What is a landing page?

When you search on Google, you're presented with a list of search results. Clicking one of these results takes you 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. In other words, the page you ‘land’ on after your search.

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

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

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

So what's important to consider when you create your landing page?

Let's dive into the details.

1. Work out what you want to achieve

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

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

Don't cheat your users – your landing page must give them what they're looking for

2. Do thorough keyword research

If you want to rank high in the search results (and you do), you need to analyse how many of your potential customers search for what and why, and which results Google currently considers the best answer.

So keyword research helps you identify the keywords that are most valuable for you to rank highly for in Google's search results.

Such an analysis includes, among other things:

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

Once you've done your keyword research, keep the keywords and search phrases in the back of your mind when you write the landing page. The research should ensure that your landing page sets out to answer what people are asking Google.

It must meet a need. Fill a gap in understanding. Offer solutions to searchers' problems. And it can only do that once you've looked into what people actually Google.

3. Make use of your keyword research

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

In the URL
In the H1 title
In at least one H2 heading
In the first paragraph (ideally in the very first line)
Evenly spread throughout the body text, but take care not to overuse or underuse them.
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: Work the keyword, gluten-free rye bread, in as early as possible (ideally in the first line)
Body text: Use the keyword once per H2 section, or use tools such as Yoast to find the right balance.

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

The list above is very much a guideline, and fortunately Google keeps getting better at understanding content. That's why search intent still carries the most weight when you create landing pages.

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

4. Think about who you're writing for

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

A landing page isn't good just because it exists. It's good when it adds value for 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 for? What does my target audience look like? What problems, questions and challenges do they have? And how can I help them? Get to know both your current and potential customers and understand what they want from you.

To learn even more about your target audience, you can:

Talk to your sales department and current customers.
Analyse data from your website and behaviour patterns on your social media.
Run surveys among potential and current customers.

With this knowledge under your belt, it's far easier to write targeted, relevant and valuable content.

5. Where in the customer journey should you aim?

All written 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 countless versions of the customer journey online, and most marketing nerds have written a blog post or two about it.

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

6. Highlight a clear value proposition in your introduction

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

Whether that's true or not, we're all competing to hold people's attention online, and that takes real effort.

So how do you do that in the introduction to a landing page?

It's actually pretty simple. You need:

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

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

Here, we spell out the value of our service (clicks and customers), we give a concrete summary (Let an experienced Google Ads agency show you the way to more leads and sales.), and we give the reader the chance to get in touch with us quickly (free Google Ads analysis).

7. Think about how lazy you are yourself

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

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

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

Use descriptive headings.
Add spacing and new paragraphs so it's easy to read, both on a computer and especially on mobile.
Remember CTAs (read more in point 8).

The flood of information online has made us hopelessly lazy

8. Guide your reader with CTAs

To steer your reader in the direction you want, you need to keep telling them what action to take. You do that with call-to-actions.

CTAs give the reader the chance to take an action that benefits everyone instead of slipping away.

A call to action could be, for example:

A call to action could also be getting the reader to sign up to your newsletter, contact you or add a product to the basket. What matters is that you guide the reader towards an action that makes sense in the situation and for where they are in the customer journey.

Well-placed CTAs help your users in the right direction

9. Filler words are the kiss of death

Picture the following scenario: you've come home after a long day at work. Your brain is tired. It's way past bedtime, and you suddenly notice that your keys are on the wrong side of the door. You take out your phone and google.

You search for "locked out of flat" or "locksmith". You land on a website, and the first 8 sentences are full of unnecessary comments like "Isn't it annoying being locked out? Many people find it frustrating... etc."

Do you get it? Filler words don'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 annoying your situation is.

The point is: make sure you help your reader quickly with concrete information. After that, you can add all the other information that might also be relevant in the situation.

Filler words can become a dangerous pitfall on your landing pages

10. Speak to the reptilian brain

We've touched on it already: your readers decide within the first 10 seconds whether or not they're going to give your copy their attention.

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

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

When you write a landing page, consider which basic emotions you want to evoke.

If you're curious, you can read much more about the subject in Ahrefs' blog post “How to Create Great Content for Search” right here.

11. Avoid “keyword stuffing”

It used to be a basic rule of search engine optimisation to insert your keyword X number of times on your landing page to make sure the page would actually be found when people typed the word into the search engine.

That's no longer the case.

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

→ Read more about semantic SEO

12. Write consistently, not with a split personality

It almost goes without saying. You shouldn't jump from addressing the reader formally to being the cheeky kid in class.

It's important to be consistent with your tone of voice, your language style and the way you address the reader. That's also how you build a stable image of your brand.

13. Add 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 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, so you don't spam the reader with lots of 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. Appeal to the visual too

When we take in information, there's a considerable risk that we'll only remember around 10% of it after just 3 days. However, statistics show that if the information is presented together with images, the chance of remembering around 65% of it 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 the Amplify branding video below.

15. Write engaging and relevant meta descriptions and page titles

Your landing page also needs to present itself appealingly in the search results. To increase the click-through rate (CTR) from the search results to your landing page, it's important to write engaging meta descriptions and page titles for the different pages.

They're exactly what readers see first when your page appears in the search results, and they need to convince them to click and explore your landing page.

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

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

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

16. Add social proof to every landing page

When we're unsure what to do, we often tend to follow the crowd and do what others do. That's why social proof on a website is so important. It helps your visitors understand that you offer popular products or services that they can benefit from too.

An obvious way to add social proof to your website is to include reviews from Google, Trustpilot or Facebook at the bottom of your website, also known as the footer, which will be shown on all your landing pages. It 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 in SEO.

In short

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

When you need to write a good landing page, you can choose to follow our advice. In short, it's about delivering information in an easy-to-digest and relevant way for 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 catch one of our specialists via our contact page.

Thanks so much for reading!

The little handbook for a (good) landing page