Landing Pages for SEO - A 'How-To'

Typically landing pages are typically created to accommodate traffic from a paid ad with the intent of eliciting a specific response from the visitor.

But landing pages can also attract visits from organic searches. Using landing pages to attract organic search traffic can be a great way to rise above competitors for specific terms. By narrowing the SEO focus of a page you tell search engines exactly what that page is about. Resulting in a higher page rank vs. other pages that may spread their focus a little thinner. I like to use blog posts to serve this purpose, but not all sites have a blog. So when a site doesn't have a blog we use landing pages (I like to call them search landing pages.)

For example, let's say you are a grocery store. You may have pages on your website dedicated to bakery, produce, and meats. Now let's say that there are a lot of searches in your local area for Prime Rib around Christmas. You may want to create a landing page that is focused on making Prime Rib for Christmas. It could talk about traditions, recipes, specifics about the cut of meat. That page does not have to be included in the primary navigation, but it will do better in searches for Prime Rib than your meats page will.

If you combine search engine optimized content with calls to action you create a landing page that gets your store a bigger cut (see what I did there!?) of the  Prime Rib sales.

As users start to zero in on the right company to fit their needs their searches become more specific (and probably more wordy.) This means that there is huge value in targeting the more specific terms. Firstly, because you are attracting traffic from a potential customer who is closer to making a purchase. And also because customers inherently trust the organic portion of the search results more. Both of these factors mean the leads are warmer.

Sometimes more specific searches mean the queries are more granular. 'More specific' can also pertain to longer phrases or questions (long-tail searches). Attract organic (free) search traffic by addressing specific questions using a page written for that query.

Keep in mind we are talking about FREE traffic here. Organic search engine optimization is an investment in traffic generation for the long term. Creating pages with strategically chosen content is a step toward attracting the exact customers you want at a lower cost than any other marketing plan out there.