About Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc.

Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc., is known for bringing the latest marketing strategies to online and direct marketing. Beasley provides services in inbound and outbound marketing including:  content creation, email marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), print advertising, social media advertising, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, Amazon Marketing Services (AMS), website design, media planning/public relations, direct mail marketing, lead generation and nurture campaigns, and database management. Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc., helps clients in both B2B and B2C marketing and is privately held and headquartered in the Silicon Valley suburb of Morgan Hill, California. For more information, go to www.BeasleyDirect.com .

About Silicon Valley Business Journal

The Silicon Valley Business Journal is the local version of the American City Business Journals (ACBJ), which is the largest publisher of metropolitan business newsweeklies in the United States, with 43 business publications across the country reaching more than 3.6 million readers each week. They also offer specialty publications for sports fans, sports business readers and classic car enthusiasts.

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By Laurie B. Beasley

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A landing page is the gateway to your site—the first thing a visitor sees after they find you through a search or click on a link you’ve provided. Make a positive impression here, and you’re on your way to a lead, a sale, even a long-term relationship. Fail and you’ve lost an opportunity, since it’s all too easy for a disinterested or confused web visitor to click away. This hands-on, landing page optimization guide will help you make the right impression, every time.

Go here to access the guide on how to optimize landing pages.

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The reason, an SEO Checklist is a powerful tool. It helps you meet new website launch ROI goals, avoid losing organic search rank position, and beat the competition.

Our client is in the highly competitive Product Design industry with top competition nearby in Silicon Valley. They needed a new website to remain competitive while attracting entrepreneurs with marketable product ideas. The product design industry attracts many hopeful designers, but only a few have marketable product ideas. Those few are the target market where Return on Investment (ROI) is earned.

How to Attract the Right Customers and Not Lose Standing with the Search Engines During a Site Re-Launch

Our client faced several problems:

Their first problem was attracting the right target audience – entrepreneurs with marketable product ideas.

In the product design industry, not every inventor’s idea can be converted into a product that sells to consumers or businesses. There has to be market demand – either existing or that can be generated. Our target goal for the new website project was to improve lead quality. This is accomplished by appearing in the top search results for keywords and key phrases most likely to be used by inventors/innovators who have products to be developed and marketed. This part of the project involved researching keywords and surveying sales and design staff. By inserting the researched, targeted keywords into METAs (Titles, Descriptions), headlines and main content, the search engines gave preferred search results positions to our client’s pages. Being found first in organic search by high-quality prospects improved lead quality, and the potential to close contracts.

Their second problem was to re-launch their website with new design and copy, and without losing organic Search Engine Results Page (SERP) position.

A new website launch adds an additional pitfall many companies experience without a search engine optimization (SEO) transition plan from the old to new website. Reaching well-qualified targets organically would create ROI at low cost over time. Not losing SERP position meant developing a customized SEO Checklist for a new website launch.

Our SEO team carefully researched and developed the following SEO Checklist. It covers all phases of our client’s new website: Pre-Launch, Day-of-Launch and Post-Launch factors. The goal was to create a smooth technical and content transition for the new site. And, to not lose, and in fact gain search ranking. This checklist can be used for any web launch.

Final Build Pre-Launch SEO Checklist

Before the website is launched you’ll want to make sure 301 re-directs are clean. And, you’ve added meta data & set up tracking in Google Search Console (GSC). The checklist below gives you a step-by-step list to check off before launch.

• Check for Map Redirects.
• Check for 301 Redirects: Existing pages.
• Review for 301 Redirects: Directories.
• Confirm that the latest version Google Analytics Codes is on website.
• Make sure Universal script is in place.
• Set up tracking in Google Search Console.
• Confirm Elements are optimized.
• Add Titles.
• Add Meta Descriptions.
• Write H1 Description.
• Make sure on page copy is finalized and approved by client and compliance (as needed).
• Conduct W3C Validation.

Benchmark Pre-Launch SEO Checklist

Once you’ve completed the above checks on the website, you should establish benchmarks for the website’s performance. This is so you can analyze results over time and observe areas for performance improvement. This involves benchmarking technical aspects of the website, such as 404 errors, as well as qualitative benchmarks such as pages per visit.

• A very useful tool is Screaming Frog Pre and Post-Crawl.
• Another one is Moz Crawl.
• Search Console Benchmarks on top keywords, rank, impression, CTR, top landing pages.
• Track 404 Errors Pre-Launch.
• Track 500 Errors Pre-Launch.
• Documenting New Pages.
• Average Pages Crawled per Visit.
• Annotate the site launch in Analytics Software.
• Check Download Time of Each Page.
• Time on site.
• Pages per visit.
• Goal Completion.

Day of Launch SEO Checklist

On the day of the launch, everyone gets so excited about the new website coming live, they often forget to do basic things. Like update passwords, and submitting a new XML sitemap. Make sure you check for the items below in the midst of your celebrations.

• Update any Passwords.
• Remove NoIndex in page URL.
• Remove Nofollow in page URL.
• Take out Robots.txt Directives.
• Conduct Browser Testing (FireFox, Chrome, Safari, IE).
• GSC Update as needed.
• Bing Webmaster Update as needed.
• Submit your new XML sitemap in Google Search Console.
• Submit your new XML sitemap in Bing Webmaster Toolbox.

Post Launch Benchmarking Daily for 2 Weeks

For two weeks after launch continue to monitor the site for performance metrics, such as download speed, and set up goals in your Google Analytics.

• Conduct a Screaming Frog Post Crawl.
• Conduct a Moz Crawl Post Crawl.
• Track 404 Errors Post Launch.
• Track 500 Errors Post Launch.
• Check Google Search Console metrics and sitemap tracking.
• Document New Pages.
• Check Average Pages Crawled per Visit.
• Annotate the site launch in Analytics Software.
• Check Download Time of Each Page.
• Check Time on site.
• Analyze Pages per visit.
• Set up Goals in Google Analytics.
• Think about initiating a link-building campaign. A very useful tool is MajesticSEO Trust Flow by and download our white paper on link building.

The Results Were Amazing: Organic traffic increased 22% and keywords in top 5 results increased 216%

In summary, the results of carefully researching, developing and implementing an SEO Checklist for a new website launch are worthwhile. Our client’s qualified organic traffic increased 22%. Furthermore, keyword phrases in the top 5 search results increased 216%, and those in the top 10 increased 225%. Our client had very positive results in their Return on Marketing Investment.

Conclusion

The organic search engine landscape has become very competitive. Careful research, playing by Google’s rules and having digital marketing experts develop an SEO Checklist crafted for a specific industry’s website will pay off. Beasley has free marketing resources for those who are embarking on development of a winning online marketing strategy. Also contact us and speak with an expert if you have any questions.

How can Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc.’s organic search marketing team help you create and implement a successful new website launch strategy? Contact us today and let’s get started.

We’d like to hear from you! Did this post help you launching a new website with an SEO Checklist? Please leave a comment below!

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About the Author

Andrew Hoover has been a consultant in Internet Search Marketing, Web Site Optimization, and pay-per-click/CPM/Display for over 15 years. He has extensive experience with Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask, AOL and was a beta tester for Amazon’s search engine. Andrew started a Network Consulting corporation in 1999 (GLT, Inc.), and a search marketing company in 2003, Lead Adrenaline: he has worked with medical, financial services, real estate, retail, entertainment and high-technology companies. His educational background includes degrees from both the University of California, Berkeley, and California State University, East Bay.

– See the Beasley Team.

The post SEO Checklist for a New Website Launch – How We Increased Qualified Organic Traffic 22% appeared first on Beasley Direct and Online Marketing.

Success! Your prospect has completed the registration form and hit “I want it”, and checked out of the shopping cart or taken some other desired action. But your job’s not quite done. You need to acknowledge their response and often deliver a pdf document or other offer you promised with a confirmation page. Even if no further action seems appropriate, you still need to give the prospect positive feedback to confirm their response has been entered in your system.

At our agency we used to fulfill pdfs with a download link right from the thank-you page. Then we realized that a confirmation email is better because it provides another touch point and makes sure the recipient provides a legitimate email address. So the thank you page recognizes the registration and tells them to check their email for the download link. (Under some circumstances we’ll include a download link on the thank you page as well.)

Additional Confirmation Page Design Tips

Furthermore, there are a couple of other useful things you can do with confirmation page design. Keep in mind your reader has already taken the desired action, so any further interaction is a bonus. You can:

• Provide links to other relevant content and pages on your website.
• Include a plug for your organization and its services (since up to now you’ve been 100% focused on the offer, right)?
• Additionally, include a bit of teaser content from your info premium for immediate gratification. (Doing this allows you to promise, on your landing page, that registration brings IMMEDIATE access to some of the great tips you want to share.)

Lastly, you can also use the thank you page to provide a “share this offer with a friend/colleague” link. And, include sharing links for social media. Your prospect may never feel so favorable about you again. So, strike when the iron is hot!

Read more about landing page design here.

The post Optimizing the Landing Page Confirmation / Thank You Pages. appeared first on Beasley Direct and Online Marketing.

Electronic media is easy to track. However, it’s unforgiveable not to know how your marketing efforts are performing and how hard your dollars are working. This is especially true when it comes to landing page testing and analysis for performance.

As with any medium, you need to track not only how many people clicked to the page but how many registered. Then you need to track how many of those turned into leads and ultimately sales. A low initial response may still pay for itself with high conversions for a high ticket product or service. If you use outbound telemarketing to support your campaigns, that should be factored in as well. Conversions from these calls are typically higher when the prospect remembers seeing the campaign and/or the telesales rep can refer them to it while they’re on the phone.

What to include in Landing Page Testing

Here are some of the landing page components worth testing (see example below):

• First, the Offer (always our top testing recommendation)
• Headline (will benefit win over pain point?)
• Primary graphics (user imagery vs your offer vs your product, perhaps)
• Form fields (both how many and what information is requested)
• Call to action (including the design and text in your button)
• Long vs short copy (short usually wins, but not always)
• Testimonials (whether to use, placement, one quote vs another)
• Guarantees, third party validation through reviews or seals of approval
• Social sharing icons (these can generate additional leads, but they can also cause web visitors to click away from your landing page before registering)

A/B and Multivariate Testing

You can test landing page elements one at a time with A/B testing (50% of your readers see the “A” page, 50% see the “B” page), or use multivariate testing to swap out elements according to an algorithm until the best performing landing page emerges. Then, because audiences and market conditions are constantly changing, continue to test over time.

Ask Us!

Ask us for a FREE critique of the landing pages for your current campaign. We’ll review them against landing page testing best practices, congratulate you for the things you’re doing right, and give you tips if appropriate to make your landing pages work even harder. To get started, fill out our contact form.

The post How to Conduct Landing Page Testing and Analysis for Performance. appeared first on Beasley Direct and Online Marketing.

Once upon a time, every landing page had a fill-in form. Even when marketers had good information about a customer, the landing page was a good opportunity to confirm and update it. If you have marketing automation, then with return visitors you won’t need a form because you can identify the prospect through other means. Those means include web cookies, or the landing page is part of a larger nurture process. Further, with a form you need form optimization to maximize conversion rates.

Landing Page Form Optimization Best Practices

Sometimes forms are unavoidable, as when you’re marketing to a cold list. Or, collecting leads from a source that does not have good data appended. Here are a few best practices you can use for web form optimization. See the NetApp and Safe-Step examples below. They will make using the form as painless as possible for the user, and increase your form conversion rate:

• Keep the form short. Ask only for “must know” vs “nice to know” information. Be aware that with each additional field a certain percentage of your audience will abandon the form. Is it worth it to get minor and perhaps useless data?
• The most important information is almost always first name, last name and email. Once you’ve got those facts you can follow up the conversation by email.
• If your white paper or other offer will be fulfilled by email, make that clear in the copy. This will motivate the user to make sure their email is current and correct.
• Only ask for phone number if absolutely necessary, since many people will consider that an invasion of privacy and/or an invitation for a salesperson to harass them. Many people will submit a fake or switchboard number as a result.

Form Design

• Be sure your forms are designed for easy integration with your CRM or other database, and that information will flow there automatically.
• Position benefit copy very close to the form, so the prospect is reminded of the reward for completing it.
• High-value offers can justify longer forms, since the prospect is willing to make a greater commitment in return for a bigger payoff.
• Start your form on the first screen reveal, so visitors can see it’s there.
• Include a privacy statement on your registration page to reassure prospects that their information will not be used inappropriately. Forms are scary. Verbiage such as “We will only use your email address to send what you requested” or “We will never sell or share your information with third parties without your permission” will significantly increase conversions.
• Program the form page so data is captured as they go, so if readers accidentally hit the “back” button their data is not lost.

Form Optimization Best Practices Examples:

(click images to expand)





Learn more about landing page best practices to increase your leads and sales.

Author



Laurie B. Beasley

Laurie B. Beasley is co-founder and president of Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc. We are a Silicon Valley direct marketing agency that has managed search, email, online, and demand generation campaigns for nearly 100 companies. Ms. Beasley serves as President of the Direct Marketing Association of Northern California. Laurie manages the eMarketing Roundtable for the BMA Northern California. She also instructs online marketing at UC Berkeley Extension and teaches for the Online Marketing Institute. Ms. Beasley frequently speaks on online marketing and demand generation topics for marketing organizations, including the DMA, BMA, AMA, Tech Council, and the Online Marketing Summit.

Our agency brings the latest marketing strategies to online and direct marketing. The company provides services in email marketing, search engine optimization, social media, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, website design, media planning, direct mail marketing, lead generation and nurture campaigns, and database management. We help clients in both B2B and B2C marketing. Beasley Direct is privately held and headquartered in the Silicon Valley suburb, Morgan Hill, California. For more information, go to www.BeasleyDirect.com or call Laurie Beasley, President, at 408-782-0046 x21 or email lbeasley@beasleydirect.com.

The post How to Optimize Forms for Your Landing Page. appeared first on Beasley Direct and Online Marketing.

]]> https://beasleydirect.com/landing-page-form-optimization/feed/ 0 https://beasleydirect.com/best-practices-for-landing-pages/ https://beasleydirect.com/best-practices-for-landing-pages/#respond Tue, 22 Aug 2017 15:00:01 +0000 https://beasleydirect.com/?p=6071 What Are Creative Best Practices for Landing Pages? Designing and writing a landing page is like setting a trap for your prospect, in a nice way. You want to entice them in, encourage them to go deeper, and once they’re inside make it virtually impossible to get out without taking the desired action. Direct the […]

The post Creative Best Practices for Landing Pages: Plus the all-important OFFER appeared first on Beasley Direct and Online Marketing.

]]> What Are Creative Best Practices for Landing Pages?

Designing and writing a landing page is like setting a trap for your prospect, in a nice way. You want to entice them in, encourage them to go deeper, and once they’re inside make it virtually impossible to get out without taking the desired action.

Direct the prospect through creative design:

• Match the colors, font and other design elements of the ad that got them here so they know they’ve come to the right place. (This isn’t always relevant; for instance Google AdWords Text Ads are all text, so no formatting.)
• Use eyeflow design to pull the reader to one key image (usually a depiction of the offer) and place call to action copy next to it as soon as they reach the page.
• Repeat the call to action multiple times so it’s easy to respond when they’re ready.

Copy should be brief, but compelling:

• Be BRIEF in describing the offer, especially if they’ve already read about it in an ad or email that caused them to click through. Repeating what they already know will lull them to sleep or, more likely, bore them so they’ll click away.
• If it’s free, say so, multiple times. Repeat the selling proposition that brought them here. If you’re fulfilling Google AdWords ads, consider matching headlines to the keywords in the ad.


The Nomadic Systems landing page copies the design and color palette of the Nomadic website home page. But, omits internal links which would allow a curious prospect to click away without registering.

• Use bullets if you have room to highlight the benefits of the offer they’re about to accept. This is often done in a sidebar so it doesn’t get in the way of core selling content.
• Use benefit/reward language in buttons such as “Get my FREE report” vs just “SUBMIT”.
• Include testimonials and guarantees to reassure that there’s absolutely no negative consequence to taking the desired action.

And about that all-important OFFER:

You absolutely need an offer on your landing page because you’ve agreed to a quid pro quo. You’re going to “reward” people for their time in learning your selling proposition. Landing pages without offers are destined to be very poor conversion vehicles which don’t come close to paying for themselves.

An informational offer is usually the best way to incent people for business-to-business lead generation landing pages. These readers need information to do their jobs properly, so give it to them in the form of white papers, third party analysis, webinars, videos, fact sheets or all the above (since you never know what informational format is most appealing to a given audience). An info offer should actually be informative. Don’t promise a fact kit or industry analysis, and instead load them up with sales material.

“Freebie” offers include actual merchandise giveaways, either directly or through entrance in a sweepstakes. These are far less prevalent than they were at one time, because they tend to produce many unqualified leads (who responded for the giveaway, not because they are interested in your product). However, there are exceptions to every rule and a high-value offer, carefully targeted, will cause the right prospect to go to considerable lengths to get the reward.

Limited time offers should be used in addition to, not instead of, other offers. Especially if it’s a merchandise offer, the sense of urgency in a temporary discount or a today-only add-on item will give prospects a reason to make a decision. Even if it’s a webinar, you can let people know attendance is limited, first come, first served; if it’s an analyst paper perhaps you have authorization to distribute only a certain number and no more.

Author



Laurie B. Beasley

Laurie B. Beasley is co-founder and president of Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc. We are a Silicon Valley direct marketing agency that has managed search, email, online, and demand generation campaigns for nearly 100 companies. Ms. Beasley serves as President of the Direct Marketing Association of Northern California. Laurie manages the eMarketing Roundtable for the BMA Northern California. She also instructs online marketing at UC Berkeley Extension and teaches for the Online Marketing Institute. Ms. Beasley frequently speaks on online marketing and demand generation topics for marketing organizations, including the DMA, BMA, AMA, Tech Council, and the Online Marketing Summit.

Our agency brings the latest marketing strategies to online and direct marketing. The company provides services in email marketing, search engine optimization, social media, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, website design, media planning, direct mail marketing, lead generation and nurture campaigns, and database management. We help clients in both B2B and B2C marketing. Beasley Direct is privately held and headquartered in the Silicon Valley suburb, Morgan Hill, California. For more information, go to www.BeasleyDirect.com or call Laurie Beasley, President, at 408-782-0046 x21 or email lbeasley@beasleydirect.com.

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