Traffic doesn't pay the bills. Targeted traffic to landing pages does.

“Everyone loves traffic — it’s addictive and strangely gratifying in its own right. But traffic doesn’t pay the bills. It’s people who take the actions you need them to who do. So again, it’s not traffic that matters, it’s targeted traffic reaching the intended pages” (Brian Clark, How to Create Compelling Content that Ranks Well in Search Engines).

AMEN! 

Brian Clark is one of the brightest minds in SEO today, and most importantly, he “gets it.” Driving traffic through advertising is nice, seeing high click-through rates is important, but if high click-through rates are followed by high bounce rates, you’ve got yourself a problem. 

Google & ion want you to do this…

“Imagine with me for a second … someone has just arrived at your website, and this person  has no idea what you’re talking about. And this is an important visitor.  

Pretend further that this single visitor could make the difference between success and failure for your business. She has no time to waste poking around your site trying to figure out what you’re all about, so she immediately picks up the phone and calls you, demanding an explanation. 

What do you tell her? 

You’d probably give her essential information about how you understand her problem, options for solving the problem, examples of how you can help, and explanations of why you perfectly meet her needs, right? And I’m betting you’d want to explain it in the most compelling fashion you could, given what’s riding on the deal. 

In a nutshell, that’s what Google wants you to do with the content on your site.” (Clark) 

ion wants you to do the same thing with your landing pages. 

• Give only the essential information, in a compelling manner
• Based on the ad clicked, show how you can perfectly meet the user’s needs
• Show how your solution will solve a problem for the user
• Include a clear way (call to action) for the user to take the next step or get started

Your landing pages can act as your best sales representatives. They pitch in a persuasive manner, to an audience that is completely engaged. 

Search is king and PPC ads are its banners blowing in the wind

Search is still ranked as the most popular activity online (Pew Research), which means lots of PPC ads are being viewed and clicked on each day. 

The average conversion rate according to Fireclick and MarketingSherpa is only 2-4%. Through the use of landing pages, conversion rates can see a lift of 2-10X - pretty significant stuff.  The only way to achieve this lift though, is to stop thinking in terms of traffic volume, and start thinking about targeted traffic. 

Target. Test. Optimize. Convert.