Industry Jargon Explained: What Are Landing Pages?
Without some kind of internal organization of pages, particularly for large websites, your site could be very difficult to navigate. Landing pages are a very effective way to solve this problem, but they also offer a number of other advantages.
For those who may be unfamiliar with the term, a landing page is a popular type of standalone page that serves as a sort of “storefront,” containing comprehensive information about a particular service or product. On a landing page, you will often find links to relevant sub-pages and calls to action (e.g., “Learn More” or “Click Here for More Information”) that encourage the audience to further explore the site.
By categorizing the various topics your website will cover and offering viewers a foundation for which they can use to quickly see the many aspects of your practice you wish to discuss on your website, you give them a more streamlined and easy experience. Plus, good landing pages can help your practice in search engine rankings and give the website a more professional, easy-to-use feel.
What Are the Benefits of Landing Pages?
A few of the benefits afforded by landing pages include:
Website Organization
Landing pages are integral parts of the overall website design. This is true not only for sites that wish to showcase products or merchandise, but also for health professionals. Plastic surgeons, dentists, and doctors in a variety of medical fields typically offer a number of different services at their practice. Obviously, they would like to highlight those services on their website to give prospective patients a full and thorough look at the advantages of choosing them for their needs. Landing pages are essentially categorization pages that include a list of treatments offered, along with hyperlinks to respective pages within the website that go into more depth about the procedure.
For example: a Breast Surgery landing page will often include brief descriptions and links to pages covering breast augmentation, breast lift, etc. The following image illustrates a high-quality landing page:
Website Navigation
While landing pages are good ideas for a website of any size, they are particularly beneficial for websites that contain many distinct pages. Effectively serving as a table of contents similar to the way a novel would contain a list of chapters, landing pages can offer the viewer a snapshot of virtually every topic covered in your website. This can provide a handy tool of navigation for readers, giving them a quick and easy way to find out more about your practice and learn about all kinds of procedures and services. For large websites, landing pages are often crucial to avoid the possibility that important pages and information you’d like viewers to see ultimately end up getting lost among the rest.
Search Engine Optimization
Landing pages allow for numerous linking opportunities to other pages within your site, which can serve as an effective enhancement for your medical SEO (search engine optimization) or dental SEO strategy. They can not only encourage viewers to visit more pages, they can also give viewers ideas about procedures they may not have considered before and help them learn about new and different techniques that may be available at your practice.
Accessibility
With more and more individuals relying on mobile devices to find what they need on the Internet, it’s more important than ever to ensure your website, and the information provided by it, is as easy to access as possible. Responsive website design techniques allow websites to be viewed easily across a range of digital platforms, and landing pages give the viewer a table of contents for the many pages of your website, helping them find what they need. These two elements are some of the most useful ways to ensure viewers not only find helpful information on your site, but also have a good experience with it as they consider their options.
Google Ads
A high-quality landing page can have a very positive impact on your Google Ads campaign. The relevance of content on landing pages affects the overall Quality Score assigned to a particular campaign. Google is very clear in its instructions as to how to properly use Google Ads: it wants businesses to have original, relevant, useful, and specific content available once the link for the ad is clicked. Landing pages allow you to deliver that, providing viewers with the specific content that they are looking for. Sending a visitor to a page about dental implants after they have searched for that term may result in a better conversion rate than if they are simply sent to a homepage with a wider variety of services listed.
If you are thinking about a new website for your practice, or if you are looking for ways to upgrade your current website and give visitors an even better experience, please contact Rosemont Media today. Our consultants will be happy to talk with you about your goals!
Editor’s note: The original version of this post was published on November 29, 2016.