Creating landing pages for your website visitors is one skill we can all benefit from, but optimising them for search engines such as Google and Bing, can be a different ball game.
Firstly, we want our landing page to show up in search results. We want people looking for our services to be able to find us easily, so making sure they are accessible to search engines and as relevant as possible suddenly becomes a priority.
Secondly, we want to keep our visitors happy. After all, it’s our visitors that become potential customers; our potential customers that become paying customers; and our paying customers that pay the bills. Last time we checked, Google didn’t pay us anything!
So how do we get the balance right between optimising for Google and optimising for visitors?
Here’s a few things to bear in mind.
Think user experience
User experience (or UX) is what keeps our website visitors engaged in our content. It’s the little things that our website makes easy for the customer and helps them progress on their customer journey. It’s the quick loading websites and elegant design and logical layouts that persuade our visitors to take their next step, make an enquiry or buy something from us.
Give someone a bad UX and they’ll leave. Simple as.
Google has built several UX factors into its algorithm over the years. For example:
- Page loading speed – Google favours sites that load quickly (and so do users!). We’re all impatient when it comes to browsing the ‘net, so make sure you’re not slowing down your site with unnecessary code, scripts and huge image or video files.
- Landing page relevancy – it’s kind of common sense, but your landing page should be highly relevant to your audience and Google will use this to match a visitor’s search query with a relevant landing page. So when you’re optimising your content for your audience, including keywords naturally in the text, headings and images, you’re already optimising it for Google too. Bonus!
- Pop-ups – as users, let’s face it, we hate them. Pop-ups that block the screen when you’re trying to ready the content. They’re usually after your email address in some way or another, but often it’s too soon in the relationship. You’re not ready for that kind of commitment just yet. Google doesn’t like them either, so feel free not to include them on your website!
- Ads – Google isn’t a big fan of sites with lots of ads above the fold, pushing content down the page. And as users, we tend to skip past ads as they become yet another obstacle in our way when trying to view content. They don’t make for elegant design and they don’t help our visitors in any way, so don’t include them if you want to optimise your landing pages for Google and users at the same time.
In summary…
Google’s aim has always been to provide searchers with the best quality and most relevant search results. Google thrives on its huge market share, the sheer volume of searchers using its platform (and clicking on the ads, of course!). If Google suspects your website isn’t giving users a good experience, its algorithm is likely to lower your rankings, your visibility and essentially the traffic you’re able to drive to your website.
Optimising your website shouldn’t just be about appeasing Google, though. Your website visitors should be the priority. Always. So think about the search terms they are likely to use, think about what information they want to see when they land on your page and think about the experience that you’re giving them. The Google gods should reward you accordingly. 😉
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