The little handbook for a (good) landing page

You can't cut corners with Google to be visible in search results. Nor should you. The basic idea of your website should be to deliver what is in line with your business and your potential customers' needs and wants. Therefore, your landing pages should also meet the needs of your users - but there are also many other needs and nice to haves when it comes to writing good landing pages. I'll give them to you in this article.

Adam Ketelsen

SEO specialist

Last updated: March 21, 2024

What is a landing page?

When you search on Google, you are presented with a series of search results. By clicking on one of these search results, you are directed to a specific page on a website. This page, which Google has selected as a relevant answer to your search, is called a landing page in marketing terminology. This is the page you 'land' on after your search.

The more relevant Google finds a page, the higher it ranks in the search results.

You've probably guessed what the value of a well-written, relevant and data-driven landing page can be, but let's outline it for good measure:

A top ranking on page 1 in search results → more traffic to the website → potentially more sales-generating conversions

But what is so important to consider when designing your landing page?

Let's dive into the details.

1. figure out what you want to achieve

One of the first things you need to think about is what the purpose of your landing page is.

What do you want the reader to do? What do you want the reader to gain from reading this particular page? And by the same token, what do you want them to get out of it? In other words, you need to think about the user's search intent: why is the user even interested in reading this and how can this page best meet their needs and goals?

Don't trick your users - your landing page should give them what they're looking for

2. Do a thorough keyword analysis

If you want to rank high in search results (and you do), you need to analyze how many of your potential customers are searching for what and why - and which results are currently Google's best answer.

A keyword analysis helps you identify the keywords that are most valuable for you to rank highly for in Google search results.

Such an analysis involves, among other things:

Your competitors' rankings on Google.
What words your target audience uses and how often they use them.
What the intent behind using the keyword is.
How difficult it will be for you to get to the top of the search results for each keyword.

Once you've done a keyword analysis, keep the keywords and search phrases in mind when writing the landing page. The analysis should ensure that your landing page seeks to answer what people are asking on Google

It must fulfill a need. Cover a gap in understanding. Offer solutions to searchers' problems. And it can only do that when you've researched what people are actually Googling.

3. Leverage your keyword analysis

Once you've found your primary keywords through your keyword analysis, the next step is to integrate it effectively into your landing page. To maximize the impact of your keywords, you need to include them in strategic places:

In the URL
In the H1 title
In at least one H2 headline
In the first paragraph (preferably in the very first line)
Evenly distributed in the body text - but be careful not to overdo or underdo the usage.
In the meta description and page title.

Let's take an example for good measure

The broad keyword: Rye bread
The more specific (longtail) keyword: Gluten-free rye bread

URL: www.rugbroedsopskrifter.dk/glutenfrit-rugbroed*
H1: "Recipe for delicious gluten-free rye bread"
H2: "Why choose gluten-free rye bread?"
First paragraph: Incorporate the keyword, gluten-free rye bread, as early as possible (preferably in the first line)
Body text: Use the keyword once per H2 section or use tools like Yoast to find the right balance.

And remember to avoid æ, ø, å in URLs - it's not good practice.

The above list is a strong guide, and luckily Google is getting better at understanding content all the time. Search intent still carries the most weight when creating landing pages.

Method to the madness - best practices behind an SEO-friendly landing page

4. Think about who you are writing to

Remember, real people are reading your texts behind the screen. They are not automatically interested in everything you say. They are looking for help. They are looking for guidance. They want to find what they're looking for.

A landing page isn't just good because it exists. It's good when it adds value to your potential customers while supporting your business goals.

That's why it's important to understand who your reader is. Ask yourself:

Who am I writing to? What does my target audience look like? What problems, questions and challenges do they have? And how can I help them? Know both your current and potential customers and understand what they want from you.

To better understand your target audience, you can:

Talk to your sales department and current customers.
Analyze data from your website and social media behavior patterns.
Conduct surveys to potential and current customers.

With this knowledge in your backpack, it's much easier to write targeted, relevant and valuable content.

5. Where should you hit in the customer journey?

All text content such as landing pages, blog posts, newsletters and so on can target different stages of the customer journey. It's important to think about which stage of the journey - from the awareness stage to the delight stage - each landing page should be written for.

Right now, you can find multiple versions of the customer journey online - and most marketing geeks have written a blog post or two about it.

So I'll spare the web any more words on the subject - and instead recommend you read one of Hubspot's blog posts about the buyer's journey.

6. Highlight a clear value proposition in your introduction

Your introduction should be informative, straight to the point, selling and engaging. You may know the story that our average attention span has been reduced from 12 to 8 seconds at a time. That's less than the average goldfish's attention span.

Whether it's true or not, we're all competing to keep people's attention online - and it takes a lot of effort.

So how do you do that in your introduction on a landing page?

It's really quite simple. You need to have:

A concrete summary of the most important thing the reader should get out of the page.
A clear value proposition. Tell the reader what they get out of either reading your page, if it's a blog post, for example. or what the reader will get out of becoming a customer if your site is about your product or service.
Contact information with links so the reader can contact the company immediately.

I've taken the liberty of inserting an example from Amplify's Google Ads landing page.

Here we outline the value of our service (clicks and customers, we provide a concrete summary (Let an experienced Google Ads agency show the way to more leads and sales.), and we give the reader the opportunity to contact us quickly (free Google Ads analysis).

7. Think about how lazy you are

You may not be lazy when it comes to your work. Or your training.

But if you're like many people, you're a lazy and impatient online reader. The hard truth is that most of us skim text on the web. We scan it to find exactly the information we're looking for - and then we decide whether or not to read further.

To make your text skimmable and easy to navigate, you need to:

Have indicative headings.
Create spaces and new paragraphs so it's easy to read - both on desktop and especially on mobile.
Remember CTAs (read more in point 8).

The flow of information on the internet has made us hopelessly lazy

8. Guide your reader with CTAs

To help your reader in the direction you want, you need to continuously tell them what action they need to take. You do this via call-to-actions.

CTAs give the reader an opportunity to take a mutually beneficial action rather than walking away.

A call to action can include:

A call to action can also be to get the reader to sign up for your newsletter, contact you or add a product to their cart. The important thing is that you guide the reader to take an action that makes sense in the situation and where they are in the customer journey.

Well-placed CTAs help point your users in the right direction

9. Filler words are the sausage of death

Imagine the following scenario: You've come home after a long day at work. Your head is tired. It's quarter past midnight and you suddenly realize that your keys are currently on the wrong side of the door. You take out your phone and Google it.

You search "locked out of apartment" or "locksmith". You land on a website and the first 8 sentences are filled with unnecessary comments like "Isn't it annoying to be locked out? Many people find it frustrating... etc."

Do you get it? Buzzwords won't get you to a solution any faster. If you're in a situation where you need urgent help, you don't want to read through 8-10 sentences about how bad your situation is.

The point is: Make sure to help your reader quickly with concrete information. Then you can add any other information that might also be relevant to the situation.

Fill words can be a dangerous pitfall on your landing pages

10. Numbers for the reptile brain

We've touched on this a bit: Your readers decide within the first 10 seconds whether or not they're going to pay attention to your text.

But is there anything you can do to influence their decision? Marketing expert, William Avila, suggests a neuroscientific approach that is simpler than it sounds.

According to Avila, you can capture and hold the reader's attention by appealing to basic emotions like fear, anger, pleasure and territoriality, known as "reptilian brain" responses.

When writing a landing page, consider what basic emotions you want to evoke.

If you're curious, you can read more about the topic on Ahref's blog post "How to Create Great Content for Search" right here.

11. avoid keyword stuffing

In the past, a basic rule of thumb in search engine optimization was to insert your keyword X number of times on your landing page to ensure that the page would be found when people typed it into the search engine.

That's no longer the case.

Google has become much smarter. Write naturally and both Google and your reader will understand what your page is about. This practice is also known as 'semantic SEO'.

12. Write consistently - not schizophrenically

It almost goes without saying. Don't jump from being Des with the reader to being the cocky boy in class.

It's important to be consistent with your tone of voice, language style and how you speak to the reader - this also creates a stable image of your brand.

13. insert links to helpful websites

Google users are Google's customers.

Yes, it seems obvious, but it's actually the key to many questions - such as: "Why should I include links to other websites on my landing page?".

The answer is just as simple. Everything you do to help and guide the user makes the user happy. And when the user is happy, Google is happy.

Your goal is to create the best experience for your readers on your landing page, also known as a good user experience. One way to do this is by directing them to relevant articles, news or blog posts on other websites that complement your content and help the reader.

By guiding the user, you create a good experience that Google will reward.

BUT! Make sure your internal links open in the same window to avoid spamming the reader with multiple windows from the same site, while your external links should always open in a new window so you don't guide the reader away from your own website.

14. Speak to the visual too

When we absorb information, there is a significant risk that we only remember around 10% of it after just 3 days. However, statistics show that if the information is presented alongside images, the chance of remembering around 65% of the information is significantly higher!

That's why it's important to make a landing page easy to digest by breaking up the text with images and videos - for example, like in the branding video below from Amplify.

15. Write catchy and relevant meta descriptions and page titles

Your landing page should also present itself in an appealing way in search results. To increase the click-through rate (CTR) from the search results to your landing page, it is therefore important to write catchy meta descriptions and page titles for the different pages.

This is what readers first see when your page appears in search results and must convince them to click and explore your landing page.

In our opinion, the page title should describe what the reader can expect to find on the page, provide clear value and end with the name of your website. It should be concrete, direct and transparent.

The meta description can elaborate on the value and end with a clear call to action, such as "Read more here to get the great offer/advice/see the full handbook here."

Meta descriptions and page titles are your website's front page on Google

16. Social proof your business on all landing pages

When we are unsure of what to do, we often tend to go with the flow and do what others do. This is why social proof of a website is extremely important. It's used to help your visitors understand that you offer popular products or services that they can also benefit from.

An obvious way to implement social proof on your website is to include reviews from Google, Trustpilot or Facebook at the bottom, also called the footer, of your website, which will be displayed on all your landing pages. This builds trust and shows that others have already had positive experiences with your products or services.

With Google's latest E-E-A-T Core Update, social proof is more important than ever if you want to perform on SEO.

In a nutshell

For those who go straight to the bottom of a page to read the conclusion - this is for you:

When it comes to writing a good landing page, you can choose to follow our advice. In short, it's all about delivering information in a way that is easily digestible and relevant to both your readers and Google.

And please feel free to share your tips or ask questions about the blog post at seo@amplify.dk.

You can also reach one of the specialists via our contact page.

Thank you so much for reading!

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