I know talking about SEO isn’t exactly riveting stuff for most people. But if you have a landing page or blog you’re trying to promote, getting found through search engines is pretty crucial for driving that sweet, sweet traffic.
Now when I say “landing page,” I’m referring specifically to the pages on your site that visitors arrive on after clicking from search results or ads. These landing pages are your golden opportunity to convert those visitors into leads and customers. No pressure!
But all too often, people make silly SEO mistakes on their landing pages without even realizing it. Before you know it, those mistakes have torpedoed your pages to the bottom of the search results where no one will find them again. Not good.
The goal of this article is to shine a light on the most notorious landing page SEO pitfalls that could be totally tanking your site’s rankings. I’ll also share some tips for what you should be doing instead to help those pages get found. Because at the end of the day, we all want to bring in more of that free search traffic, right?
No one wakes up in the morning thinking “Gee, I can’t wait to optimize my landing pages for search engines today!” Truly riveting stuff.
But here’s the thing: putting in the time to optimize those landing pages for SEO is crazy important if you want to rank higher and drive more organic traffic to your site. We’re talking the difference between thriving or barely surviving. Dramatic, I know.
See, those landing pages are where you send traffic after they’ve clicked over from Google or other search engines. If those landing pages aren’t fully optimized with all the SEO bells and whistles, you’re missing out on conversions and sales.
And search engines like Google reward pages that offer a good user experience by ranking them higher in the results. That then leads to even more clicks and visitors since more people see them.
It’s a positive cycle that can take your website traffic to the next level. But it all starts with avoiding common SEO pitfalls on those crucial landing pages. Time to break down what those pitfalls are…
Keywords are one of the most important elements of on-page SEO. After all, keywords and keyphrases are what users type into Google to find content related to their query. So you want those keywords woven naturally into your landing pages, right?
Well, kind of. Stuffing pages full of keywords like a Thanksgiving turkey is actually a big no-no. You’ve gotta tread carefully to avoid these common keyword mistakes:
Jamming way too many keyword variations onto a page reads terribly for users. And it raises red flags for search engines, signaling that the page is spammy or low-quality.
Similarly, you don’t want keywords appearing at abnormally high rates on a page. As a rule of thumb, most experts recommend about 1-3% keyword density. Cramming 10 keywords into every sentence is a recipe for disaster.
Shoehorning keywords into places they don’t belong is a fast way to get penalized by search engines. The keywords should fit into the content naturally without interrupting the flow. No bueno otherwise.
Optimizing for super obscure long-tail keywords that no one searches for is wasted effort. Focus on keywords with decent search volume so you know people are actually looking for that term.
The keyword takeaway? Include important keywords that make sense contextually throughout your landing page. But don’t go crazy chasing keyword density at the expense of user experience. That’s how you plummet down the rankings rather than climb up ’em.
Now, I know what you might be thinking: “Shouldn’t I optimize my landing pages so the search engine bots can easily crawl and index them?”
Fair question, my friend. But here’s the kicker – while you do want to make life easy for the Google Bots to scrape your pages, you never want to lose sight that actual human visitors are reading your content too.
Unfortunately, many people create landing pages chock full of keywords focused entirely on pleasing the almighty algorithms. But they end up as robotic, stilted pages that no human would enjoy reading or sharing. Not exactly engaging stuff.
Here are some signs you may be optimizing too aggressively for search bots at the expense of user experience:
The bottom line is that visitors bounce in a blink from poor content. And high bounce rates are terrible for your site’s reputation with search engines. The engines assume people are leaving because the content is low quality or irrelevant to the search term.
So while SEO certainly plays a role, compelling content should always be the primary focus. Give those human visitors something genuinely valuable, and the SEO results will follow.
Okay, let’s get real here for a minute. I know Google feels like the center of the search engine universe – as it should with over 90% market share! When we think SEO, we think ranking in Google.
But here’s the thing – Google doesn’t actually exist in a vacuum (well besides the parent company Alphabet, but I digress). There are a handful of other search engines still kicking around driving meaningful traffic as well.
Just look at Microsoft’s Bing (2.7% market share) or even old stalwarts like Yahoo and Ask.com. While not huge traffic drivers individually, together they make up another 5%+ of search.
Which is why overly focusing your landing page SEO on just Google to the exclusion of everything else is leaving opportunities on the table. Each search engine uses their own bots, algorithms, and ranking factors to determine results.
If you only tailor your content for how Google operates, you may plummet in Bing and other engines for things like:
The key is to optimize your landing pages with “engine-agnostic” SEO best practices in mind. Have a quality site with great content presentation, site speed, and metadata/structuring to cover all the bases. It’s not just about chasing the Google algorithm carrot anymore!
Branch out beyond just Google, and you’ll likely see a nice bump in organic search traffic as you rank better across multiple engines.
Can you believe it’s 2024 and some people still don’t optimize their websites for mobile visitors? I know, wild right? Especially when more than 60% of all web traffic now happens on smartphones!
Yet failing to prioritize mobile SEO remains an infamous pitfall for landing pages. See, if your mobile site speed is slow or design poorly adapted for tiny screens, you’re going to have a bad time ranking in search results and converting those visitors.
The takeaway is that your mobile optimization checks all the boxes – fast downloads, easy navigation, readable font sizes, streamlined flows. Test rigorously on actual devices, and don’t rely only on desktop previews.
With the bulk of your potential visitors on smartphones, no mobile SEO = no money. It’s frankly mobile malpractice at this point not to have landing pages fully optimized to convert mobile searchers into customers!
You’ve probably heard the old adage that “time is money” at some point. Well when it comes to landing page site speed and SEO, nothing could be more true.
A slow loading landing page can kneecap all your other strong optimization efforts – great content, quality backlinks, ideal keyword placement, and more. That’s because lagging load times lead directly to unhappy visitors. And what happens when visitors are unhappy? buzzer sound High bounce rates!
Faster load times keep visitors engaged as they consume content and move towards conversion. Now stop reading this already and go make your site faster!
You’ve crafted the perfect landing page. The content is slick, keywords on point, page speed smoking fast. Traffic and leads are flowing in. Life is good!
Then one day you notice snippets of your prized content appearing on some random scraper site. Or see an entire page has been copied over to a competitor’s site! Uh oh, Houston we have a problem…
While mimicking may be the most sincere form of flattery, duplicate content issues can totally tank landing page performance. Here’s why:
Fighting back against scrapers requires implementing important protections like:
Keeping your coveted landing page content proprietary boosts rankings potential and reinforces your brand authority. Don’t let pesky duplicate content goblins steal your SEO thunder!
With a name like Google Search Console, you’d think every website owner would be actively using this free platform. Shockingly, that’s not the case at all!
Neglecting to regularly check Search Console is leaving crucial landing page performance insights on the table. We’re talking data that can directly lead to higher search visibility and more traffic.
Essentially it’s mission control for understanding how search engines interact with and evaluate your landing pages. Ignoring such a vital free resource simply makes no sense!
Regularly checking in on Google Search Console insights can directly lead to ranking lifts, issues diagnosis, and better page optimization. Don’t leave easy SEO wins on the table.
Now I know quality backlinks remain an important ranking factor for Google and other search engines. And I get the temptation to take “shortcuts” by buying links or manipulating anchor text ratios. But whoa there, partner! Not so fast.
Trying to aggressively build or buy backlinks should never distract from creating amazing, useful content that actually deserves links in the first place. Otherwise, you risk harming your site’s reputation or even incurring penalties.
The takeaway is not to force or fake links building. Create awesome landing pages and content that influencers want to refer traffic to manually. Stay patient, and high value links will accumulate over time without risky shortcuts.
Anchor text optimization is another one of those legacy SEO tactics that used to really move the needle in terms of search rankings. And while the anchor text of links still matters for relevance signals, going overboard is a big no-no.
What exactly is anchor text? It’s the visible, clickable text that users see associated with an internal page link or external site link. So anchor text would be something like “click here” or a keyword like “content writing tips”.
In the past, sites could barrage pages with multiple keyword anchor text links to juice search relevance. But now search engines view manipulative anchor text ratios or repetitive anchor text as suspicious behavior.
The key is keeping anchor text placements natural both internally across your site and externally from other sites. Embed a healthy mix of generic phrases like “click here”, target keywords, branded terms, and long-tail variations.
Let anchor text occur organically rather than forcing keyword-stuffed placements. Moderation prevents penalties and filter triggers!
Alright, we’ve covered a truckload of common SEO pitfalls to avoid on those high stakes landing pages. No doubt about it, there are lots of ways to inadvertently torpedo your rankings and traffic.
But I don’t want to just throw out scare tactics here. I also want to highlight the most impactful SEO best practices you should actively implement on landing pages:
Following those core best practices will help your landing pages attract search love while avoiding penalization pitfalls. The rest is just staying disciplined long-term with optimizing content and technical site factors. Patience pays off!
I know we’ve covered a ton of ground when it comes to landing page SEO pitfalls and best practices. But you probably still have some burning questions. Let’s tackle a few now:
Optimizing content with relevant keywords and excellent readability should be the main focus. Also ensure site speed is fast, page HTML codes properly, and site is mobile-friendly.
Ideally, you should be checking Search Console metrics at least once a week if not a couple times. Prioritize reviewing crawl errors, impression and clicks data, and indexing status.
Most SEO professionals recommend keeping keyword density between 1-3% across a full page. Higher than 5% risks over optimization penalties. Tools can calculate density for you.
While having just 1 page per offer or campaign works, 3-5 tailored landing pages typically convert better. Test pages against each other with A/B testing tools.
Landing page SEO benefits much more from a small number of authoritative niche backlinks rather than weaker bulk links. Identify well-matched sites to pitch rather than buying links.
Hopefully that gives you some quick takes on popular landing page SEO questions. But feel free to reach out if you have any other specific queries!
Whew, that was quite the deep dive on avoidable search optimization mistakes hurting landing page performance! If your head is spinning a bit, I don’t blame you. SEO certainly isn’t simple, but I aimed to provide a comprehensive overview of factors impacting traffic and conversions.
Now no one is ever going to bat 1.000 when it comes to landing page SEO. Mistakes happen, algorithms shift, new factors emerge. But avoiding the most common optimization pitfalls outlined gives you a leg up on the competition.
The sites realizing tremendous growth and sales based on organic search didn’t achieve those results accidentally. It took diligent, long-term execution of SEO fundamentals – both technical and content focused.
So take these lessons, bookmark the post, and get optimizing folks! Here’s to converting more of that coveted landing page search traffic into sales. Never stop improving!
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