The Itty-Bitty, Teeny-Tiny Mistake That Will Destroy Your Practice
There’s one itty bitty mistake that can destroy your ability to use Google AdWords profitably for your practice:
YOUR LANDING PAGE
Your “landing page” is the web page that your visitors will “land” on after they click your ad.
Your landing page is vital! If you talk about something irrelevant on your landing page, nobody will read it. And it doesn’t matter how well written your page is if nobody will read it…
Let me give you some examples of BAD landing pages. (These are real examples currently being used right now.)
OK, so I just searched for “bankruptcy lawyer” in NYC, and here are the headlines of two landing pages that I clicked over to:
– “LAW THE WAY IT SHOULD BE PRACTICED Handling your case personally, compassionately and aggressively.” <== this has zippo to do with bankruptcy
– “Ever wonder if bankruptcy is right for you?” <== This headline doesn’t focus on the benefits of bankruptcy to the visitor. Also, there isn’t a “contact form” on the page, so there’s no place for visitors to leave their phone number or email address.
Now, the point here isn’t to embarrass a specific attorney…
The point is to explain that most attorneys are making AdWords 101 mistakes. These aren’t complicated mistakes that are hard to fix. These are *basic* mistakes.
Happily, the basics of a good landing page are easy to grasp. Today, I’m going to give you three of these “basics” to think about:
1) DON’T USE YOUR HOME PAGE
Both ads I mentioned above click over to the lawyer’s home page. The problem is that your home page is *never* a good landing page. That’s because the purpose of a home page is to be a “portal” to other pages on your site.
2) COLLECT YOUR PROSPECT’S CONTACT INFORMATION
The purpose of your landing page is to get visitors to call you or fill out a web form asking for you to call them. And most home pages don’t have a chance of achieving that purpose. So use a landing page instead.
3) TALK ABOUT YOUR PROSPECTS’ PROBLEMS
If your prospect is searching for “divorce attorney”, talk about divorce on your landing page.
If your prospect is searching for “child support attorney”, talk about child support.
If you do this, your headline will never be “The Law Offices of So-and-So,” and you won’t just blab about yourself, and how you’re (in general) a great attorney.
The only way to have your visitor read your page is if you focus on your visitor’s specific problems…
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OK, that’s it for today.
If you’re violating any of these basics, you really need to rethink your practice’s ad campaign from the bottom up. If you want to strategize about this, schedule some time here:
Bob Hiler