identify the errors and remove them. Remember to place the Meta tags; this will help the visitor to find your landing page with ease as well as provide your web page a distinct identity. Lastly, place an appropriate footer text in your lead capture page.

Image credit: cambodia4kidsorg