Landing Page Optimization
OK, so there’s no doubt that the word optimization is fairly over used. Ever since Search Engine Optimization & SEO hit the mainstream, people have been advertising optimization services for everything. I mean, I’m pretty sure I saw a therapist advertising “Marriage Optimization” on TV the other day…
Regardless of its (over) use, making sure that your website, search & web marketing are operating at peak performance is critical. One of the most overlooked aspects of web marketing is the landing page. Whether you’re using search ads, banner ads, email, or any of the largely effective web marketing tools, getting someone to click through to your site is only half the battle. Getting them to stay on your site and become a sales lead – or actually make a purchase – is an entirely different challenge.
Optimizing that landing page for results is a critical aspect of any web marketing campaign (and even for more traditional marketing campaigns as more TV & print ads direct users to a website).
Brian Deagan has a really solid article in Website Magazine that breaks down some of the ways you can use data to learn, and improve results on your landing page. You can take a look here: http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2010/12/10/start-with-data-in-landing-page-optimization.aspx
It’s a great outline of how you can approach optimization, and many of the principles he outlines would apply well to search marketing, social marketing, email, or any other web marketing campaign. Ultimately, it comes right back to one of the core tenants of digital marketing that we’ve always been promoting: test, test, test, and when you think you’re done – test again!