What if I told you I could dramatically increase the effectiveness of your search engine marketing program and catapult your conversion rates without even logging into Google AdWords? The solution is actually one of the most overlooked aspects of search engine advertising. This simple, yet small change in any search engine marketing campaign can immediately boost conversion rates, sales, and help gain a competitive advantage. I'm talking about the proper use of SEM landing pages.

The beauty of search engine marketing is that visitors are pre-qualified and only visiting your site due to the fact that they entered a specific relevant search term. I've seen companies spend thousands of dollars bidding on popular keywords and ranking well, but then just drop visitors on their home page. I just shake my head when I see pages like this. You may get brand awareness but it's a big waste of money if your goal is converting visitors.

Studies have shown that if visitors are delivered directly to the product or service they were searching for, there is a much higher conversion rate compared to the home page or even relevant category pages as the entry point. It's best to setup category-based AdGroups in Google with each url pointing to a targeted landing page. It may be more work up front to build all these extra landing pages, but trust me, it pays off.

In my experience, there are three main decisions a visitor makes during the conversion process. With each decision comes several simple facts that go through a visitors head during the decision process. You should study these facts and build your landing pages based on them.

Do I Stay or Go? (Usually decided in the first few seconds)
-Short, Easy-To-Complete Registration Forms
-Relevant & Targeted Headline
-Specific Graphic (Product, Selling Points, Offer)
-Clear & Concise Copy
-Simple & Clear Layout
-Professional Design

Do I Want the Offer?
-Rich Media Information (Video, Demo, Screen Shots)
-Testimonials (White Paper, Case Study, Success Story)
-Free Offer (Product Trial, Site Access)

Ok, I Want It
-Minimize Required Fields
-Opt Out Option
-Privacy Statement
-No Broken Links
-Shopping Cart Works
-Security Logos

Ok, now you know what goes through a visitors mind once they come to a landing page. Now before getting too excited, I'd recommend jotting down your current SEM landing page statistics (i.e. CTR, conversion rate, etc) before refining your landing page. This will give you a baseline report and great before/after data to present to management in a month or two. I assure you after you incorporate these changes, you'll be a hero in your Marketing organization. Now get to work!