Last in the series of optimising landing pages, I looked at how to improve a microsite which has the freedom to have any template/design it wants to considering it is a branch off the main website and does not have to be related to the main website. However, this article will be the complete opposite. There are rare occasions when it is good to use the homepage as a PPC landing page such as when you want to bring the web user to an ‘Amazon’ like website to roam free around it. However, most times, it is not a good idea to use a homepage as a landing page. Putting this aside, for those that still want to use their homepage as their PPC landing page, here are some ways you can optimise it for PPC.
 
 

Include Lots of Internal Links

The word ‘internal’ is significant in the above heading. If you decide to use your homepage as your landing page, there can only ever be one real conversion: to explore the site into more detail. Therefore, if you are going to include links onto the website, make sure they are internal. External links will push web users away from your homepage which, as you will know, you paid money to get them web users onto your homepage through PPC…so keep them on the homepage! If you do decide to put external links on the homepage (which, of course, I advice not to), make sure to include a ‘target=’blank” so that when the web user clicks on the external link, it will open up that link in a new tab which means they will still have your homepage open.
 
 

Include Images

This is an absolute must. If you are going to include lots of internal links, whether you like it or not, there will seem to be alot of words/content on the homepage. A homepage that just has text which are mainly all links is extremely unattractive. This is why images are crucial on a homepage. The images entice the web user into staying on the homepage because images are far easier to read than text.
To prove this, take a look at any homepage of any big website. Amazon, BBC or Play. They all have images to compliment the amount of text they have. The only exception for this is Apple that solely uses images to entice the web user before they have read any content at all which can sometimes be just as effective. The only problem with this is that your homepage can only really accommodate advertising one thing at one time – just like Apple do.
 
 
If you are thinking about using your homepage as your PPC landing page, I beg you to ask yourself just exactly why. There are loads of different types of landing pages to choose from that can produce much more effective results. Only use a homepage if you want to advertise the whole of your website. Other than that, it is usually the lazy and inexperienced advertisers that choose their homepage as their landing page.