landing pages vs blog posts

superdooper500 · Jan 12, 2013

Hi all,

Where do you direct traffic to? Do you favour specific landing pages, or blog posts? Are blog posts easier to rank in google?

The pages I have in mind advertise specific areas a service can be performed, and as there are multiple areas in the overall catchment area, I want to create multiple landing pages to capture traffic for all these areas. Does it matter if its a blog or a specific landing page?

What are your thoughts and experiences, I'd love to hear!

terryuk · Jan 12, 2013

Landing pages are generally used on paid advertising campaigns, be it PPC, media or whatever - that way you can funnel the visitors directly to the specific offer and cut the chit chat.

A blog post would probably be easier to rank, and if you have your page layout done correctly then the visitors should still flow to where you want them to go.

If you look at;

http://www.searchenginejournal.com/passing-an-seo-job-interview-in-2013/57148/

In SEJ case they are advertising the subscribe, social and banner ads which are layered throughout the page - but that could be anything including lead gen etc.

Alan · Jan 12, 2013

as above ^^^^ landing pages are really a PPC/Adwords concept.

A good landing page is specifically designed to maximise conversion (and quality score) for specific Ad campaigns.

superdooper500 · Jan 13, 2013

Awesome, so you guys would say blog posts would be fine to attract traffic for different location based keywords?

In terms of the good old 'duplicated content', the majority of the blog posts will say roughly the same thing, with only the area changed. How much content can be replicated in each one, and how much needs to be completely fresh?

Lightningjack · Jan 13, 2013

Use geo location,the same post will simply insert the town or city the visitor viewing from.It is used frequently on landing pages and works with a blog just fine.

Saves alot of pages,and besides having mutiples pages saying the same thing will attract unwanted google attention.

superdooper500 · Jan 13, 2013

Lightningjack said:
Use geo location,the same post will simply insert the town or city the visitor viewing from.It is used frequently on landing pages and works with a blog just fine.

Saves alot of pages,and besides having mutiples pages saying the same thing will attract unwanted google attention.

Sounds interesting, excuse my ignorance, but is this a wordpress plugin or something? Also, how does this help me target specific areas? For example I would want to offer the service in Manchester, but not Liverpool, so would visitors from Liverpool see the service as being available to them in Liverpool?

Would I not be better just creating similar pages targeting the places I want to target?

My question is really how much duplicate/similar content can I get away with, and how much of each page needs to be 100% unique?

webgeek · Jan 13, 2013

Blog posts are a great way of squeezing in long tail keywords/phrases as well as geo specific ones. They would enable you to discuss the product/service in detail, as it relates to a particular location, without keyword stuffing your main brochure site full of city related pages.

Blog pages are meant to be the bait which attracts visitors to the site, where you then either direct them onward to the products/services they should buy, or capture their contact information so that you can market to them via email.

superdooper500 · Jan 13, 2013

webgeek said:
Blog posts are a great way of squeezing in long tail keywords/phrases as well as geo specific ones. They would enable you to discuss the product/service in detail, as it relates to a particular location, without keyword stuffing your main brochure site full of city related pages.

Blog pages are meant to be the bait which attracts visitors to the site, where you then either direct them onward to the products/services they should buy, or capture their contact information so that you can market to them via email.

Useful post, thanks, certainly gives me food for thought!

Alan · Jan 13, 2013

In my opinion, you don't want to have blog posts which say the same thing except the location, in my opinion that wouldn't help you much (I am guessing your objective is to win organic traffic on a local basis).

Geo-location won't help you with organic local searches as it presents a different location based on the users location. So the Google BOt would see 'Mountain View - California'.

Geo-location is best used for specific landing pages, e.g. you can alter the text to say 'Special Offer this week for people near xxxxxtown'
I would see 'Special Offer this week for people near Staines' webgeek may see 'Special Offer this week for people near Glasgow' baring in mind the geo-location limitation of generally being dependent on the users ISP location, not their actual location . (I put generally in bold as there are exceptions).

superdooper500 · Jan 13, 2013

roibot said:
In my opinion, you don't want to have blog posts which say the same thing except the location, in my opinion that wouldn't help you much (I am guessing your objective is to win organic traffic on a local basis).

Geo-location won't help you with organic local searches as it presents a different location based on the users location. So the Google BOt would see 'Mountain View - California'.

Geo-location is best used for specific landing pages, e.g. you can alter the text to say 'Special Offer this week for people near xxxxxtown'
I would see 'Special Offer this week for people near Staines' webgeek may see 'Special Offer this week for people near Glasgow' baring in mind the geo-location limitation of generally being dependent on the users ISP location, not their actual location . (I put generally in bold as there are exceptions).

Yes the idea is to win local traffic, be it through blog posts or pages. Just looking for any advice on if there is any specific advice either way, or if its much of a muchness? I know the old adage is to test out what works best, was just hoping someone had tested it out already

Lightningjack · Jan 13, 2013

Most users will be searching from where they stay,mobile internet users being the clear exception.Anyway a clearer way would be to explain how many cities you are aiming to target.

Does the search phrase bring up a places listing in the serps?if it does I would create a site for each city not a blog post
It'll be easier to rank doing this than trying to rank your blog pages,unless your site is an authority in the niche.

Is this a service,product?

More info please,what are the exact(no broad) searches for the phrases etc.

Ninja Commerce · Jan 15, 2013

Hi Super.

As has been mentioned, landing pages are more of a ppc concept than an SEO one. But even so, technically, a landing page is any page that users are landing on. So if you have a blog post ranking well, and users are landing on it, then it is a landing page.

Blog posts can often rank well for longer tail terms. If you are specifically designing a landing page, you are probably more likely to target a specific phrase of course...

The real question if you are interested in organic traffic is whether you should sculp your pages to look more like blog posts or landing pages.

Landing pages may convert better, since they are designed specifically for the users who are landing there (assuming you are ranking for the terms you hope to rank for), but that depends on the audience to an extent.

---

An alternative approach might be to publish your blog posts, don't worry too much about the conversions for now, and then keep an eye on what terms you actually get traffic from, and tweak your blog pages to better convert that traffic... if you see what I mean.

InternetMarketingPlatinum · Jan 16, 2013

roibot said:
as above ^^^^ landing pages are really a PPC/Adwords concept.

A good landing page is specifically designed to maximise conversion (and quality score) for specific Ad campaigns.

Actually a landing page is a page that a visitor lands on from an organic search result or a paid ad in order to capture leads, etc. Agreed that organic SEO practitioners are typically weaker on landing page design than the PPC people though.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

InternetMarketingPlatinum · Jan 16, 2013

Some will tell you at least 70% unique but imagine a prospect's frustration with a multi-location business who visits your duplicated blogposts whos original intention was to read about your unique approach to a given geographical location. The truth is that no one website should or will rank in most/all locations anymore.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

rebecca1231 · Jan 16, 2013

First of all you should not consider ranking of blog in search engine. You should think about the information that you provide to user. Content must be informative and made for users not search engines. So this is how you can create engagement.

webgeek · Jan 16, 2013

rebecca1231 said:
First of all you should not consider ranking of blog in search engine. You should think about the information that you provide to user. Content must be informative and made for users not search engines. So this is how you can create engagement.

Yes, let's build sites that don't rank in the search engines, get no traffic, but offer a great user experience.

This is just like buying a killer set of business cards and then throwing them in your bottom desk drawer, never passing them out to anyone.

Recipe for online success:
rankings -> visitors -> conversions -> money

Alan · Jan 16, 2013

ComputerCoders said:
Agreed that organic SEO practitioners are typically weaker on landing page design than the PPC people though.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

In my opinion, why I originally said mainly for paid adverts, if you are creating a page that is optimised for conversion of leads, it is very difficult to also get it to rank very well in an organic campaign (these days, now many black hat methods have been made impotent so the page needs lots of content which is the antipathy of a well designed landing page )

On a minor point, SEO practioners wouldn't normally be designing a landing page, this would down to an Optimization Design specialist (accepted of course that these two different skills may exist in the same physical person)

dubOnline · Jan 16, 2013

get your blog post ranked well in google with good, no scrap that GREAT content and then direct the targeted traffic to your squeeze page and then through your sales funnel.

nathanleont · Jan 23, 2013

I use my landing pages and blog for two different things. Firstly i sent traffic to my landing page that I can control "PPC, adwords, facebook ads etc" and traffic that I dont control to my authority site aka my blog. Any kind of SEO/article marketing i would drive to my blog first as i focus on giving the potential customer value first I find that by doing this it builds a relationship with the client and it also helps in any kind of future communication. Alot of marketers just try to sell sell sell before any kind of relationship it made. It doesnt work like that unfortunately.

I hope that helps

Sobie · Jan 24, 2013

webgeek said:
Blog posts are a great way of squeezing in long tail keywords/phrases as well as geo specific ones. They would enable you to discuss the product/service in detail, as it relates to a particular location, without keyword stuffing your main brochure site full of city related pages.

Blog pages are meant to be the bait which attracts visitors to the site, where you then either direct them onward to the products/services they should buy, or capture their contact information so that you can market to them via email.

Thanks I've just been debating whether to add a blog to my site.

I own a garden centre and the amount of people that tell me they would love to work in a garden centre is unbelievable. was thinking of blogging things like day-to-day happenings, new product info, personal information (things about my experience, and my own garden) Gardening Tasks/ How to information.

Is there any other information that should be included in a blog?

How often should you update a blog?

Should you post blogs anywhere else (as well as on my own site) I have the options of four places, Delicious, Digg, StumbleUpon & reddit from my site manager.

webgeek · Jan 24, 2013

Rather than using the blog as a diary, think of every post on the blog as a chance to WOW your potential new customers (and the search engines).

If you put original information that is insightful, valuable, worth bookmarking/remembering/sharing and write enough words in each post, you'll do very well.

Thin, overview posts of cursory information will not win friends or influence people (or search engines).

Preventive maintenance planning (and how much money it can save you), new products and how they can be used to save time and backaches, common mistakes people make with equipment and how to avoid them... all these types of things will go down a treat.

If you'd like to have a series of posts, like a journal, documenting your own garden, what activities are being done each month (and why), then by all means, make a category for it, and make a regular post about it - making sure that you share something in each post that entertains, informs or adds value.

Writing the blog on your own site is the critical component. Ideally, post 2 or 3 times per week at 1000+ words per post, using original photographs when possible, and making sure to occasionally link to other authority websites relevant to the topic at hand.

It's great if you want to bookmark those posts after you make them as well as mentioning them on Twitter/Facebook/Google+ (possibly Pinterest).

Annoying Donkey · Jan 24, 2013

Sobie said:
I own a garden centre and the amount of people that tell me they would love to work in a garden centre is unbelievable. was thinking of blogging things like day-to-day happenings, new product info, personal information (things about my experience, and my own garden) Gardening Tasks/ How to information.

Is there any other information that should be included in a blog?

All good stuff. Make a note of questions customers ask and have a regular post answering the more common questions. A regular 'what you should be doing in the garden this month' post usually goes down well. Think like a customer and try and figure what you'd like to see. Inject your own personality.

Add some video, perhaps with demos of things - whatever skill you can demonstrate on camera

Make it consistent with the season.

Sobie said:
How often should you update a blog?

As often as you can consistently maintain. Perhaps encourage other employees to post...?

Don't forget to maintain a list and issue a newsletter with links to your posts.

Sobie · Jan 24, 2013

webgeek said:
Rather than using the blog as a diary, think of every post on the blog as a chance to WOW your potential new customers (and the search engines).

If you put original information that is insightful, valuable, worth bookmarking/remembering/sharing and write enough words in each post, you'll do very well.

Thin, overview posts of cursory information will not win friends or influence people (or search engines).

Preventive maintenance planning (and how much money it can save you), new products and how they can be used to save time and backaches, common mistakes people make with equipment and how to avoid them... all these types of things will go down a treat.

If you'd like to have a series of posts, like a journal, documenting your own garden, what activities are being done each month (and why), then by all means, make a category for it, and make a regular post about it - making sure that you share something in each post that entertains, informs or adds value.

I'm not sure how to create catagories on my software, I'll have a look into this as it sounds like a good idea. One thing that is really frustrating is that I cannot use "&" signs as the name of the blog - which rules out using our company name. What do other people call their blog pages, should I just use our company name without the & ?

Writing the blog on your own site is the critical component. Ideally, post 2 or 3 times per week at 1000+ words per post, using original photographs when possible, and making sure to occasionally link to other authority websites relevant to the topic at hand.

Thats really great, my first blog is 1000+ words and I was worrried it was too long and had begin cutting it down a bit as I normally only write 500 words for our local papers.

It's great if you want to bookmark those posts after you make them as well as mentioning them on Twitter/Facebook/Google+ (possibly Pinterest).

WeblinkPlus said:
All good stuff. Make a note of questions customers ask and have a regular post answering the more common questions. A regular 'what you should be doing in the garden this month' post usually goes down well. Think like a customer and try and figure what you'd like to see. Inject your own personality.

I was planning on having a "regular question post", prehaps making it seasonal. I write for our local papers, and I send out a weekly e-newsletter which always goes down really well, so I'll keep the tone the same.

Add some video, perhaps with demos of things - whatever skill you can demonstrate on camera Make it consistent with the season.

great idea, the next blog im planning is how to grow seed potatoes, this will be easy to video, then upload to youtube.

As often as you can consistently maintain. Perhaps encourage other employees to post...?

Don't forget to maintain a list and issue a newsletter with links to your posts.

Are you saying that I should use a signup page so the blogs can only be read? or just to add a link to our e-newsletter sign up on the blog page?

Thank you both your answers and help, I'm going to get uploading straight away!

Annoying Donkey · Jan 24, 2013

Sobie said:
Are you saying that I should use a signup page so the blogs can only be read? or just to add a link to our e-newsletter sign up on the blog page?

I'd make the blog public, but highlight the latest posts in your newsletter. Some people might just read the newsletter, but highlighting the latest posts might bring them back to the site.

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