Organic SEO and Landing Pages

Posted on 19. Mar, 2009 by Pete Hollier in Search Optimization

Utilizing Landing Pages for Organic SEO

Landing pages are often under utilized in Organic Search Engine Optimization and play an important role in increasing organic web site traffic.

Organic Optimization Landing Pages

Typically misunderstood are the benefits Landing Pages offer Organic Search Optimization programs. Organically Optimized Landing Pages assist with an Organic SEO Program by:

• Targeting highly specific keyword phrases which may otherwise may be difficult to integrate into the main web site pages
• Assisting to improve and support the Page Rank of high priority web pages

Keyword Phrases

Keyword Phrases also known as long tail search terms are search terms using multiple words to provide targeted search results.

As you can see from the diagram below Music and Blues are generic and would offer an extensive range of search results and search competition from other Web Sites. At Level 3 "Chicago Blues" and "Texas Blues" we begin to get the long tail search terms which offer increasingly targeted search terms resulting in a more targeted visitor arriving at the site for the selected terms. Also there is less competition for the long tail phrases from other web sites and therefore easier to obtain higher placement in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).

The terms are then drilled down further with search phrases “Texas Blues Musician” or “Chicago Blues Musician”. The addition of pages with these specific search terms offer additional targeted Landing Pages.

Long tail search terms not only benefit the Internet Searcher but also the web site by delivering visitors who are looking for a very specific product or service and are more likely to convert into a sale, sales lead or other conversion criteria determined by your SEO Strategic Planning.

Crafting the Landing Page for SEO Advantage

Regardless of whether the Landing Page will be used for Pay Per Click or Organic Optimization the crafting and development of the pages is similar.

To use the above example of Music / Blues /Texas Blues etc. we would want to craft a specific landing page using keyword rich and relevant content for the term “Texas Blues”. This content would need to have a highly optimized HTML structure to ensure maximum benefits.

HTML structure would include the use of “Texas Blues” in:

• Web page URL
• Meta Tags -  title, description, keyword and alt
• H1, H2, H3 and if possible H4 HTML header tags
• Bold and Italics somewhere on the page

Ideally links which includes the Anchor text term “Texas Blues” should be pointing to the Landing Page “Texas Blues”.

This process would be repeated for all main pages and sub-pages. Also there is the opportunity to drill down even further and supply specific landing pages for Blues Bands or Artists and so on.

Landing Pages and Page Rank

What is Page Rank? The Simple Definition

Page Rank was developed by Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin to determine web page importance, which must no be confused with Google’s indexing a web page for relevance which is another topic entirely.

The concept of Page Rank is based on the Internet being a democratic environment. Page Rank considers a link from one web page to another as a vote of importance and confidence of the quality of the receiving web page. The more votes a web page receives, the more importance and Page Rank the web page is given.

When a web page is developed it receives a base Page Rank from the Google Algothrim (A mathematical formulae to determine Page Rank and Web Page Importance). As web pages increase inbound links, the Page Rank or value of the Page increases, resulting in better Search Engine Result Page placement.

That is the inbound side of the Page Rank equation, outbound links must also be considered as this is how Page Rank gets passed from one page to the next. An important consideration with outbound links is to remember that each out bound links reduces the amount of Page Rank passed to the receiving web page. For example a web page consisting of 10 links will spread the available Page Rank evenly between the receiving web pages.

There are methods available which enable you to link to a web page without passing Page Rank to the receiving web page. These methods should be considered for internal linking within your web site to pages of little value such as contact, about, registration or shopping cart pages. This is done to preserve and avoid dilution of web pages for internal linking.

Passing the Page Rank – Example

In the example below the Page Rank is passed from:

• Chicago Blues Musician 1 and 2 pass Page Rank to Chicago Blues
• Texas Blues Musician 1 and 2 pass Page Rank to Texas Blues
• Chicago Blues and Texas Blues both having gained additional Page Rank from Musicians then pass accumulated Page Rank to Blues
• The accumulation of Blues Page Rank then gets passed to Music

In each case the page above benefits from the Landing Page Page Rank which accumulates as it continues through the process.

Note: This is a very simplified example

Landing Pages – Conclusion

Without doubt Landing Pages are beneficial to not only Pay Per Click but also Organic Search Engine Optimization. The examples here are simple and are meant to provide a basic understanding of the processes and reasoning behind Landing Pages for both Keyword Phrases and Page Rank.

Page Rank is a very technical and involved process and it must be noted that the process has been highly simplified in these examples and are not meant to be an indepth look at the intricacies of the Page Ranking system.

Written by: pete@seowizardry.ca a Search Optimisation Consultant

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