Landing Pages and Relevance

Most guides, gurus and experts will always tell you that the landing page should be specific and relevant to the ad and keyword. Why sure it should! Show the customers what they are looking for! Of course they are then more likely to convert, because its a shorter and simpler process – they don’t have to first find that relevant page.

But is it always appropriate? I argue no, sometimes its not.

Think of it like this. If you were booking a hotel room – and the hotel manager invited you to the hotel to take a look at the room – what would you prefer?

a) to be driven to the hotel, see the building, walk through the foyer, feel the atmosphere of the place, then go and see the room, or

b) be blindfolded and taken straight to the room.

Do you see my point?

I honestly think that for expensive purchases requiring reassurance or trust, people are more likely to want to get a feel of the company first, before seeing more about what they specifically want. This is where good user-friendliness and navigation comes in, as well as a site that is credible, professional, and designed for the target market.

Its not just a theory.

I tested this out for a holiday company. For some campaigns, longer page durations and lower bouncerates were found when the page was slightly more generic, allowing people to search for what they wanted, rather than taking them to a specific search result based on what they searched for.

For specific products, e.g. DVDs, appliances etc then a relevant landing page definately converts better.

But for things like cars, holidays, expensive services, I think a more generic landing page that gives the visitor some control of where they go next is better – it primes the all important reassurance and trust factor more effectively.