Landing Page Help

toasty · #1 (**permalink**) 08-30-2006, 10:32 PM

I manage many AdWords campaigns that comprise hundreds of keywords which lead users to landing pages that contain many of the elements mentioned here. However, Google is deactivating many of the keyword ads in my accounts. After reading a few posts on the topic (esp. here), I have realized that my landing pages contain 3 significant limitations and I am trying to determine the best approach to maintaining a high Quality Score despite these:

First, because of the huge number of keywords we are targeting, often, the keywords in the ad do not appear in the content of our landing pages. One way around this is to pull keywords contained in the URL from the ad (the URLs in our ads all contain the keywords), then dynamically insert these keywords into the landing page's content. We could categorize our keywords so that they logically fit into the content of the page. Can anyone recommend this strategy or point to a discussion on this fairly technical issue?

Second, although our landing pages have customized URL's, they do not have much content (usu. only 1 page). As mentioned in an earlier post, landing pages that lack depth seem to be getting penalized. Would it be sufficient to simply ad more content to the page? Adding links to other pages is not a favored approach, as this will likely distract the user from taking the desired action.

Third, there is generally no way off the page except to fill in a lead form - that's the point, but I read that Google doesn't like forms on landing pages. Is this a serious concern?

So, these are the 3 main limitations of my landing pages and I wonder if anyone has any suggestions that could help. Your feedback is much appreciated!

Irishjim · #2 (**permalink**) 08-31-2006, 05:43 PM

Sorry, Toasty, but Google and the rest of the search engines have a bit of a problem with dynamic pages (although dynamic elements inside a static pages are just fine).

What some suggest is developing a series of static pages using the keyword phrases you want to harvest and use them as portal pages for the search engines.

We have gone completely in this direction with all of our 500 or so pages being static with dynamic elements in them.

It seems to work because our visitors come through over 700 doors to get into our site.

I wouldn't suggest this because of the brain damage but we have a good surgeon on staff.

Make every page a portal page with its own keywords is our lofty motto.

tmaster · #3 (**permalink**) 08-31-2006, 06:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by toasty

I manage many AdWords campaigns that comprise hundreds of keywords which lead users to landing pages that contain many of the elements mentioned here. However, Google is deactivating many of the keyword ads in my accounts.

First, because of the huge number of keywords we are targeting, often, the keywords in the ad do not !

Target only the keywords that relate to your site and you will not have any problems.

You are not scrapping are you?

jacobwissler · #4 (**permalink**) 08-31-2006, 06:30 PM

As I am certain you know, Google is doing this because there were a lot of "Made for Adwords" pages that had no value. I have seen this type of activity decline, or at least such pages are not ranked as well as they were a year ago

TrafficProducer · #5 (**permalink**) 08-31-2006, 07:03 PM

Quote:

AdWords campaigns that comprise hundreds of keywords which lead users to landing pages

Google are must more Strict about landing pages, they must be relevant to the Keywords used.

What about levels of clicks?

Google say, or at least used to say, that each Keyword must generate a minimum level of clicks for that particular Keyword or they will pull the plug for that Adword to that site.

toasty · #6 (**permalink**) 08-31-2006, 07:55 PM

Thank you all for the feedback! So, we're planning on creating many multiple landing pages with keyword-specific content and enhancing these static pages with dynamic elements.

Irishjim, do you have any tips about the best way of using these dynamic elements in a static page? Are <div> tags recommended? Or, will the Google spider read a php call to an external document?

As far as I know, we're not 'scrapping' - we don't re-use the same content on our pages and it's all original content.

Also, many of the keywords that were de-activated were getting high numbers of clicks, so that's been ruled out as a factor.

Irishjim · #7 (**permalink**) 08-31-2006, 08:04 PM

What an excellent question, Toasty.

Google spiders will read PHP calls but not JavaScript calls so we use PHP on all our pages for richer keyword assessment and fresh content.

We've had some funny things happen with some of our clients appearing high in search engines because of the RSS feeds we use (php files).

We use these feeds for promoting certain pages on our site as well as bringing in news information we write ourselves.

The spiders seem to like it and it's honest.

I think you're going in the right direction, lad, and if you ever need to ask anything in the future please feel free to.

As for the <div> tags, I know everyone recommends them but I'm old school and use tables. In fact, when a <div> tag happens to slip in on the odd occasion I root it out like it's a plague of some kind.

I may be wrong in this but it seems our pages that used to use them didn't perform as well as we thought they should.

Then again, I'm Irish so I do believe in the fairies.

kevingibbons · #8 (**permalink**) 08-31-2006, 08:13 PM

1) Dynamic insertion generally works well but I would suggest splitting your keywords up into multiple AdGroups as this will make them easier to manage and you can make the ad text and landing pages more relevant.

2) Yes, you should at least have a link back to your homepage on the landing page. There's no need to overdo with outbound links but you should make the page consistent with the rest of your site, using the same navigation etc.

3) Using forms on landing pages, I've never heard of that before! Using a form on landing pages generally increases the conversion rate and I don't think there's any chance of Google penalizing you for this.

Overall I would suggest creating testing multiple ad variations and landing pages making these as relevant as possible to the AdGroup keywords. This should show you which landing page works best in terms of clicks and you can also make decisions about the ad's performance based upon it's CTR, average CPC and conversion rates.

whipnet · #9 (**permalink**) 09-01-2006, 10:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Irishjim

As for the <div> tags, I know everyone recommends them but I'm old school and use tables. In fact, when a <div> tag happens to slip in on the odd occasion I root it out like it's a plague of some kind.

I may be wrong in this but it seems our pages that used to use them didn't perform as well as we thought they should.

I will verify there is something to this. I've noticed the same thing... but then again, I'm Irish too.

*

ste_dean · #10 (**permalink**) 09-01-2006, 10:30 AM

Landing pages should be as relevant to the keywords you are targetting. The idea of paying someone to visit your site and not bothering to cater for what they are looking for is a ludicrous business model.

You must include relevant static content for your landing pages! A good article/research into landing pages and conversions has been done here http://www.marketingexperiments.com/...imization.html

Also, Ive never heard the comment before about the impact of using divs or tables! Tables are NOT meant to be used for layout, they never have been they never will be. Tables are meant to display data! The symantic DIV tag is there for layout.

I could go on and on about why you should use DIVs before tables, but I can point you to an article that does it better than me:

http://tutorials.alsacreations.com/tableaux/

Id be more than happy to take a look at your site and point out a few areas that could be improved.

schmeetz · #11 (**permalink**) 09-01-2006, 10:32 AM

Hi Toasty,

Dynamically inserting key words is good or create a sepeate landing page for each.....either one.

- make sure you set up an ad group per keyphase category.
- have multiple adds rotating at all times and monitor.

This will ensure max clickthough rate which is highly targeted and will lower the costs per click.

cheers,

untmarkb · #12 (**permalink**) 09-01-2006, 11:46 AM

Div tags are becoming VERY common. Many people are going the way of complete CSS design and div tags are important to do that. Check out the source code on video.google.com and Blogger and many other sites - if Google does it, don't you think they approve of it?

I have never seen div tags getting treating any different in the search engines. If anything I have seen them work better when referencing outside CSS files because the file size of each page is greatly reduced and therefore easier for the SE's to crawl.

ste_dean · #13 (**permalink**) 09-02-2006, 09:28 AM

Page weight is one factor a search engine spider (in particular Google) takes into account.

However, more importantly page weight is a major factor on whether a visitor to your site stays or leaves. If a page takes 10 seconds to load it is more than likely to see the visitor quit and go somewhere else. If the same page was reduced and took 1 second you are more likely to get a visitor to stay and see your content.

Using tables greatly effects page weight, it is not BAD to do so, but use DIV's whenever possible. It is VALID HTML and search engines DO NOT mark pages down for using them.

ditto · #14 (**permalink**) 09-04-2006, 12:47 PM

>3) Using forms on landing pages, I've never heard of that before! Using a form on landing pages generally increases the conversion rate and I don't think there's any chance of Google penalizing you for this.

This is what's known as a squeeze page and it's another of the landing page types Google is targeting with these latest changes. Essentially the page is designed to encourage you to provide your email address in return for any number of things like a free e-book, software, report etc.

>Also, Ive never heard the comment before about the impact of using divs or tables! Tables are NOT meant to be used for layout, they never have been they never will be. Tables are meant to display data! The symantic DIV tag is there for layout.

The Tables vs Layers(divs) debate has been going on for years. A site will NOT be penalized for using one above the other BUT compliant pages (divs) tend to load quicker, with content being seperate from design, and this may be a small factor in their ranking.

As for tables not meant to be used for layout, true but there was no other choice for many years when I started out back in the mid 90's. ;)

>1) Dynamic insertion generally works well but I would suggest splitting your keywords up into multiple AdGroups as this will make them easier to manage and you can make the ad text and landing pages more relevant.

I've been doing this for a long time and tailoring landing pages exactly to the keyphrase my visitor used to find me. ;)

This results in a huge increase in conversions. Imagine a prospect finding the exact keyphrase he used scattered throughout the landing page. How much more confident does it make him that he found what he was looking for. ;)

You can grab the code(free) both in ASP and PHP to do this, along with how to set up your campaigns and details on how to easily cut down on that huge number of landing pages mentioned elsewhere in this thread....

...here - www.ppcaccelerator.com

hth,

toasty · #15 (**permalink**) 09-05-2006, 01:30 PM

Again, thank you for the excellent feedback!

When I mentioned using <DIV> tags earlier in this post, I was referring to hidden DIV's. Sorry for the lack of clarity (and words!).

I was considering using hidden DIV's to cut down on the number of landing pages by generating custom content on the page (keyword friendly) depending on what menu choice the user selected. However, I have since discovered some posts that strongly discourage this practice (e.g., here).

Is that the general feeling here, too? Are hidden DIV's a definite no-no?

ste_dean · #16 (**permalink**) 09-06-2006, 12:52 PM

Hidden DIVs are a BIG NO NO!

There are several reasons why...

1/ The search engines do view this as being a black hat technique. The search engines spider will read all of your page while the visitor sees something different. This is something that COULD get your web site dropped out of the index.

2/ Accessibility! Disabled visitors using screen readers etc maybe able to pick up all of your content and therefore read out to the visitor a load of nonsense! Not a good way to attract customers.

But I would personally advise against using them!

toasty · #17 (**permalink**) 09-11-2006, 02:47 PM

I’d like to know if php calls are readable by the spiders. One of the advantages with hidden divs is that the content is accessible to Google & co. So, if I'm calling php files that contain keyword-rich content to that matches the user's search parameters, is this content being read?

IOW, will a SE spider follow a php call?

jtracking · #18 (**permalink**) 09-25-2006, 11:03 AM

is inserting dynamic data into a page where the data is the same as the ad the user clicked on a moral issue?

ditto · #19 (**permalink**) 10-14-2006, 08:39 AM

>I’d like to know if php calls are readable by the spiders.

No. PHP is processed server side before the bots hit the page. So any content called via PHP will be seen on the page by the bot as standard text.

>is inserting dynamic data into a page where the data is the same as the ad the user clicked on a moral issue

Not necessarily if the product or service you offer is inline with what your prospect is searching for. Using this technique you are simply moving your prospect a little closer to performing the desired action on your page by aligning your content a little closer to their search term.

It's very simple if your prospect sees his search term peppered through your landing page he is more inclined to take action. He subconsciously feels he's found what he's looking for.

It's just better marketing and targeting. And it results in a much higher ROI. ;)

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