Landing pages and corporate websites are typically two different animals. I think the best landing pages effectively address the topic mentioned in the corresponding PPC ad the user clicked on to get there.

Awesome landing page

Many people have asked me how to use a landing page with a website that already exists. My answer is – do not do that! Use a landing page to work with your paid search advertising and nothing else. Paid search ads could be on social media sites like LinkedIn or Facebook, or search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN. There are many different places to advertise online, but in doing so – I suggest you never direct those visitors to a home page. I also get asked “where should people advertise online?” There is no canned answer for that because it varies greatly. Are you local or national? Are you b2c or b2b, etc? The short answer is that you should advertise online where it makes sense to. Try anything you like for a limited time and make sure to measure the results.

My favorite question to answer is “why a landing page?” A generic company home page is rarely set up correctly to convert a visitor to a lead. How would you feel if you clicked on an ad selling your favorite new widget and then you have to wade through 4 pages to even find the thing?? Landing pages help make it easier to make money on the web, they just do. There is rarely a person who will want to click through a ton of things if they are clicking on an ad. If someone was merely shopping for information, why wouldn’t they just use the organic results? Google and other search engines have trained us well! They have trained us to respond to effective landing pages and to get annoyed with tombstone business cards masquerading as corporate websites.