Landing Page versus Direct Link in Listbuilding

Of the many intricacies in building your website and linking it to the Web, an important consideration in optimizing it is how to lead into the opt-in as well as the actual sales page. You should, of course, have several links leading to those pages, but it should not be that every link leading to them should come from off the site.

Think of it this way: Some people are already sold and some aren’t. Some people will have done their research and have their credit cards sitting on their desks before they have even found your site. Others won’t be quite so ready and may even need some guidance to a particular product before they’re ready to buy. Obviously, you will have to accommodate both types somehow.

Who You Should Link Straight to the Opt-in

For the first type, it’s obviously recommended that you get them to the opt-in and buying page as quickly as you can. They don’t need to go through squeeze pages; they don’t need to be sold; and they don’t need anything explained. For this group, right from the first, you should provide a direct link to your purchasing page so they can just get on with their business. This should be the page that you have listed for the longest-tailed search phrases in the search engines. Once they click that link on Google.com, all they should have to do is fill in the purchasing information and get on with the buying.

Who You Should Put Through Squeeze Pages

For the second type, you will need a more intricate process for them to go through before they buy. Your purchasing page will pretty much automatically be listed in the shorter-tailed search phrases, but you will also want to include squeeze pages and rank them higher than the purchasing page. The psychology here is that if a user is using short-tailed search phrases, they’re really not sure of what they want. Consequently, you will have to sell them on your product, and you may have to take them through pages selling them on what you have, as well as assisting them to narrow their focus on what specifically it is that they want. This last element is key here. No amount of convincing someone to buy your stuff is going to work if they see that there are different models or types of this stuff. You should minimize the number of clicks they have to make, but you should also consider that drop boxes that are longer than the average computer screen are going to turn some people away. This should all eventually lead the consumer to the sales page, and you should have them convinced by the time they get here that they want to buy your product.

Some great examples are some of the squeeze pages that can be used when looking for car parts. You start with a list of makes. This breaks down into models, then years, then parts type, then parts. There is often still a selection of models for an average lightbulb, but by now, you’ve had several chances to convince them that you’re the best auto parts dealer on the Web.