Making the Perfect Landing Page

Whatever business you're in – having key product/service website pages highly ranked on Google is a game changer – both in terms of sales conversions and brand awareness.

These type of pages are commonly described as "landing pages". Particularly useful for Pay Per Click Advertising and by using good SEO practices they will create great natural listing results in Google.

Unlike the home page, landing pages have a specific goal – the design and content is tailor made to attract a specific audience, who then purchase a specific product or trigger another sales action. These web pages provide exactly what the internet user has searched for. The content is focused on a few select key words and key phrases.

In this article we wanted to highlight some of the aspects you should consider when creating landing pages for your website. This is not an exact science as every target audience is different – so apply these general rules and it will give you a great starting point to work from.

Which keywords to choose for each page?
Knowing which key words and key phrases are best for each landing page requires research. You can use an SEO specialist or you can do the groundwork yourself – as some data is available for free. First make a list of what you think people would search for – include spelling errors. Then do some analysis using the Google AdWords Keyword Planner and Google Trends. I found this great blog which explains in more detail - https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-to-do-keyword-research-ht

Writing metadata for each page
Metadata is not something that web users can see on a webpage, but they can see them in search results. Search engines use metadata to decide when to show your content in search results depending on the search term input by the web user. 

What does metadata look like? 
In search results, titles tags and meta descriptions look like this: 

You should work through your website to ensure that all pages have a unique title tag and meta description. When working on an existing website you can prioritise this somewhat intimidating task by first working on pages with high search value and high traffic and pages with no metadata at all. When adding new pages, you should make it a habit to add unique metadata before publishing the page. 

How much text should I write?
A really juicy landing page should include about 600 – 700 words minimum. Really focus on quality content – The text should be honest, relevant, keyword rich – but sensibly done.

Avoid duplicate content
Having multiple landing pages with potentially similar keywords means you maybe tempted to copy some paragraphs of text from one to the other. This will be flagged up and marked down by Google – so do take the time to rewrite all your page text – it is worth the effort. 
P.s. Avoid borrowing content from other websites.

A mobile friendly user experience
As a web design team we now design mobile up – which basically means that we consider mobile view above all others. Ensuring best practice for all platforms.

Google will take into consideration how your site performs in mobile view. So designers will consider page loading speed, navigation, usability, content layout and social media sharing opportunity. 

Websites which reflow content to suit different screen sizes are called “Responsive”.

Looking professional 
Once a potential client has found your site – they need to know that the company they have found is not only professional but trustworthy, experienced, reputable and provides the place to purchase the item or find out more (especially if your business is service based).
 
So get professional designers (like us :-) to help make the web page sing – both in terms of product placement, hierarchy of information and user interaction triggers. The use of effective imagery is important as well as button colours and placement.

Slow burn
It can take time to see the results of your labour where SEO is concerned, for some websites it can take six months, even two years to rank high in search results for a specific keyword or phrase. Some improvements in your website’s SEO however can have an immediate positive impact. The result depends on the website, the available improvements to make on it and of course your competition and what they are doing with their SEO. 

There is also the Google factor, Google are an entity of their own and can release new rules and algorithms whenever they see fit. We would point out here that Google’s ethos is to provide the best user experience to users of their search engine, so there is every reason to try to work within Google rules to encourage relevant, convertible traffic to your website instead of users that don’t want to be there and you wouldn’t ever be able to convert. 

The more websites and pages that your website is competing against, the longer it takes to get results.

There are usually some easy wins and quick fixes that you can work on to get results soon whilst you are also working on the long-term strategy. These will vary from one website to another and a good SEO company will suggest a full site and brand assessment to help you to plan your strategy. 

Google analytics and algorithms – review and revise – learn
Website promotion is a constant learning experience which evolves and grows over time. The statistics Google Analytics provides will help you review and revise the content and design to get the best results

To learn a bit more about Google Algorithms this blog quite useful - https://neilpatel.com/blog/the-ultimate-google-algorithm-cheat-sheet/

To speak direct to a designer today call us on 0370 334 1598 or email studio@thenewfat.co.uk.

ADDITIONAL READING: 

Coffee break quick read: Overview of The New Fat's best design projects of 2018

To keep up to date with all the 20 year activities see our dedicated web page or follow us on twitter.

Find out more about our April social media brand up design offer click here.

Have a read of our latest case study all about the website we designed for The Old Diorama Arts Centre.

7 Factors to Consider When Designing Websites

Web design is not only creative, but includes much more – from copywriting and typography to layout and graphics, coming together to create an interface that not only looks good but, one that communicates to its audience and delivers a good user experience.

A successful website project is a big task. Everyone wants their project to be successful, but this doesn’t happen magically and needs a strong plan.

1. What are your goals?

First port of call before starting work on your web design is to have a clear understanding of your business goals, or your client’s goals. What are you trying to achieve with the new website or redesign? What is the main reason or purpose of the website? Speak to your client, your manager or ask yourself what they are.

What is the function of your website? Are you selling products or services, creating entertainment or delivering information? Ask why you want the redesign: are you looking to grow the number of registrations, decrease the bounce rate or maybe increase user participation like downloads? The function will predetermine your website design and platform. Goals are equally important if you are considering redesign. 

2. Identify your audience

Knowing your audience is fundamental in how your website will look, feel and function. There are several demographics to consider that will have some effect in the design of your website, e.g. age, gender and occupation. A gaming website for a younger audience requires a different design than that of an entrepreneur. Usability is extremely important for senior and less technical audiences where small detail factors like font size and navigation should be considered.

3. What is your brand image?

Many website designers get excited about using the latest trends without considering the image they should be conveying. Glossy buttons, gradients and reflective floors may work for some websites, but they may not be right for your brand.

A few basic things to consider are colour and how you want visitors to feel when they land on the website and what emotions you want to evoke. Your design should bring to life the personality and character of your brand. Your website will have a feel that makes an impression on your visitors. Think about what that impression should be.

4. Do you have the right team in place?

If your strategy and direction is clear and you have the right team on board for the project, then trust that they will deliver. Communication throughout the website design is important so check in regularly and give feedback, ask questions, but at the same time micromanaging them isn’t necessary if you have the trust. The team will take ownership in pride of the website too and will want it to be a success.

5. Don’t expect a lot for a little

Website budgets are like a seesaw with factors like function, technicalities and design needing careful balance along with the work effort to build a successful website. The application of a budget should be common sense, but all too commonly not. Best practice is to base the budget for the website design on the value you expect to create and budget accordingly.

6. Quality takes time

Give your team sufficient time in regards to budget and timeline of your website project so they are able to complete the job the way you want it. Rushing generally means important and small steps are skipped and the website may not be the best it can be. Rushing means things will be overlooked.

7. Measure

Once your website has been designed, created and deployed, it’s time to measure your success. This is very important because until you test how well your design performs, you won’t know how effective it is in fulfilling your goals e.g. if your aim is to increase the registration numbers to your service, keep tally and measure it and see if your changes are making the impact you wanted. If your goal is to increase subscribers to your blog, check your RSS stats. If it is better user participation take note of comments or forum posts, etc.

Another way to measure the success of your new website is to ask people for their feedback. They will delight in telling you what they think and it's a great way to check you are on the right path, however, be mindful of every suggestion made – they may not be practical or relevant. Look out for regular patterns and common issues – deal with those.

Measuring website analytics is a science unto itself and beyond the scope of this article, but the important thing is you have some method of measuring in place keeping you on track of your key objectives.

Successful website projects aren’t an accident and are a result of a strong process, clear direction, a great team and much grafting and hard work.

Make the most of our latest offer and save £100 on e-shot design. Click here to view our website portfolio or e-shot portfolio.

My Useful Guide: Going Responsive

In the last couple of years smartphones and tablets have become more and more a part of everyday life.

With mobile devices now tipping the scale and coming out on top for internet users, how should you utilise this growing trend?

The answer, go responsive

The way in which people view online information has been changing quickly and your website needs to keep up. Loading a full website on a small phone screen is impractical and not very user friendly. 



Responsive websites however, adjust their layout to suit the dimensions of the screen. Re-flowing content into columns and even allowing non-vital content to be switched off. Not only that but they utilise the touch screen gestures such as swipe, pinch and tap.

Advantages of going responsive

These days it’s all about having a positive user experience. So many of us spend our lunch breaks, train and bus journeys, just about any free time we have on our smartphone scrolling through social media outlets, internet shopping or just browsing sites. The more user friendly, the more time we spend on the site and the more likely we are to revisit, make a purchase or enquire.

Consider that 15 seconds is all we have to capture somebodies interest online, it’s important to make sure that all the vital information is easy to find. You should treat your website like a shop window, grab the viewers attention by showing appropriate information and the best of what you have to offer. Unlike a normal website, responsive sites know how to handle content on mobile devices, ultimately improving your brand image and keeping surfers happy.

Something else to bear in mind is the power of social media. Over half of social media browsing happens on mobile devices. Links and shares direct people to your website via phones or tablets. Responsive is a must, if you are going to make the most of those potential leads.

Invest a bit of time and effort into SEO (search engine optimisation). Not only are responsive websites better for users but they are also preferred and recommended by Google for online rankings. Use key words and content rich text to help boost your position in the search results. Google loves responsive sites and rewards you for it. Previously a mobile friendly website would have been entirely separate to the main site, meaning the online rankings would be effected. Links are consolidated to just one site with the new style of responsive websites, boosting your position on the results page.

With internet shopping on the increase, growing numbers of on-the-go internet surfers and mobile phones overtaking desktops as the preferred choice of browsing - why pass up the opportunity of all that marketing and sales potential. Investing a bit of time and money into going responsive and improving user experience could significantly improve your online presence and client leads.

Alternatively have a look at some of the websites we have designed by clicking on the links below:

Plaster By Design
Apache Industrial Workwear
Sterling Safetywear
Med-Lab
Gatch