Part of the problem with landing page design for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is that there is a conflict between the type of page that is likely to rank on a search engine and the type of page that a person will interact with. In the world of landing page specialists, these page types are known as reference (favored by search engines) and transactional (favored by people who want to make money online).
If you’ve ever wondered why Wikipedia consistently shows up in the top 10 search results, then the referential landing page type should be of interest. When you consider that Google’s original goal was to catalog the world’s information, and to deliver relevant results, Wikipedia goes a long way to making this possible. Its pages are full of information, which may be disputed at times, but is generally in-depth about its topic matter. As a reference landing page, Wikipedia organizes itself in a way that gets read, with a brief abstract at the top and deeper material down below. There are also images on the right if they are appropriate. For reference landing pages, the old adage that “content is king” is still true, assuming that Google, Bing, or Yahoo trust the rest of the site enough to cite its pages.
Transactional landing pages, however, are what turn visitors into buyers. A Pay-Per-Click
(PPC) landing page is almost always transactional, and has just enough information to get the customer moving. It has clear calls to action, above the fold reinforcement, and plenty of trust indicators (like HackerSafe and BBB logos) designed to reduce Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (AKA “FUD”) while encouraging the customer to start the shopping process.
When it comes to SEO, there is a conflict which is usually addressed by creating a hybrid between reference and transactional landing pages. This is done by making sure calls to action are near the top of the page, while SEO elements and reference content are closer to the bottom of the design. In a manner of speaking, the search engine should like the page enough to get the reader to visit, but the visitor should be so enchanted by the transactional calls to action that the information (which got the visitor there) is basically ignored or forgotten. A side benefit of having hybrid pages is that people who want to know more about the product or service will actually read the content and stay on the site longer, and may bookmark it. Additionally, using a hybrid page as a PPC landing page may improve your quality score because more keyword variations are being covered on the page.
Testing these hybrid pages creates a special challenge that is unavailable to the person who creates transactional landing pages especially for PPC. For one thing, A/B testing on a hybrid page raises the specter of duplicate content or cloaking, since you may be using specialized tools to present different versions of the same page. Most of the time, A/B Testing and its cousin Multivariate testing are done on pages that are not in the normal path of search engine spiders. This kind of testing can also cause problems for classic SEO types, who need to be sure that controls are in place for content and tags, so the search engine won’t be seeing too much (or tool little) keyword content relative to the title and inbound links.
The best possible solution to design for hybrid pages is to use known conversion factors from tested PPC landing pages and try to emulate that information at the top of the landing page. As a caveat, there should also be a follow-up call to action below the fold, or at the bottom of the content, so interested readers won’t jump off to another page before being reminded of the site’s value proposition.
From an SEO standpoint, referential pages will almost always have a head up in search engine rankings. Many people in web design prefer to present pages in a transactional manner, along with graphic design elements which may not be helpful for search engine spiders. SEO consultants have an obligation to educate their customers on a balanced approach to page design, since it is the sales off the website that generally justify the consultant’s continued retention. Although it is not always easy to explain that “people can’t criticize the appearance of your site if they can’t find it,” a blended approach between information and action can generally soothe the client once they see a lower bounce rate, higher quality score, or more sales as a result of an SEO strategy that brings visitors who turn into conversions.
