I think we’ve all had this experience. We do a quick search, click on the result that looks
promising and then hit the back button on the browser almost immediately. Sometimes it happens because we made a bad choice in search.

Often it happens because the page we ended up with doesn’t load quickly and cleanly. Or it doesn’t have the information we are looking for front and center. Or finding the information is too much work. In short, it’s a horrible landing page.

How do you know if you have a bad page on your site? You need to be monitoring all of your landing pages regularly. There is no formula for the perfect landing page, but I like using Google Analytics to measure the crucial metrics:

Conversion rates:

Analytics conversion rates are based on the goals you defined for the profile. These
are not the same as the conversion rates for your AdWords campaign. Both metrics are
important to consider. Are your conversion rates low? Your page may be worth very
little to you if you can’t convert the visitor into a customer.

Bounce rates:

Bounce rates can be high for a couple of reasons. Is the page simply an information
page that a customer reads then moves to the next page? If so why don’t you place a
call to action on the page? Or is there a bigger problem with your page? Usually a high
bounce rate indicates the page isn’t relevant to your visitor. Consider tailoring your
landing page to the keyword in the ad copy that you ran. Your potential customer came
because they are looking for information promised in the ad.

Navigation summary:

This metric will tell you exactly where people came in, how long they stayed, where
they left your page and where they went after they left. Are people blindly moving from
page to page? Are they moving on to your competitors page next?

If you can’t get people to stay on your page then you are not going to make a conversion. At best you’ve wasted the money on the ad, at worst you’ve wasted the money creating your site and you are losing a lot of potential sales, referrals, and existing customers who can’t find what they want. Take some time and make sure you don’t have a stinker on your hands.