Landing Page

janeth · #1 (**permalink**) 08-09-2008, 05:03 PM

One of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do was sit while other criticized my work. But after it’s all over and the smokes cleared it is the single thing that has helped me more than anything else.

I’d like to get some insight or how I can make Professionally designed rubber bracelets made to look the way you want. Rubber Bracelets made in your colors and with your message and/or Logo embedded into the rubber bracelet. a better landing page. The rest of the site is crazy and out of control so ignore it, please. I’m looking for insight into what the site visitor sees.

I tried building a page that only had one option for the visitor but as I tried to make it look better I ended up adding lots and lots of places for the visitor to go. I’m working on changing that now.

I want to build a landing page, so for the time I’m only worried about getting this page to convert. However if you want to talk about the SEO aspects I can start making those changes as well.

I’m no writer and the sales copy currently sucks so I’m willing to make changes there as well.

Be tough on me. The tougher the better.

Thanks and I'll give green to everyone that gives me a review.

davebarnes · #2 (**permalink**) 08-09-2008, 07:18 PM

Question: How does someone get to this page?
From a search at Google and then clicking on the organic results?
Or, from a search and clicking on an sponsored link/ad?

janeth · #3 (**permalink**) 08-09-2008, 07:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davebarnes

Question: How does someone get to this page?

When I finish the hope is from a search on any of the major search engines for the keyword "rubber bracelets"

Quote:

Originally Posted by davebarnes

From a search at Google and then clicking on the organic results?
Or, from a search and clicking on an sponsored link/ad?

Organic.

davebarnes · #4 (**permalink**) 08-09-2008, 08:02 PM

“A typical gateway page is small, simple and highly optimized. Its primary goal is to attract visitors searching for relevant key words or phrases, and provide hyperlinks to pages within the website.” Source: Wikipedia

What are the essential elements of a gateway page?

It is optimized for one term for the search engine spiders. That is, when a person visits a search engine (e.g., Google) and searches for a term, your gateway page will appear high up in the organic results. The example page shown at Eliminate Hemorrhoids - Gastroenterology of the Rockies is targeted for "hemorrhoids longmont". While it is similar to the standard page about hemorrhoids in the Gastroenterology of the Rockies website, this page talks about hemorrhoids. No mention of colon cancer or any other gastro problems. We then added information about their Longmont office. Only Longmont, nothing about offices in Boulder or anywhere else. Focus. This page currently ranks #1 at Google but has ranged from 1 to 10 over the last 1+ year.
It is readable by humans. After all, this is the first page they will see after clicking on the search results.
It contains a “call to action”. You spent all this effort to get the visitor to this page and now you want them do something other than just read the words. For Gastro Rockies, the call to action is to make an appointment. Yes, the big red button is ugly. We don't care. It works.

janeth · #5 (**permalink**) 08-09-2008, 09:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davebarnes

“A typical gateway page is small, simple and highly optimized. Its primary goal is to attract visitors searching for relevant key words or phrases, and provide hyperlinks to pages within the website.” Source: Wikipedia

What are the essential elements of a gateway page?

It is optimized for one term for the search engine spiders. That is, when a person visits a search engine (e.g., Google) and searches for a term, your gateway page will appear high up in the organic results. The example page shown at Eliminate Hemorrhoids - Gastroenterology of the Rockies is targeted for "hemorrhoids longmont". While it is similar to the standard page about hemorrhoids in the Gastroenterology of the Rockies website, this page talks about hemorrhoids. No mention of colon cancer or any other gastro problems. We then added information about their Longmont office. Only Longmont, nothing about offices in Boulder or anywhere else. Focus. This page currently ranks #1 at Google but has ranged from 1 to 10 over the last 1+ year.
It is readable by humans. After all, this is the first page they will see after clicking on the search results.
It contains a “call to action”. You spent all this effort to get the visitor to this page and now you want them do something other than just read the words. For Gastro Rockies, the call to action is to make an appointment. Yes, the big red button is ugly. We don't care. It works.

I've got the call to action at the top of the page. Although I might move it all the way to the top.

I'm not sure about the little blue box, might try some other colors or remove it all together.

However I'm planning to break down each of the colors into their own landing page once I get this one set up to look like I want.

That is my plan but I first need to get this page to be all it can be.

amxfan · #6 (**permalink**) 08-09-2008, 09:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by janeth

When I finish the hope is from a search on any of the major search engines for the keyword "rubber bracelets"

I would change your title to "Rubber bracelets tailor-made to look the way you want. Right now it is too long and it looks stuffed.

You used H2 too many times on the page.

The keyword density for rubber bracelets is 39.5%... seems a little high.

Your keywords look stuffed with the word rubber.

Your alt text seems to be a little extreme with the words "Custom Rubber"

chiron · #7 (**permalink**) 08-09-2008, 10:59 PM

Just to be sure, you mean landing and not home page? This seems more like a home page at the moment, nothing wrong with that, but some thoughts below are based on not considering this a home page, though some cross over.

Had a random thought as I looked at this (from the "landing page" perspective). All those bracelet images are indeed persuasive, but many a visitor will not bother to scroll. Have you considered making "Step 1: Choose" a cheesy fade-in-fade-out CSS image? You'd probably want it to fade back to "choose" every other image, but it would catch the eye, and like Dave said, "ugly red buttons" are helpful to conversions, especially on a landing page.

The stuffing idea is not badly implemented here, but it does look stuffed. Though I think not to the point it will drive away "normal" visitors. No reason you could not leave all the individual bands below, plus the other text if you want, but agree with the call-to-action concept of flipping what begins with this plus the 1-2-3 steps: "Order you rubber bracelet now by clicking the banner below." with the blue box and everything below it to the point of the flip.

Be sure to fix some of the little errors that make people run, like "no minimun" or "Order you bracelet" - easy fixes that left as they are can hurt your image. Grin, had to fix "you image" myself - missing that "r" is a common typo.

I realize the text is not final, but be cautious with the connotations of certain words like "cheap" - for example:

IF YOU WANT TO BE THE BEST IN THE BUSINESS, YOU HAVE TO LOOK LIKE THE BEST. RUBBER BRACELETS CAN BE A CHEAP AN INEXPENSIVE WAY TO MAKE YOURSELF LOOK LIKE THE SUCCESS YOU WANT TO BE.

How about, trying to keep char count about the same...

CUSTOM SILICON OR RUBBER BRACELETS MAKE A COLORFUL AND POWERFUL STATEMENT. BUILD IMMEDIATE AWARENESS AND SOLIDARITY FOR YOUR CAUSE, AFFILIATION, OR BRAND - AT AN AFFORDABLE PRICE!

Just typed that, it's surely flawed, but the general idea is there. I would shade harder to "causes" than you do now, since while businesses might consider this, this sort of product seems to be more associated with "statements" than building sales. Identifying with a group of mothers of soldiers, political party endorsements, cancer or AIDS awareness, things like that, seems to be a target as compared to "buy my widgets!" - the simplicity is one of the product's key selling points, which means it will have to symbolically convey a simple concept visually.

Good luck!

janeth · #8 (**permalink**) 08-09-2008, 11:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by amxfan

I would change your title to "Rubber bracelets tailor-made to look the way you want. Right now it is too long and it looks stuffed.

You used H2 too many times on the page.

The keyword density for rubber bracelets is 39.5%... seems a little high.

Your keywords look stuffed with the word rubber.

Your alt text seems to be a little extreme with the words "Custom Rubber"

Thanks, I fixed all those problems.

janeth · #9 (**permalink**) 08-10-2008, 12:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chiron

Just to be sure, you mean landing and not home page?

Yes, landing page.

Quote:

Originally Posted by chiron

Had a random thought as I looked at this (from the "landing page" perspective). All those bracelet images are indeed persuasive, but many a visitor will not bother to scroll. Have you considered making "Step 1: Choose" a cheesy fade-in-fade-out CSS image? You'd probably want it to fade back to "choose" every other image, but it would catch the eye, and like Dave said, "ugly red buttons" are helpful to conversions, especially on a landing page.

I've given them two chances to click to make the purchase before getting that far down. My thought is that once they reach that low on the page chances are their not going to purchase anyway.

I'm hoping most people have left to make a purchase by now.

The top of the page now has so much going on that I hate to add more.

Quote:

Originally Posted by chiron

The stuffing idea is not badly implemented here, but it does look stuffed. Though I think not to the point it will drive away "normal" visitors.

I removed most of them but left a couple. I can use it to get the number of keywords like I want.

Quote:

Originally Posted by chiron

No reason you could not leave all the individual bands below, plus the other text if you want, but agree with the call-to-action concept of flipping what begins with this plus the 1-2-3 steps: "Order you rubber bracelet now by clicking the banner below." with the blue box and everything below it to the point of the flip.

Made that change.

Quote:

Originally Posted by chiron

Be sure to fix some of the little errors that make people run, like "no minimun" or "Order you bracelet" - easy fixes that left as they are can hurt your image. Grin, had to fix "you image" myself - missing that "r" is a common typo.

Trying to find all of them now. I went on and added caps in the four banners while I was fixing those but not sure if I made it look better or worst.

Quote:

Originally Posted by chiron

I realize the text is not final, but be cautious with the connotations of certain words like "cheap" - for example:

Using the word bothered me a little at the time. I'll go back and remove it from all the text.

Quote:

Originally Posted by chiron

IF YOU WANT TO BE THE BEST IN THE BUSINESS, YOU HAVE TO LOOK LIKE THE BEST. RUBBER BRACELETS CAN BE A CHEAP AN INEXPENSIVE WAY TO MAKE YOURSELF LOOK LIKE THE SUCCESS YOU WANT TO BE.

How about, trying to keep char count about the same...

CUSTOM SILICON OR RUBBER BRACELETS MAKE A COLORFUL AND POWERFUL STATEMENT. BUILD IMMEDIATE AWARENESS AND SOLIDARITY FOR YOUR CAUSE, AFFILIATION, OR BRAND - AT AN AFFORDABLE PRICE!

Thanks, I made that change.

Quote:

Originally Posted by chiron

Just typed that, it's surely flawed, but the general idea is there. I would shade harder to "causes" than you do now, since while businesses might consider this, this sort of product seems to be more associated with "statements" than building sales. Identifying with a group of mothers of soldiers, political party endorsements, cancer or AIDS awareness, things like that, seems to be a target as compared to "buy my widgets!" - the simplicity is one of the product's key selling points, which means it will have to symbolically convey a simple concept visually.

Good luck!

The text needs a lot of work and I agree, I need to take it in a different direction.

davebarnes · #10 (**permalink**) 08-10-2008, 12:22 AM

janeth,

You are really smart.

FOCUS.
Less is more.
Do the Readers' Digest process. Remove 1/3 and then remove 1/3 again.

,dave

janeth · #11 (**permalink**) 08-10-2008, 12:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davebarnes

janeth,

You are really smart.

FOCUS.
Less is more.
Do the Readers' Digest process. Remove 1/3 and then remove 1/3 again.

,dave

I'm hoping that the visit will convert before going past the second call to action. I'm wanting to use the bottom section to link out to long tail pages. Those pages will not have any of the wristbands other than the color they are searching for.

I may also remove the left navigation for those pages as well limiting where they are able to go.

I'll get one set up tomorrow and get your thoughts on it.

chiron · #12 (**permalink**) 08-10-2008, 01:57 AM

Hard to articulate sometimes, easier to show.

www dot adhive.com/janeth_landing.jpg

Removed left-hand nav - you confirmed this is a landing page only, so I agree that should be gone to avoid leakage; also left-off but implied the "see them all" section. Aim was to get a clear, one-action, above-the-fold look that may help drive conversions.

I'd still break apart (single image right now) the 1-2-3 and have the "1 - Choose" be an animated image of one kind or another to grab those eyeballs!

janeth · #13 (**permalink**) 08-10-2008, 10:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chiron

Hard to articulate sometimes, easier to show.

www dot adhive.com/janeth_landing.jpg

Removed left-hand nav - you confirmed this is a landing page only, so I agree that should be gone to avoid leakage; also left-off but implied the "see them all" section. Aim was to get a clear, one-action, above-the-fold look that may help drive conversions.

I'd still break apart (single image right now) the 1-2-3 and have the "1 - Choose" be an animated image of one kind or another to grab those eyeballs!

Here's what I did.

I took the Rubber bracelets tailor-made to look the way you want page and added a link to a new page called Baby Blue Rubber Bracelets

This would make the Rubber bracelets tailor-made to look the way you want page kind of like the home page and the other pages more like the landing page.

The design needs some work and I'm not sure if the banner looks the best at the top of the Baby Blue Rubber Bracelets page now.

Let me know your thoughts and if I should move all this to a sub domain name as well.

davebarnes · #14 (**permalink**) 08-10-2008, 12:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chiron

www.adhive.com/janeth_landing.jpg

YES!

My only criticism is that I would add another 50-100 words to improve the attractiveness to the search engines.

janeth · #15 (**permalink**) 08-10-2008, 12:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davebarnes

YES!

My only criticism is that I would add another 50-100 words to improve the attractiveness to the search engines.

I was thinking the same thing as well as I need to change the graphic sizes so they stretch across the whole page. Removing the side bar changes the size of everything.

spiderbait · #16 (**permalink**) 08-10-2008, 02:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chiron

Hard to articulate sometimes, easier to show.

www dot adhive.com/janeth_landing.jpg

Removed left-hand nav - you confirmed this is a landing page only, so I agree that should be gone to avoid leakage; also left-off but implied the "see them all" section. Aim was to get a clear, one-action, above-the-fold look that may help drive conversions.

I'd still break apart (single image right now) the 1-2-3 and have the "1 - Choose" be an animated image of one kind or another to grab those eyeballs!

Excellent job of condensing the page down to it's vital components Chiron. You've given Janeth something quite valuable in my opinion. I would expect your version of the page to convert several times more than the original.

Regarding Dave's and Janeth's concern about quantity of text for search engine purposes, which is valid if the page is going to be attractive to search engines, I have a suggestion.

Since the landing page optimization effort is often at odds with the search engine optimization effort because of the amount of text required, why not get the best of both worlds with a "more" link at the end of the final sentence of text on Chiron's version.

But instead of being a link to another page, the "more" link should trigger a search engine friendly collapsible panel containing the additional text. That way the search engine sees the content it needs in order to rank the page; the visitor can read more information if they choose, without leaving the landing page with its call-to-action; and most importantly, the landing page retains its effectiveness when viewed initially by all visitors.

FYI, I highly recommend this technique for anyone doing landing page optimization that requires the visitor to enter personal information. The collapsible panel in that instance can be used for a "privacy policy" link adjacent to the personal information form inputs.

Hope this helps.