Landing pages are important. Your landing page, according to Google, affects quality score, ad rank, and advertising costs. But the effect of the landing page is most powerful with user experience. So what does Google look for in a landing page, and how does it actually play out with the real people who visit your site?
Think About Experience
Here's what Google says it looks for:
- providing relevant, useful, and original content
- promoting transparency and fostering trustworthiness on your site (for example, by explaining your products or services before asking visitors to fill out forms sharing their own information)
- making it easy for customers to navigate your site (including on mobile sites)
- encouraging customers to spend time on your site (for example, by making sure your page loads quickly so people who click your ad don't give up and leave your site prematurely)
Now think about how each one of these things would affect your site if it isn't there:
- why bother with a site that doesn't give you the information you are looking for?
- why deal with a company you don't trust?
- why struggle to navigate a site when there are other sites easier to use?
- why wait for something to load when you aren't sure you will want it when you see it?
Landing pages that convert do so because they give the visitor what they are looking for. If your website is going to be effective, you need to be designing everything with the goal of user experience in mind. Any other goal will probably not be a good return on your investment.