From choosing keywords to crafting compelling headlines to CTAs, here’s my guide to boosting search traffic and SEO landing page conversions.

What is an SEO landing page?

An SEO landing page is a web page designed to receive and convert traffic from search engine results featuring content directly related to the keyword(s) the user searched.

What’s the difference between SEO, PPC and social landing pages?

These pages aim to persuade visitors to do something like subscribe, get in touch or buy but the way they get traffic is different.

SEO landing page traffic comes from search engine results, PPC landing pages come from adverts, and social pages come from social media channels.

What’s the difference between SEO landing pages and blog posts?

Both types of pages get traffic from search engines, but they want different things to happen next.

SEO landing pages aim to encourage people to contact you, subscribe or fill out a form; blog posts typically educate readers.

What’s the difference between SEO landing pages and product pages?

Both pages get search engine traffic, but SEO landing pages are used more often for services or courses, while product pages are for physical products.

So now I’ve cleared up some terminology, let me map out the key steps to designing an SEO landing page to get traffic and conversions from search engines.

Step 1: Do customer aware keyword research

People use search engines to find answers and solutions to their problems. If they knew your product, service and brand, they’d come directly to you.

In the book Great Leads, Michael Masterson described the 5 stages of customer awareness.

Identify the product, solution and problem aware keywords your prospects are searching for.

A solution aware keyword that I rank at the top of Google is “keyword research services“; people searching are solution aware but unsure who provides the service and what results they will get.

Product aware keywords are “Google Ads” or “Reddit Advertising“; most people know these products and companies.

Problem aware queries are “can’t pay credit card” or “cracked iPhone screen“, where users search for a solution related to a problem with a product or service.

Use Ahrefs or your favourite keyword search tool to enter the seed keyword, for example, PPC or pay per click, into Keywords Explorer, and filter with keyword modifiers such as “service, agency, consultant, freelancer, consulting“.

If you find hundreds or thousands of keywords, use keyword clustering to group similar ones together and then identify the related product, problem and solution keywords.

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Step 2: Add intent to the page title and above the fold

To increase the visibility of an SEO landing page in search engine rankings, it’s essential to understand why users are searching, i.e., their intent.

For example, I discovered a solution aware keyword, “SEO for web designers“, which has an estimated 250 organic visits; hard to rank for, but very relevant for my business.

To understand the user intent and content type for this query, I took these steps:

• I looked at the page titles of the top results.
• Most of the results are blog post from highly authority sites that I can’t outrank.
• So I’m looking to outrank the site in position 8, where the intent is different; it’s designers looking for an SEO service.

I know from experience that most web designers don’t want to do SEO instead they prefer to partner with an SEO to help their clients grow.

So this was the page title I crafted to reflect their intent.

I use these templates to draft and write SEO landing page titles.

• “Keyword + intent/outcome/result”,
• “Keyword + intent/outcome/result + location”, or
• “Keyword + problem”

The page title is crucial as it’s the first thing people view in the search results, and I only have 65 characters or 9-20 words to encourage users to click on my page.

Reuse the page title at the top of your SEO landing page.

Since I’ve done all the hard work deciphering user intent and including it in my page title, I use the same wording at the top of my landing pages.

Some people call this the USP,  benefit statement or elevator pitch, but whatever you call it, it should appear prominently at the top of your page.

Then underneath, I added supporting copy that adds more weight and detail to the headline.

Here’s the headline and supporting copy from my page.

Now look at the page headline and supporting copy for the Google Ads landing page.

And the final above the fold element is a call to action, but I’ll cover that in step 7.

ps: as my website is built on the WordPress GeneratePress theme, there are pre-built building blocks that I customise for each element in a landing page.

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Step 3: Include proof and testimonial

As I mentioned, most people aren’t aware of me when they search and land on my pages, so I must support my page title and headline claims with social proof, testimonials and results.

This Google Analytics course that turns you from beginner to great includes well-known companies’ logos as proof.

However, this landing page for personal injury law firm SEO shows images of clients, logos of publications their clients have featured in and tangible search traffic and lead results.

This music promotion service page shows a growth chart above the browser fold showing the results the user seeks.

Proof, results and testimonials can be included anywhere on a landing page, but near the top provides the most impact.

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Step 4: Reinforce the problem you solve

Next, you want to reinforce the problem that your solution, service or page solves.

People are more likely to believe in a solution when they know the story behind the problem.

If you can explain why someone is having trouble with something, they are more likely to trust you and your solution.

This page clearly communicates the problem to visitors.

Underneath my page’s proof and results section, I highlighted the problem people have “90% of web pages get no traffic“, and the solution is my service.

For some SEO landing pages, the problem doesn’t need it’s own section and can be blended into the body copy, just like Reddit does with this page.

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Step 5: List your solution and/or how it works

The next part of designing an SEO landing page is to include your solution.

Before I purchased this book, I was presented with 3 options.

If your page only has one option or price, customers will either purchase/get in touch or exit and not buy.

Solution with 2 options

But if your solutions offers 2 options, users are now comparing your options as opposed to comparing you and a competitor.

Solution with 3 options

The reason for displaying 3 solution options is that consumers seek the middle ground in the decision making process.

This is called extremeness aversion, where prospects avoid the low and high options and seek the middle option.

Even this Google Ads sales page presents users with campaign options for potential customers.

Explain how your solution works

Explaining or visualising how a service or solution works helps to sell your offering and encourage conversions.

This Klaviyo email marketing page has a simple diagram showing how part of their service works.

If someone is considering a course, they’ll want to know what’s included in the training and/or how it works; like the screenshot below demonstrates.

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Step 6: Address objections to reduce risk

When you’re selling, it’s normal for people to have questions or concerns about your offering, i.e., objections.

Some people might not have enough money, or they might not believe or trust, or they don’t need it right now.

When people have these objections, they probably won’t buy what you’re selling.

But, if you address their concerns on your sales page, you might be able to change their mind and make the sale.

You can address objections with FAQs, free trials and guarantees.

Include FAQs to address objections

This page has a list of FAQs.

This game audio course has requirements and prerequisites which address questions and objections.

Use a free trial

A free trial is a great way to address objections from hesitant prospects.

Shopify Starter offers a free 3 day trial (to combat objections) and get users hooked.

Berklee let potential students sample a lesson.

Include a guarantee

Xero offers a free trial, 24/7 support, and you can cancel at anytime.

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Step 7: Call to action

A call to action on an SEO landing page prompts visitors to take action, such as signing up for an offer, downloading, starting, or getting in touch.

Ideally, your page should have one clear and consistent call to action to minimise visitor confusion and maximise conversions.

Positioning a CTA

A call to action (CTA) should be placed above the fold on a website, but visitors will only click a CTA if they have all the information they need to take action.

Let’s say you search for multi-car insurance and land on Direct Line’s landing page.

This page of a leading insurance brand provides enough information to enable the user to click the “get a quote” button.

However, notice there is no call to action button above the fold on this indemnity insurance for freelancers page.

Perhaps users need to learn more about the service before taking action.

Similarly, I didn’t see much sense in having a “contact me” CTA at the top of my page as I believe users need more information, such as results and how I work before they get in touch.

This SEO landing page has a simple “contact us” call to action in the top navigation and at the end of the page.

Use action verbs

Notice the wording in these CTAs; start, get, sign-up and request are all action verbs.

The CTA of this promotion service to “Start Campaign.“

The Google Ads landing page CTA is “start now“.

The Reddit ads page has 2 CTA’s – “get started” and “advertise on Reddit.“

The Klaviyo email service landing page has 2 CTA’s – “Sign Up” and “Get a demo.“

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Other considerations

There are a few other things to consider when designing and optimising an SEO landing page for traffic and conversions.

Landing page URL

To rank high on search engines, have a short URL, such as “/seo-landing-page/”, that includes the main keyword identified in your keyword research.

Mobile friendly

Google published some excellent playbooks for designing mobile friendly pages to generate leads and conversion.

From other research, adding a call to action button above the fold increased clicks from 21.8% to 33.02%.

Page speed

According to research from Portent, a site that loads in 1 second has a conversion rate 3x higher than a site that loads in 5 seconds.

There’s no excuse for slow pages when plugins like WP Rocket are cheap to buy and easy to configure.

Backlinks

Backlinks to a page are a major ranking factor and can make or break the traffic you get to your landing pages.

To summarise

To design an SEO landing page for traffic and conversion do customer aware keyword research, adding intent to the page title and above the fold, include proof and testimonials, reinforcing the problem the page solves and how the solution works, address objections, and use a call to action.