So you want to be a hero and create a stunning landing page? Good. Have you thought how you are going to drive traffic to it? PPC, email marketing… How about a free source implemented by millions of users every day? Sounds cool? Meet organic traffic – stream of visitors incoming from search engines’ organic results (a.k.a. not ads).
I can see you shaking your head and thinking: “it’s too hard to rank”, “I have no idea about SEO (Search Engine Optimization)” or even “oh boy, not another piece about the whole SEO-scam”. What if I told you that you can dramatically increase your chance of getting high quality organic traffic in seven simple steps? And, even better, do it 100% white hat style? Give it a shot and you will see how easily you can optimize your squeeze page for search engines robots.
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1. Know your keywords
Great keyword use is a common element of all SEO-friendly landing pages.
Before you even start optimizing your landing page, you should first know which keywords you will target. By keywords I understand single words (like “marketing”) as well as short phrases (like “email marketing”). Grab a stimulating drink of your choice and get your head thinking – what is the best keyword describing my squeeze page? Make a list of such terms and do a little research.
Put those words into search engines – what do they show you? Are there any websites similar to your landing theme? Take their keywords and put them on the list. If there is no relevant pages, maybe you should rethink your keywords – probably most of the humanity blessed/cursed with the Internet connection has a different view on your keyword meaning. Also, did you get any relevant suggestions from the search engine? Add them to the list as well.
Now head to keyword research tools like Wordtracker, Bing Keyword Research Tool or Google AdWords Keyword Planner and feed them with your list. They will give you some additional suggestions and show you how many times a specific keyword has been searched for. From the list given, choose only the relevant keywords and save them along with a number of searches for each, in descending order.
As well as relevance and search volumes, don’t forget to consider difficulty. Some keywords are easier to rank for than others. Use keyword difficulty software to analyze your potential target keywords
Now choose one and only one keyword which best reflects the subject of your landing page and is on the top of your list at the same time. This will be your main keyword – the keyword for which you’ll be optimizing your squeeze page. The top 5 keywords from your list (excluding the main keyword) will be your additional keywords.
This research can take quite a long time, but good news is that you can implement the next 6 steps much quicker. The hard part of landing page SEO is done.
Read more: Keyword Research: An In-Depth Beginner’s Guide
2. Make a good first impression with title tag
Showing a title tag to search engine bots is like shaking hands for the first time. Just as you have about a 7 seconds to make a good first impression (although it’s rough estimate and still debatable) on a human being, you have maximum 70 characters to make good first impression on a search engine spider.
Don’t be shy and put your main keyword in your title tag, so the poor creature will know the subject of you landing right away. If you still have some space left, you can throw some additional keywords there, too. Just don’t exceed 70 characters. In fact, it’s better not to cross 65 characters line (2nd point) and your landing page should be fine.
3. Treat META description like a sign board
Don’t forget about META description tag – it’s a free sign board for SERPs (Search Engine Results Page) alley shown usually right below website title and URL. Although search engines will display whatever they want within their results instead of your META (for example part of text from your website), a good written description has a fair chance to appear before users eyeballs.
Keep it simple, state your landing subject, don’t exceed 150 – 160 characters, include your main keyword (search engines can bold it making it more conspicuous) and end with carefully crafted call to action, so user will be tempted to see your landing page. Have in mind that you are writing META description more for the user (living person) than the bot.
4. Tune up your URL
Just like a cherry on top can make a cake look more attractive (and more tasteful as we eat with our eyes), a landing page URL containing a keyword can be more alluring for search engines. Put your main keyword in the landing page’s URL if possible – you don’t want it to look too long and spammy as this will be bad for user experience, so don’t push it.
5. Write a killer headline
A good headline screams “read me” and catches the eye. A great headline does the same and pleases search engine spiders (unless it’s a physical newspaper – thankfully, Internet of Things is not fully operational yet and for now my refrigerator doesn’t spy me and give me dietary advice).
If you can put your main keyword in the header without making it ugly and unappealing, do not hesitate (you can always inflect your keyword to make it fit better). The bots can treat the headline as a signal that this particular landing page is relevant to the keyword found within it. Remember that your main header should always be put in h1 HTML tag (and there is only one main headline, doh!).
6. Words, words, words
Search engine robots love to read, even though they don’t really understand a single word… but it starts to change. The fact is that no matter if they understand concepts behind the text or they act more like in Chinese Room Argument, they need words to operate.
Your main focus when writing copy for landing page is to convince users to take action. Keep that in mind but throw in text your main and additional keywords as well. Inflect them if you must, so they will look better. You can even tear phrases to single words and scatter them around the text. If everything else fails and you still can’t include your keyword, use its synonym – it’s not a perfect solution, but you can at least give bots a hint about a topic of your squeeze page.
Read more: How to write SEO-friendly content
7. Mind visually impaired bots
Search engines are trying really hard to recognize images, but for now the fact is that they are as blind as moles. They use a lot of workarounds to understand what the image is about without actually having to look at it. One of such tricks is parsing the alt attribute of img HTML tag – you can treat it as a label on product in the shop.
Complete it with a short description of the graphic you have placed in your landing page. If it also represents your main keyword (for example, your product for which you’ve built the squeeze page), don’t forget to put it there as well so that the robot can read it. Give little fellows a hand and be their eyes.
8. Get a few backlinks
If your goal is to optimize your landing page for SEO, make sure to get a few quality backlinks from reputable and relevant web pages. Why is this crucial? The simple answer is visibility. Search engines like Google use backlinks as a vote of confidence for your website, interpreting them as indicators of your content’s quality and relevance.
When you have high-quality backlinks pointing towards your landing pages, Google is more likely to perceive your site as valuable and trustworthy, leading to improved search rankings and more visibility in the search results. Furthermore, these backlinks can act as referrals, driving traffic directly to your landing page, thus leading to potential increases in conversion rates and overall business growth.
Now the whole landing page optimization for SEO doesn’t look so hard, does it?
Thoughts, questions, hate mails? Leave them in the comments!
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