That sounds complicated, but it’s basically just creating a homepage or landing page designed in a strategic way to get users to convert on one main desired action, and in turn, raise the ROI of your PPC marketing campaigns.

The ultimate goal of conversion rate optimization (CRO) is to build pages that better engage your target audience so you can have better lead generation in your online marketing strategy. It also helps improve search engine optimization (SEO) by increasing user engagement and lowering bounce rate, which are favorable search engine signals.

Landing page optimization is essential for successful campaigns, and unfortunately, there is no “one size fits all” approach (although that would make our jobs a lot easier).

Let’s talk about the ways you can get high-converting landing pages.

7 Landing Page Optimization Best Practices

1. The 5-Second Usability Test

Your eyes are your best free auditing tool, and it only takes five seconds to prioritize what’s important.

The 5-Second Usability Test is a method of user behavior research that helps you measure what valuable information users take away and what impression they get within the first five seconds of looking at a landing page. Is the landing page effectively communicating its intended message?

There are three questions that you need to be able to answer within five seconds:

1. Who are you (the business)?
2. What product/service do you provide?
3. What’s in it for me (the potential customer)?

If your webpage does not address these questions, it’s time to reevaluate your landing page copywriting and web design for better user experience.

2. Decrease Distractions

The ideal ratio between the number of things you can do on a given page to the number of things you want people to do is 1:1.

The only action people should be able to take on your landing page is the one action you want them to do. That might be downloading a whitepaper, submitting a phone number for a consultation, or making a purchase. Other links, popups, or excessive offers can distract from the conversion goal.

Clean, clutter-free functionality always wins. Make use of white space so the eye can smoothly flow from one landing page element to the next.

3. Design for Motivation First, Then for Ability

Landing page design isn’t just about choosing bright, contrasting colors or using popular templates. While those tactics can help, they’re not the end all, be all. Enter the Fogg Behavior Model: B = MAT (Behavior = Motivation + Ability + Trigger).

To improve landing page performance:

• Increase motivation with urgency or scarcity. Try countdown timers or limited-time offers.
• Increase ability by making the action feel effortless. Fast page load time, mobile-friendly design, and simple form fields are key.
• Use a strong trigger, like a value-based CTA.

One practical way to track success here is to monitor key metrics like bounce rate, click-through rates, and conversion rates using Google Analytics.

4. Create Calls to Value vs. Calls to Action

Typical calls to action (CTAs) like “Submit” or “Sign Up” are bland and give nothing back to the user.

Instead, give your call-to-action button a value proposition. For example, instead of “Book Now,” try “Get Your Free Quote Today.”

Including that “why” element in your CTA gives users a reason to act. A/B testing different CTA variants is a great way to benchmark effectiveness.

5. Add Social Proof and Build Trust

If people don’t know you, they need a reason to trust you.

Adding trust signals and social proof can make a major difference:

• Customer testimonials
• Awards or media mentions
• Case studies
• Satisfaction guarantees or return policies
• Logos from well-known partners
• Links to social media profiles

Including this information directly on your landing page helps build credibility with customers and reduces their hesitation to give you their contact information.

6. Answer Users’ Questions Before They Think of Them

Your landing page should answer common objections before the user even has to ask.

Some questions you should proactively answer:

• What happens after I click this?
• How much does it cost?
• What if I’m not satisfied?
• Can I do this on mobile devices?
• Is my personal information safe?

Use landing page optimization tools like heatmap software or session recordings to see where users get stuck. Then adjust your landing page copy and design accordingly.

7. Use Landing Page Testing to Drive Results

Conversion success is rarely achieved on the first attempt. That’s why A/B testing is essential to any effective landing page strategy.

Test different:

• Headlines and subheadings
• CTA button colors or text
• Form lengths
• Imagery or product visuals
• Offers or pricing

Track results in Google Analytics to determine which variants drive better landing page conversion rates. Over time, consistent testing improves landing page performance significantly.

Let’s Build a Better Landing Page, Together

At Digital Strike, we don’t do guesswork. We combine data-backed landing page testing, in-depth persona/demographic research, and CRO strategies tailored to your campaign goals—whether you’re in ecommerce, service, or B2B.

From Google Ads landing pages to organic search SEO-focused templates, we know how to craft high-quality pages that convert. Want your PPC campaigns and landing pages working together to drive real digital marketing growth? Let’s talk.

Contact Digital Strike for a consultation, and let’s make digital lightning strike.

Working in a vertical-specific creative agency, I got bored with designing the same websites over and over for different clients. I was tired of designing websites just to design them, or just because a website had hit its “two-year” mark—both of which meant a new website regardless of how it was performing (and I’m not sure we were truly even tracking that properly).

It just didn’t feel right. I was hungry for data. Hungry to design websites that I knew would have the best chance at ranking and generating revenue for clients.

I was hungry to design with a purpose.

Then I found Digital Strike.

Here, we focus on using data through third-party tools to guide strategy. Over and over again, we’ve seen new opportunities come to us because their brand new website—that they paid $15,000 or more for, mind you!—wasn’t built to drive organic search traffic and, ultimately, sales.

Side note: If you’re currently redesigning a website and an SEO expert is not involved in that process, please, please, please stop and get one involved like, yesterday.

I knew I couldn’t be the only creative that felt this way, so I thought, why not spread my new-found knowledge with the world in a blog post? I mean, that’s what people do, right?

Anywho…

Here are a few things I’ve learned as a solo designer and developer in a data-driven marketing agency.

1. Design doesn’t matter as much as you think it does.

Stop wasting time with the over-the-top animations and funky UX techniques.

Ouch. I know. That’s a tough pill to swallow. It’s hard for me to remember at times.

But it’s the truth. As a designer, I know how tempting it can be to want to recreate websites on awwwards.com and get caught up in the out-of-this-world scroll effects or crazy transitions.

It’s important to know when to draw the line between wanting to do a technique because it’s “cool” and doing it because you think it will drive leads or push the needle forward.

Take Craigslist for example. Ugly AF.

But guess what? It works. With 60 million users and an average of 50 billion page views per month, they would be dumb to do a redesign. It follows web standards, it’s easy to navigate, and it contains content that users are looking for.

Thanks to Google’s push for a mobile-first experience, many of these animations aren’t favored on mobile devices anyway, and often times don’t even work, which could undo everything you are trying to help solve by doing a redesign.

At the end of the day, if the design decisions you are making will not directly impact the desired goal(s) of the website, abort mission.

2. A new website isn’t always the answer.

While it’s true that websites should be given another look every two years or so to make sure they are up to date with design trends (which, in my opinion, aren’t always good, by the way) and technology standards, there are a few key things to consider before jumping ship into a full blown “website redesign.”

1. You’re undergoing major company changes.

Maybe your name is changing, maybe you’re merging with another company, maybe you just want to rebrand. Either way, your current website goals are likely not in line with your new company goals, in which a redesign may be your best option.

2. Performance is steadily declining.

If leads have slowed down (or maybe never started), and you’ve tried everything you can think of (e.g., new content, tweaking layouts based on heatmap findings, fixing technical errors, etc.) to generate traffic to the website to no avail, it may be time to rethink your website. Be sure to pull in an SEO expert in the beginning of the process to help steer you in the right direction.

3. Your site relies on old technology and isn’t up to standards.

In case you haven’t heard, Google is now penalizing websites that are not mobile friendly. Trust me when I say, you don’t want to get on Google’s bad side. :).

P.S., “mobile-friendly” does not just mean “responsive.”

Luckily for you, there’s a handy dandy tool that allows you to see your website in the eyes of Google.

Does one or more of the above apply to your company? If so, maybe it’s time to consider a redesign. Otherwise, it might not be necessary.

3. Make sure an SEO expert is involved from the very beginning.

“Knowing” SEO and knowing SEO are not the same thing.

SEO is an arbitrary concept to most clients, agencies included. Because of that, it’s easy to think that you have a pretty good understanding of SEO.

Sure, you may be able to spout off some big buzzwords, and maybe you’ve updated a title tag before. But the reality is that SEO goes SO. MUCH. DEEPER.

There are things that people without a deep understanding of SEO just don’t think about or even know to think about. (I sure didn’t). That’s why we have a full team of SEO experts in St. Louis and in multiple states that know a lot of things that most people don’t know. Here are a few things of them:

1. Absolute URLS are better than relative URLs.

Developers may argue that “best practice” for URLs is to use relative URLs. (e.g. “/services/seo” vs “http://www.digitalstrike.com/services/seo”) When I first heard this, I was ready to argue my point about why relative URLs are better from a development perspective. But I learned that while it may be easier, Google doesn’t prefer it. Here’s a good read from Moz if you want to dive a little further.

2. Understand how to configure Yoast.

I believe Yoast is a must-have for any website hoping to rank in Google. But if you don’t know how to correctly use it, you may as well not even have it.

For example, are you just using the default for title tags? Are you correctly no-indexing pages that don’t matter, like thank you pages? (Speaking of, do you even have thank you pages set up for every form?)

And if you ARE using Yoast (good for you), don’t get too caught up in getting all those dots green, here’s why. 

3. Learn the difference between mobile-first and responsive design.

As I mentioned earlier, they’re not the same.

“Responsive” design insinuates a desktop-first approach where you then scale down for mobile and decide what to keep / eliminate for the mobile experience.

“Mobile-first” design truly begins with designing for mobile first, and then adapting that design to Desktop. It forces you to pay attention to what REALLY matters.

I’ll be the first to admit this is a hard mindset to get used to. I still struggle with it. But it’s 2019 now, and there’s no avoiding it. Google’s rules.

4. There’s a whole host of miscellaneous technical issues to pay attention to.

You may have redirecting issues, such as not setting up http to https correctly resulting in double versions of your website, using 301 Redirects wrong, forgetting to select “allow search engines to crawl the site” in WordPress settings, or forgetting to put analytics on the website. 9 times out of 10, most people aren’t even aware these issues exist, but they play a bigger role than you may think when it comes to being friends with Google.

The Takeaway

• Design is the icing on the cake. Without good site architecture, compelling content, and a solid SEO strategy, design will simply exist rather than push the needle forward. Don’t spend too much time on animations. They’re not great for mobile experiences anyways (which Google doesn’t take lightly).
• Understand when it REALLY makes sense to get a new website. There are a lot of things to try before jumping into a brand new website. If you’re going into it without a solid SEO strategy, while you may have the best intentions, you will likely do more harm than good.
• Get a technical SEO expert involved from the beginning. Nobody likes hearing the $15k they just spent redoing their website was a waste because SEO was not taken into consideration.

Want to know more about combining design, development, and badass strategy? Contact us today. Our team would love to meet you to walk through what we do and why we do it.

What is UX (User Experience)?

Let’s back up. What exactly is user experience?

You know when you go to a website and it’s just… bad? You can’t find the navigation menu, the page isn’t loading correctly, and pop-ups are keeping you from seeing the page at all. That’s a bad user experience (UX).

A user experience designer works to enhance user satisfaction with a website by improving the accessibility, usability, and pleasure provided in the interaction with the site. You’re not supposed to notice good user experience design. You just find the information you want and leave satisfied—a complete user journey with no obstacles, so to speak.

Can UX Impact Search Rankings?

Websites with a poor UX design will see people exit the site unsatisfied; they’re going to find a better site that can give them what they want. Google will take notice of this dissatisfaction and push the first site lower in search results and the second site higher.

That means that UX can directly impact search rankings, which in turn can influence SEO strategy.

Search Engine Algorithms’ Role in Web Design

Google’s core purpose is to provide the best possible results for every search query. While “best” is a subjective term, Google has a pretty good idea of the kinds of pages and sites that will satisfy its searchers.

Here are what those sites tend to have in common. They:

1. Are easy to use, navigate, and understand
2. Provide direct, actionable information relevant to the query
3. Are professionally designed and accessible to modern browsers
4. Deliver high-quality, credible website content

Google’s ranking algorithm is complicated (there are hundreds of ranking factors), but Google is paying attention to your user experience more than you may think, which can directly affect SEO rankings. The four points mentioned above, for instance, are all in the realm of UX design as well as SEO.

Does UX affect SEO?

The short answer: Yes.

The long answer: Yes.

Here’s how.

Google pays attention to user experience because it’s how Google measures if a site was helpful or not (and Google is all about rewarding helpful content). If users immediately click away from the first choice on the organic search engine results page (SERPs) and then visit the second choice, that first result is likely going to rank lower eventually because it didn’t provide the experience the user wanted.

So while SEO might have placed the site first in SERPs initially, poor UX drove users away and eventually penalized the site. In other words: getting users to a website is only part of the process. You have to keep them there with good content and an easy user experience.

4 SEO and UX Elements

In digital marketing, it’s rare for SEO to not touch something somehow. Everything affects SEO and SEO affects everything.

That means that there are elements of UX that are in the SEO realm and vice versa, especially in regards to the following elements.

1. Page Speed

The longer it takes a website to load, the greater the odds users will leave your site.

Slow loading times is a UX problem because a slow site will frustrate your users. It’s an SEO problem because page speed directly influences your search engine rankings. When you resolve the issue, it’ll help both SEO and UX teams.

Way to boost page loading speed include:

• Optimizing images
• Enabling caching
• Reducing HTTP requests

Tip: Google’s PageSpeed Insights can offer suggestions for improving site speed and functionality.

2. Mobile Friendliness

Google’s search algorithm uses mobile-first indexing, meaning it prioritizes indexing the mobile version of a site, which means the mobile version of a site is prioritized for search result purposes. In practical terms, that means that any site that doesn’t accommodate mobile users with a responsive design on mobile devices is likely going to fall in search results. Mobile-friendly sites, by contrast, can see boosts in rankings.

3. Internal Linking

Internal linking is more than just a technical SEO element. It becomes an element of UX when people use the links to find more information and learn more about specific topics. The links need to have accurate anchor text (preferably with a relevant keyword) so the user will know what to expect when clicking the link.

4. Quality Content

Content strategy must be made with SEO and real human users in mind. The content must have good readability and address user needs—aka, match their search intent—if you want your target audience to stay on the site.

Simple ways to increase the readability of your content are to:

• Use headings and bullet points
• Break up content into smaller, more easily digestible chunks
• Add visual content

6 SEO and UX Metrics to Pay Attention To

Metrics that you should pay attention to when developing both SEO and UX strategies include the following.

1. User Engagement Rate

Engagement rate refers to user interactions (clicked, liked, etc.) a post or page receives compared to how many impressions it received (user interactions/impressions x 100).

A poor engagement rate could mean that the original content was poorly optimized for user intent (an SEO issue) or that it looked so awful or boring that people ignored it (a UX or user interface/UI design issue).

2. Bounce Rate

Bounce rate refers to how many people “bounce from” or leave your site without viewing other pages or taking other actions (single-page visits/ total visits x 100).

A high bounce rate could mean poor page speed, an unappealing web design, or failure to meet a user’s needs.

3. Conversion Rate

Conversions refer to how many people took a desired action on your landing page, such as a form sign up, buying a product, or something else. Conversion rate refers to how many conversions an ad or landing page received compared to total interactions with that ad or landing page (conversions/interactions x 100).

A poor conversion rate can indicate a weak call-to-action (CTA) and misunderstanding of user intent (SEO issues) or lack of user-friendly landing pages (UX/UI issue).

4. Organic Traffic

Organic traffic refers to the number of people that visited a site through a search query rather than an ad.

Low organic traffic can mean any number of things: not matching user intent, poor site structure, indexing errors (all SEO issues), or an unappealing URL that users distrust (UX/UI issue).

5. SERP Rankings

SERP rankings are the positions pages occupy on search engine results pages for a query.

Not ranking well in SERPs indicates poor UX and SEO performance, as low rankings can result from a combination of both UX/UI issues (unattractive website, unintuitive layout) and SEO issues (no alt text for images or no high-quality backlinks).

6. Core Web Vitals

Google Core Web Vitals are scores that help indicate the health of a site, with better scores typically meaning better search rankings and user experiences.

The 3 metrics are:

1. Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), which measures the loading performance of a web page. LCP should be 2.5 seconds or less.
2. Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), which measures the visual stability of a page. CLS should be 0.1 or less.
3. Interaction to Next Paint (INP), which measures how responsive a page is. INP should be 200 milliseconds or less.

The Takeaway

UX best practices and SEO best practices often overlap; SEO and UX should work together to better the website and a user’s search experience instead of operating as independent parts. 

If you’re looking to optimize your user experience and SEO strategies, give Digital Strike a call. Consultations are free and our solutions are custom.