What is a landing page?

When you search on Google, Google shows you a number of search results. If you click on one of them, you land on a specific page on a website. Google has chosen that page as a relevant answer to your search. In marketing speak, it's called a landing page. In other words, it's the page you 'land' on after your search.

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

You've probably already guessed what a well-written, relevant and data-driven landing page can do for you. Here it is in brief, just to be clear:

A top spot 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 write your landing page?

Let's dive into the details.

1. Work out what you want to achieve

Start with the purpose. What should your landing page achieve?

What should the reader do? What does the reader get out of reading this particular page? And what do you get out of it? That means thinking about the user's search intent: Why would the user want to read the page at all, and how does the page best meet their needs and goals?

Don't cheat your users. Your landing page should give them what they're looking for

2. Do thorough keyword research

You want to rank high in the search results. That requires an analysis of how many of your potential customers search for what, and why. You also need to see which results Google currently considers the best answer.

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

The research covers, among other things:

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

Once the research is in place, keep the keywords and search phrases in the back of your mind while you write the landing page. The research makes sure the page answers what people are asking Google.

The page needs to meet a need. It should fill a gap in understanding and provide solutions to searchers' problems. It can only do that once you've looked into what people are actually googling.

3. Make use of your keyword research

Your keyword research has given you your primary keywords. The next step is to build them into your landing page. The keyword works best when it appears in the right 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. Don't use it too much or too little.
In the meta description and page title.

Let's take an example, just to be clear

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: Write the keyword, gluten-free rye bread, as early as possible, ideally in the first line
Body text: Use the keyword once per H2 section, or find the right balance with a tool like Yoast.

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

The list above is a guide, not a definitive answer. Fortunately, Google keeps getting better at understanding content. That's why search intent still carries the most weight when you build landing pages.

Method to the madness: Behind an SEO-friendly landing page lie best practices

4. Think about who you're writing for

Remember that it's real people reading your copy behind the screen. 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 becomes good when it helps your potential customers. At the same time, it needs to move your business closer to its goals.

That's why you need to know who your reader is. Ask yourself:

Who are you writing for? What do your customers look like? What problems, questions and challenges do they have? And how can you help them? Get to know both your current and your potential customers, and find out what they want from you.

Here's how to learn even more about your customers:

Talk to your sales department and your current customers.
Analyse data from your website and behaviour on your social media.
Send out questionnaires to potential and current customers.

With that knowledge in your back pocket, it's much easier to write targeted, relevant and useful content.

5. Where in the customer journey are you aiming?

All written content can target different stages of the customer journey. That applies to landing pages, blog posts, newsletters and so on. So think about which stage your landing page should be written for. The journey runs from the awareness stage to the delight stage.

The web is currently overflowing with versions of the customer journey, and most marketing nerds have written a blog post or two about it.

So we'll spare the web any more words on the subject. Instead, 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 inform, get straight to the point, sell and grab the reader. You may know the story that our average attention span has dropped from 12 to 8 seconds at a time. That's shorter than the average goldfish's.

Whether it's true or not, we're all competing for people's attention online. It takes a lot of effort to hold on to it.

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 things the reader should take away from the page.
A clear value proposition. Tell the reader what he or she gets out of reading your page, if it's a blog post, for example. If the page is about your product or service, tell the reader what return they get from becoming your customer.
Contact information with links, so the reader can contact the company straight away.

Here's an example from Amplify's landing page about Google Ads.

The example below comes from Amplify's landing page about Google Ads.

On the page, we show the value of what we deliver: clicks and customers. We give a concrete summary: "Let an experienced Google Ads agency show you the way to more leads and sales." And the reader can quickly get in touch with us via a free Google Ads analysis.

7. Think about how lazy you are yourself

Maybe you're not lazy at all when it comes to your work. Or your training.

But if you're like most people, you're a lazy and impatient reader online. The truth is harsh: Most of us skim text online. We scan it for exactly the information we're looking for. Then we decide whether we want to read on.

Here's how to make your copy easy to skim and easy to navigate:

Use guiding headings.
Add white space and new paragraphs, so the copy is easy to read on a computer and especially on mobile.
Remember your CTAs (read more in point 8).

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

8. Guide your reader with CTAs

Keep telling your reader which action you want them to take. That way, you help the reader in the direction you want. You do that with call-to-actions.

A CTA gives the reader an opportunity to take an action that benefits everyone. The alternative is that the reader slips away again.

A call to action could be, for example:

You can also ask the reader to sign up for your newsletter, contact you or add a product to their basket. The important thing is that you guide the reader to an action that makes sense in the situation and fits where the reader is in the customer journey.

Well-placed CTAs guide your users in the right direction

9. Filler words are the kiss of death

Picture this: You come home after a long day at work. Your head is tired. It's way past bedtime, and suddenly you realise your keys are on the wrong side of the door. You get 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 to be 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 urgently need help, you can't be bothered to read 8 to 10 sentences about how rubbish your situation is.

The point is: Help your reader quickly with concrete information. Afterwards, you can add all the other information that may 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 already touched on it: Your readers decide within the first 10 seconds whether they want to spend their attention on your copy.

So can you influence that decision? Yes. Marketing expert William Avila suggests a neuroscientific approach, and it's simpler than it sounds.

According to Avila, you capture and hold the reader's attention by appealing to basic emotions such as fear, anger, pleasure and territoriality. We know them 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 in search engine optimisation that you had to write your keyword X number of times on your landing page. Then you could count on people finding the page when they typed the word into the search engine.

That's no longer the case.

Google has become much smarter. So write naturally. That way, both Google and your reader understand what your page is about. You may also know this practice as 'semantic SEO'.

→ Read more about semantic SEO

12. Write consistently, not schizophrenically

It almost goes without saying. Avoid jumping from addressing the reader formally to being the cheeky kid in class.

Be consistent with your tone of voice, your language style and the way you speak to the reader. That way, you also paint a stable picture of your brand.

13. Add links to helpful websites

Google users are Google's customers.

It sounds obvious. Yet it's the key to many questions, such as: "Why should you link to other websites from your 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 give readers the best experience on your landing page, also known as a good user experience. One way to get there is to point them on to relevant articles, news or blog posts on other websites. They should complement your content and help the reader.

When you guide the user, you provide a good experience, and Google rewards it.

REMEMBER! Let your internal links open in the same window. That way, you avoid spamming the reader with lots of windows from the same site. 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 you read new information, you typically only remember around 10% of it after 3 days. Images change that. Statistics show that the chance of remembering around 65% of the information is significantly higher when it's paired with images.

So make your landing page easy to read. Break up the copy with images and videos, for example like our branding video below.

15. Write engaging and relevant meta descriptions and page titles

Your landing page also needs to look good in the search results. Write engaging meta descriptions and page titles for your pages, and lift your click-through rate (CTR) from the search results to the landing page.

The title and description are the first things readers see when your page appears in the search results. They need to convince the reader to click and explore your landing page.

In our view, the page title should say what the reader will find on the page, offer clear value and end with the name of your website. Keep it 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 offer/the good advice/see the full handbook here."

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

16. Add social proof for your business on every landing page

When we humans are in doubt, we often go with the flow and do what others do. That's why social proof on your website is so important. It shows your visitors that your products or services are popular, and that they can benefit from them too.

An obvious way to use social proof is to show reviews from Google, Trustpilot or Facebook at the bottom of your website, also known as the footer. That way, they appear on all your landing pages. The reviews build trust and show that others have already had good experiences with your products or services.

Incidentally, Google's latest E-E-A-T Core Update makes social proof more important than ever if you want to do well in SEO.

In short

Skipping straight to the bottom to read the conclusion? Then this is for you:

If you need to write a good landing page, you can follow our advice. In short, it's about providing information that is easy to read and relevant to both your readers and Google.

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

You can also get hold of one of our specialists via our contact page.

Thanks for reading.

The little handbook for a (good) landing page