Death of the landing page
Submitted by smile66603 on Thu, 06/05/2008 - 19:30.
I just finished watching session 10 and during the questions and answer porting, someone asked if there was a rule to how many links you should have on your landing page.
Scott mentions they have done testing and have found that it actually helps to establish credibly with the user if you include your site navigation on the landing page, or link to other relevant content. Jeremy also said it can be a good idea and can also help you avoid the Google Slap.
Based on what I've been reading and hearing for the last few weeks and months, it seems the landing page is slowing becoming just another page in your website. Landing pages are highly focused on one product, but if a website is designed and organized well, I don't see why you wouldn't make a page that is just part of your website that is highly focused.
James
i think landing pages are
i think landing pages are still "marketing heavy" and won't generally fit easily into the rest of your site (supposing it's an informational site). if they did, your site probably wouldn't interest users who ended up there by following organic links. they'd think "heck, i've landed in a sales zone, when what i'm looking for is information. where's my back button?"
i can conceive of landing pages that connect to the rest of the site, but not vice versa.
Stephen Carter
creator of Review Foundry
The goal of the landing page
The goal of the landing page is to get them to take action. Any links on the page should reinforce the action, not take away from it. It might not make sense to put your global nav on the page, but if you can put some links on the page that establish you as an expert I think it's a good idea. I think the important lesson to learn here is to test variations of your page to see what gets the best results.
Best,
Jeremy
I remember Scott talking
I remember Scott talking about whether or not to add navigation on your landing page and I have been thinking about it a lot.
I'm going to begin testing this, but my theory going into the testing is this.
If I'm targeting compare keywords such as "compare products" and "review products", then the customer might want more information than what is provided on the landing page and it might be good to have the navigation there so they can find it.
If I'm targeting buy keywords such as the specific name of the product, then the customer more than likely has all the information they need and is ready to make a purchase. Therefore, navigation would be a distraction and should be left out.
I've never tested a landing page with navigation, so it will be interesting to see the results I get.
Including site navigation on
Including site navigation on a landing page is completely contrary to the recommendation that Marketing Sherpa makes in their landing page handbook (they say to drop everything that could distract from a conversion). Including site navigation might improve the credibility of a site, but the bottom line is whether or not it improves conversions.
Moe
If a landing page doen't
If a landing page doen't have links to other pages in your site, will it be considered at all part of the site by google?
Should we just link to "disclaimer" kind of pages?
This navigation discussion
This navigation discussion has got me thinking, I might see what Tim Ashes book says on the topic for landing pages. Just that I think my page is 98% ready to start testing.
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I just recently bought Tim
I just recently bought Tim Ashes book and I'm anxious to see what he says about landing pages.
James