The Clickable Search Engine Marketing Blog

In his very useful book AdWords for Dummies, Howie Jacobsen distinguishes between three different types of landing pages:

1. “Product-focused landing pages:” For users who know exactly what they’re looking for.
2. “Concept-focused landing pages:” For users who know what their problem is, but don’t have a particular solution in mind.
3. “Turn-the-corner landing pages:” For users who do have a particular solution in mind, but not the one you want to offer.

The first type of page is the most straight-forward. If a user searches for a very specific product ― say, the iPhone 3GS ― they should be taken to a page exclusively devoted to that product. It’s important not to waste a user’s time by taking them to a page about Apple products or smart phones in general. The question they’re asking with their search is, “Where can I buy an iPhone 3GS.” The simplest answer is “Right here!”

Of course, you may be a competitor with a different product to sell, like the Palm Treo. In that case, you might want to consider a “turn-the-corner landing page”: the user thinks they want an iPhone, but you want to convince them that, if what they’re looking for is a sleek and powerful smart phone, the Palm is the way to go. It’s a more difficult sell, but worth a shot.

As this example illustrates, it is important to know precisely what problem a user is trying to solve. (Sometimes, this means finding the question behind the question: translating “Where can I get an iPhone 3GS?” into “Where can get the best smart phone available?”) While this is true for “product-focused” and “turn-the-corner” landing pages, it’s especially true in the case of “concept-focused” landing pages―pages devoted exclusively to discussing a problem before moving on to introduce a solution on another page.

Last week, in the Clickable Product Incubator, Lee Reynolds made this point in a conversation about split-testing. As he put it, “Clients tend to focus on their specialty and forget that people search the web to solve a problem.”

“People search the web to solve a problem:” you can’t put it any more concisely than that. The importance of this point, as it relates to landing pages, is to introduce another step into the process of thinking through landing pages: before making your offer — that is, before focusing on your “specialty” — tell users that you’re there to help them. The first message on your page, high up in the headline, should say, “I know what problem you’re trying to address, and I’m here to help.” This will prompt the user to ask, “Help how?” Now’s the time to make that offer.

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