I posted the following as a reply in a SEMpdx Forum thread. Thought it was cogent enough to reprise here 
This is in response to comments in the thread by Todd Mintz and related article, also by Todd.
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Todd I couldn’t agree more that ideally you would have a unique landing page for each exact Keyword string. As behavioral targeting and the privacy wars heat up we may even be talking about a unique landing page path for each visitor, maybe even each visit.
But in my world of micro-business, service professionals, and e-cottage entrepreneurs that ideal is very much a pipe dream due to resources, i.e. time/money.
Also, as you note in your article, I have seem some real disasters from people that create landing pages designed to “force” visitors into taking particular actions by limiting the navigation choices. The results can be extraordinarily high bounce rates and a bad experience for the visitor, bad juju all the way around.
So for my client base I would temper the “PPC landing pages should be radically different from the rest of your site” to something a little more philosophical.
Like; If there isn’t a current website page that is acceptable as a beginning landing page, we have a real problem with the website and content in general. If we do have pages that “suffice”, then what are we doing, within the scope of resources, to move from suffice, to better than that, maybe good, even great
But overall Todd, you are as usual, right on the money. Be targeted, and be clever in navigation choices. Help the visitor as much as you can to stay focused on fulfilling whatever quest began with their Search Engine query.
That is worth saying again:
Help the visitor as much as you can to stay focused on fulfilling whatever quest began with their Search Engine query.
Without them feeling herded and bullied.
This is done with analysis, creativity, empathy, and time/money: not cookie-cutter dynamic insertion formulas, keyword overkill, or SEO tricks.
-T
Tom Hale
Internet Strategist - AdWords Specialist
http://ThomasCreekConcepts.com/
http://forum.sempdx.org/
2 responses so far ↓
1 Todd Mintz // Feb 28, 2008 at 6:28 am
Well, you might not need a separate page for each keyword string, though perhaps for every keyword group. However, ideal landing pages do have a high bounce rate and that is acceptable, in my opinion, if your conversion rate is much higher than it would otherwise be. Now, if the pages aren’t skillfully created, you will tick off your visitors…however, that’s where the skill of people like you and I come in…we can guide people properly so that doesn’t happen.
2 tchale // Feb 28, 2008 at 1:41 pm
I agree.
But to twist a bit, a higher conversion rate is about the only thing I can think of that would justify a higher bounce rate. And at that, one best make sure their conversion strategy is very well understood and measured in terms of the overall value chain.
As a PPC guy, I really hate bounces
-T
Tom Hale
Internet Strategist - AdWords Specialist
http://ThomasCreekConcepts.com/
http://forum.sempdx.org/
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