Low ROI, No ROI: Your Landing Page May Be Landing You in the Red

You now have several pages of great, informative SEO content and hundreds of links; you're ranking on the SERP (search engine results page) at number three.  Top o' the world, ma!

So why are you getting low, or no ROI (Return on Investment)?

Honestly, there could be many reasons.  However, badly built landing pages are a major factor in ROI; in fact, you can increase your ROI by 40% or more by improving them.  Let's face it; your search engine ranking doesn't mean diddlysquat if you're not getting conversions. 

Here's the problem with professional SEO services and landing pages.  Nobody agrees on how many types there are and which work better.  Some services will tell you there are two main types of landing pages, but, unfortunately, they don't agree on what those types are.   

You'll find other services that talk about seven types, or eight.  So who's right?  The plain and simple truth is that landing pages vary greatly, and the "type" depends on what you're trying to achieve.  Here are the two most commonly mentioned by professional SEO services:

•    Reference – delivers relevant information to the visitor, and is generally connected to other areas of your website
•    Transactional – most common for Pay-per-Click (PPC) ads; it's set up in such a way as to immediately draw the visitor to your "call to action". 

As good professional SEO services will tell you, the entire goal of a landing page is to 1) attract visitors to your product and 2) get them to perform your "call to action" – which could be clicking a link to your main website, ordering a product or any number of things.

Even with all the disagreements, though, most professional SEO services do agree on what makes a good landing page:

•    The header should be directly related to the search term
•    The entire page should be focused on your "call to action".  No extra information needed here.
•    The less navigation, the better.  People's eyes have a tendency to stray away to the navigation; they may even forget about what's on the page and get interested with the links on the page.  If you feel it's necessary, put the navigation at the bottom of the page.
•    Keep graphics to a minimum.  Graphics are distracting.  If you choose to use them, make them clickable so the visitor can get more information.
•    Try using to-the-point bullets, instead of paragraph copy, for easy scanning.
•    Don't ask for more than you need.  The more a visitor has to fill out, the less probability of a conversion.

Just remember for every SEO service provider that offers you "the best" SEO campaign, there's ten more that will tell you the first provider doesn't know what they're talking about.  One reason for this, of course, is the competition factor.  The second is because SEO technology changes so quickly, there's always a chance that your SEO service provider may have fallen behind.  Lastly, there isn't just one formula, book or school that says, "This is how SEO is done"; there are hundreds. 

Now that you're aware, look at your landing pages and see what can be changed on them.  You might even check with another service company; get a second opinion.  Having your landing pages looked at by professional SEO services isn't that expensive, and your ROI may just reach that 40% jump!