Google Month - Tips for a Great Landing Page

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1 Google Month for Irish Tourism Businesses October 2014 Tips Toolkit Page 1 of 5

2 Google Month: Tip 1 - Align your landing page with your advertisement It is important to align your landing page with your advertisements; your landing page should confirm what was in your ad. Good tips include making sure that the text and colour scheme of your landing page match the ads driving traffic to them, as well as ensuring that you deliver on the promise from your ads on your landing page i.e. if you are advertising free delivery, or offering a special discount, these should be confirmed on your landing page. #Google4Tourism Google Month: Tip 2- Does your landing page load quickly? Load time is important as it is a ranking factor in the organic Google results. Furthermore, around 50% of visitors will leave your site if it does not load within 3 seconds (sources: PhocusWright, Forrester Consulting). Good tools to help you optimise page load include PageSpeed to monitor your site speed and the Site Performance tool in Google Webmaster Tools to show the speed of your website as experienced by users around the world. #Google4Tourism Find out more here: Google Month: Tip 3 How to make a lasting impression with your landing page It only takes a millisecond for visitors to get a first impression of your site. Optimise the design of your landing page by limiting the amount of colours used too many clashing colours could weaken the impact of your brand. It is also important to ensure that your text is clearly legible. Other tips include, limiting the number of banners and advertisements on your page so that your calls-to-action are not confusing, removing any outdated elements and ensuring that there are absolutely no errors or layout issues on your landing pages for all major browsers.#google4tourism Google Month: Tip 4 Is your Brand optimized on your landing page? It is important that web visitors recognize your brand on your landing page and that they understand what you are offering. Good tips to optimise your brand on your landing page include clearly showing your corporate logo with a memorable tagline below or next to it, in a prominent position on your landing page; using your corporate colours as part of the colour scheme of your page and using prominent headlines to explain what visitors can expect on your site.#google4tourism Google Month: Tip 5 Does your landing page focus attention on the actual offers on the page? There are a lot of advantages to having a clean, simple design on your landing page. Overwhelming visitors with options, special offers and call-to-action buttons could make them indecisive, confused and less likely to convert. Good tips to ensure that your callsto-action get the attention they deserve include; showing your key offers above the fold i.e. positioning them so that the user doesn t have to scroll down to see them, keeping your page clean and uncluttered and making use of whitespace to contrast between your text and the background, thereby aiding legibility.#google4tourism Page 2 of 5

3 Google Month: Tip 6 Is your text on your landing page optimised? Most visitors do not take the time to read everything on your landing page but quickly scan it to see if it is useful to them. Good tools for optimizing your text include; using prominent headlines to convey key points, keeping sentences and paragraphs short (4 line paragraphs are ideal) & using bullet points to list important features/key selling points. It goes without saying that you should start with the most important message at the top of your page. #Google4Tourism Google Month: Tip 7- Are your online calls-to-action effective enough? A clear call to action will capture the attention of your visitor and with the right wording could improve the conversion rate of your page. Good tips for calls-to-action include; making sure your call-to-action appears above the fold i.e. is positioned so that the user doesn t have to scroll down to see it and using an eye-catching colour to highlight your call-to-action. Sizing your call-to-actions based on their priority can be beneficial. Avoid cluttering your landing page with too many calls-to-action as this can negate their effect. #Google4Tourism Google Month: Tip 8 Does your landing page explain your Value Proposition? For many businesses, your value proposition or 'statement of benefits' is what distinguishes you from your competitors. Good tips for optimizing your value proposition include; summarizing your value proposition on your landing page and phrasing it so that the key benefits are apparent to the potential customer. It is important to keep your value proposition short and simple to be effective and memorable. #Google4Tourism Google Month: Tip 9 How to persuade visitors to make a booking Start by having a user-friendly site if users find it easy to navigate your site and perform actions on your site such as making an online booking, they are more likely to convert. Good tips for encouraging bookings include offering testimonials from satisfied customers/including the link to your Trip Advisor Reviews. You can encourage users to respond to other calls to action too by, for example, offering a 5% discount in return for signing up to your newsletter or by encouraging them to share your content by including the sharing icons to Facebook, Google, Twitter etc. on your website. #Google4Tourism Google Month Tip 10 Optimise the ranking of your Google Ad Ad position on Google is calculated based on your Quality score x Max CPC (cost per click). Your quality score is determined by a number of factors including click through rate on Google.com, keyword and ad text relevance, landing page quality and ad extensions. Max CPC is the highest amount one advertiser is willing to pay for a click on their ad. #Google4Tourism Page 3 of 5

4 Google Month Tip 11 - Best Practice for Selecting Keywords Selecting good keywords for your Google ad is important to optimise your reach. Good tips for selecting keywords include: adding synonyms of existing keywords; adding plural and singular variations of keywords; removing duplicate keywords to prevent them from competing with one another; creating a negative keyword list to filter out irrelevant traffic; & using different keyword match types. #Google4Tourism Google Month Tip 12 - Useful tools to help you manage your AdWords campaign Useful tools to help you optimise your AdWords campaign that are available in your AdWords account: Keyword Planner - to select keywords when starting out your campaign, the AdWords Opportunities centre ideas for new keywords when your campaign has been running for a while & the Search Terms Report which enables you to see the terms that people typed into Google to trigger your ad. Also in your AdWords account is the Auction Insights Report this allows you to compare your traffic against your competitors to see what percentage of available traffic you're getting on Google. 60% of Irish adults buy online currently but only 20% of Irish businesses sell online. The key takeaway therefore is: start selling online! #Google4Tourism Google Month Tip 13 Boost the performance of your Ad with Ad extensions According to Google the inclusion of site links (links to specific landing pages on your website which promote your products) with your listing on Google drives performance substantially. 2-line site links raise Click Through Rate (CTR) +20%, 3-line site links raise CTR +30%. Location extension (inclusion of your address with your listing) also drives performance, leading to a CTR increase of +10%. If you are already using AdWords, consider including site links and call extensions to boost your CTR, there s no extra charge to do so. #Google4Tourism Google Month Tip 14 Best practice when writing Ad copy Optimise your Google ad copy with the following tips. Make sure your ad text matches your keyword list; your ad text should also stand out from the competition and be different in some way; your ad text should include a call to action and Unique Selling Point, finally you should always make sure your ad links to a relevant Landing Page which reflects the text in your ad copy.#google4tourism Google Month Tip 15 How to improve your quality score Your quality score is a metric which helps determine where your ad ranks on Google. The best way to improve your quality score is to focus on key metrics. Choose relevant keywords using Google Keyword Planner. Create straightforward targeted ads. Direct users to a dedicated landing page with relevant, original content and which loads quickly so that the user doesn t lose interest and click away. #Google4Tourism Page 4 of 5

5 Google Month Tip 16 Optimise your YouTube Video for Mobile YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world. 50% of YouTube traffic in Ireland comes from a mobile device so if you are producing a YouTube video, consider first how it will appear on a mobile screen and what the potential impact your YouTube video will have on the end user. #Google4Tourism Google Month Tip 17 - Target your YouTube Audience the right way 46% of YouTube users are aged 35 and older. Bear this in mind when developing your YouTube campaigns and research what interests the older demographic. The top three most popular searches performed on YouTube are Music (71%), Comedy (55%) and How to videos (43%) respectively. Food, cookery and recipes are also a huge growth area and are very popular among users (33%). #Google4Tourism Google Month Tip 18 - Encourage your YouTube Audience to be Brand Advocates The level of engagement among YouTube users is relatively high. 58% of YouTube users share a link to video content they have seen. 63% talk about what they have seen on YouTube with their peers. YouTube users are also 1.2 times more likely to be brand advocates than their peers. Creating compelling video content for your target market may help win their loyalty and convert them to a booking. #Google4Tourism Google Month Tip 19 - Overview of Google Tools for Business This link leads to an interesting presentation which provides a brief overview of the various tools for small businesses available from Google and what their key benefits are, including Google AdWords, Google Maps, Google apps, Google Drive, Gmail for business and Google Calendar. Worth checking out. #Google4Tourism Google Month tip 20 - Social Media Best Practices in Travel This link provides information on Social Media Best Practices in Travel using Google+, recommendations from Frederic Gonzalo including: having a Google+ page and promoting it; using Hangouts for visual storytelling, posting a recording of a hangout to your Google+ profile afterwards; joining a community or fostering one of your own; sharing rich media content - HD images/video/infographics; inserting hashtags for tracking. The article also includes a list of top social media bloggers on Google+ #Google4Tourism Keep checking into for additional tools and resources including the exciting programme of FREE Webinars we offer each month! Page 5 of 5