Quick guide to SEO and Landing Page Optimization

Transactional search is the battleground where SEO and Landing Page Optimizaton SEM techniques can turn from enemies to allies.

While Landing Page Optimization addresses transactional search queries, and search engines strive on displaying results to match users’ intent based on the combination of keywords and intent-indicating terms (“buy” for transactional queries, “review” for informational queries, etc.), a well structured product page can rank high for navigational, informational and transactional search queries.

These are some ways in which SEO can help your landing page be effective and targeted:

• a good folder structure (avoid creating too many folders!) will feature product category and brand keywords, when the latter is not in the domain name itself;
• the page URL should have product model keywords in the filename;
• product page Title too should be optimized with the crawler in mind, without unnecessary words that would dilute keyword density;
• headline 1 instead, could combine keywords along with transactional intent-indicating terms, that should reflect as closely as possible the headline of the ad used in PPC campaigns.

A clear funnel to conversion can coexist with usability. Avoiding leakage points is as important as providing clear navigation and a good user experience, especially when users could become returning customers or decide to shop for more than one product on your website.

SEO copywriting will improve rankings for any kind of search query regarding your product.

A page with good quality informational content will build trust and convert better than short copy pages for users in the early stages of the buying cycle, especially when the transaction fulfills a rational need and involves high levels of anxiety, caused by high perceived risk and personal commitment.

Transactions that don’t involve high cost and commitment, or are based on more impulsive purchase behavior, benefit from short copy, because long copy would just produce friction and have a dampening effect on the initial emotional strength of the impulse.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 30th, 2009 at 2:00 pm and is filed under Search Engine Optimization. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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