SEO
All You Need to Know to Get Them
Do you want to jump to the first position in Google without building links or significantly updating your content? Featured snippets can help you with that.
Featured snippets are a special type of search result showing a quick answer to the search query at the top of Google’s results page. Google pulls this information from one of the top-ranking pages that then gets elevated to the top of the organic search results this way.
You may be wondering how that’s a good thing for the website that owns the featured snippet. Users see your content on the SERP, and that may mean losing clicks, right?
Well, yes and no. Check this example:
If this question were possible to answer thoroughly in a few sentences, most of us would be out of work. So while the snippet tells you the absolute basics, you still have to click to learn more.
That’s just one example. Featured snippets are one of the most prominent SERP features—and they’re evolving all the time.
Follow this guide to learn everything you need to know about featured snippets and what it takes to optimize for them.
There are five types of featured snippets that Google shows depending on the intent behind the search query:
- Paragraph
- Numbered list
- Bullet list
- Table
- Video
Let’s check an example for each type.
1. Paragraph
This one is a bit special because Google sometimes combines featured snippets with People Also Ask (PAA) boxes. You can see additional questions related to the search query there and click on them to see more information. That often comes from a different source than the featured snippet itself, as you can see in this case:
2. Numbered list
3. Bullet list
4. Table
5. Video
It’s also important to note that there are other “snippet-like” results. You need to know about these to avoid any confusion:
Knowledge panel
Knowledge card
Entity carousel
These three SERP features have one thing in common. They don’t pull answers from just one of the top-ranking search results, as they’re based on entities in the knowledge graph. While they may contain a link to the source of information (song lyrics, for example), it’s never in the form of a clickable title as we have in featured snippets.
Google introduced featured snippets in 2014, and I would say that they’re one of the most prominent SERP changes of the past decade. There are quite a few things that featured snippets changed for both users and SEOs.
Shortcut to the top organic position
If your content is ranking on the first SERP for a search query that shows a featured snippet, you can “win” that snippet and shortcut your way to the top position. Let’s break this down.
Our study found that featured snippets come from pages that already rank in the top 10. Moreover, the vast majority of featured snippets pages rank in the top five.
In conclusion, the higher your content ranks, the more likely it is to get a featured snippet.
Getting to the first SERP is a more manageable goal than ranking number #1 for a keyword. But if that keyword triggers a featured snippet, it makes the first position a bit more attainable.
Fewer clicks… sometimes
In the past, the page owning the featured snippet would also be listed in the standard “blue link” search results somewhere on the first SERP. But in January 2020, Google introduced featured snippet deduplication.
Once your page gets elevated to the featured snippet, you lose that “regular” search result.
Besides the little traffic losses back then, some people also think that featured snippets reduce clicks on the search results. After all, if the answer to the query is on the SERP, why would you click on a result?
While this is the case for some queries, it’s certainly not the case for them all. It depends on whether Google can provide a satisfactory answer in the snippet.
For example, take a look at the featured snippet for this query:
The answer is right there for most people. And that’s why there’s only a 19% chance, on average, that the search for this query results in a click.
Now take a look at the snippet for “how does the stock market work”:
Because it gives a basic answer to the question, most searchers will probably want to know more.
That is most likely why, on average, 82% of searches for this query result in a click.
The takeaway here is that targeting keywords with a low number of Clicks Per Search (CPS) is rarely a good idea.
Pay attention to this when researching keywords in Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer.
Featured snippets as superb branding opportunities
Clicks aside, featured snippets are the first thing that users see in the search results if there are no search ads. They’re even more prominent on mobile devices where they’re often the only thing people initially see:
This is a very compelling argument in favor of featured snippets.
Increasing your share of voice on the SERPs is arguably one of the most important SEO KPIs. That’s because brand-building is proven to be the primary driver of long-term growth.
The more your brand is visible on the SERPs for relevant topics, the more you will be associated as a market leader.
You can opt out of featured snippets (don’t do that, though)
Cyrus Shepard led the way in experimenting with opting out of featured snippets after the SERP deduplication and discovered that it led to a 12% traffic loss.
That said, if you still want to opt out of featured snippets, Google offers various ways to do that. Just be aware that both nosnippet robots meta tags methods also block your content from appearing in traditional “blue link” snippets. I don’t recommend using those because Google could then only use your hard-coded title tag and meta description.
So the best way to remove your page from appearing in featured snippets is to include max-snippet robots meta tag. This tag specifies the maximum number of characters Google can show in the text snippets.
And because featured snippets are longer than descriptions in regular snippets, you can set the character limit to the usual maximum length of descriptions. That’s around 160 characters.
You’ll just have to paste this code snippet into the <head> section of the page that you wish to remove from the featured snippets:
<meta name="robots" content="max-snippet:170">
While this method doesn’t guarantee not appearing in shorter featured snippets, it still outweighs the cons of using the more restrictive methods.
Recommendation
For example, here’s a featured snippet that we own:
If we appended “&num=9” to the URL, preferably in Incognito mode, we can see where we’d rank if we weren’t in the snippet:
In this case, if we decided to opt out, we would be in the second or third position—depending on the page that would take over the featured snippet (you’ll see how to do that too).
Being in lower positions and opting out can hurt your traffic. You’ve been warned.
Google Search Console doesn’t show any information regarding featured snippets. You’ll have to use third-party tools like Ahrefs’ Site Explorer to dig into them.
Let’s stick with Site Explorer. Paste in your site, then head to the Organic keywords report to see the keywords you rank for, then filter only for those where Google shows your page in the featured snippet:
As you can see above, Ahrefs’ domain currently ranks for 1,042 keywords with featured snippets in the U.S.
In the previous version of this article, I recommended filtering for keywords with the highest search volume and checking the most important featured snippets manually. That’s because Google sometimes pulls content that isn’t optimal, and you’d want these important featured snippets to be perfect.
However, Google is still improving. Now, I didn’t find a single keyword where I’d bother editing the section Google pulls it from.
While you may come across featured snippets that can do with a bit of polishing, I don’t recommend editing things unless Google pulls poorly formatted, misleading, or just plain wrong information.
It’s better to own an imperfect featured snippet than to risk losing it to a competitor by revising it.
Winning more featured snippets is a simple way to potentially increase organic traffic to your site. Below, we’ll discuss a few ways to do that.
Leverage content that you already have and rank for
Here, we’ll be looking at pages that already rank in the top 10 for a particular term yet don’t own the snippet. It’s possible to win the snippet just by making a few tweaks to your page.
How to find these opportunities? It’s easy.
Go to Site Explorer and filter keywords that trigger featured snippets where your website is ranking in positions #2–10.
This is an easy way to filter out the vast majority if not all the featured snippets that you rank for, since they’re predominantly ranking at the first position. There are cases where they appear at lower positions, but it’s rare these days. In fact, all of our 1,042 featured snippets are ranking at the first position.
In other words, we now have a list of low-hanging opportunities to steal featured snippets from your competitors. Let’s get you prepared for the heist.
We need to prioritize. Stealing 7,064 featured snippets at once is mission impossible.
I reduced the list to just 21 keywords by prioritizing those with higher search volumes where we rank in positions #2–5.
Now things look much more manageable.
The search volume filter is an obvious one, as there’s no point in targeting long-tail keywords at this point. Regarding the positions and referring back to our study, the probability of owning a featured snippet increases with your organic position for that search query.
Again, these filters will be different for you. However, if you don’t rank for a substantial number of keywords already, I’ll suggest focusing on creating more great content and building links.
So we’ve got the list. What’s the battle plan?
In our case, I’ll prioritize further by manually checking for keywords with solid business value. Let’s take a look at some of those keywords:
For example, the search query “most searched thing on google” at the top is less valuable for us than “seo content” at the bottom even though the first has twice the search volume. People who want to learn about creating search-optimized content are much more likely to become our customers one day.
Taking that “seo content” query into account, this is what I see:
First thing I’ll do here is to check whether our page even qualifies for the featured snippet at the moment. That can dictate how big of a change we need to make. You do that by excluding the domain that ranks for the current featured snippet using the - search operator.
In this case, there’s no other page in the featured snippet “queue,” which is an indicator that we currently don’t provide a good, short answer to the search query in the eyes of Google.
Just so you know, here’s an example of a featured snippet that has other eligible pages in line:
After excluding the Coursera domain, we can see what Google considers as the second-best option:
And you can go on to even see the third domain in line, and so on. But back to optimizing for the “seo content” featured snippet.
We can clearly tell that a short, definition-style paragraph is the way to go here. Let’s check what we have in our content:
So the appropriate section exists; that’s a check. An interesting thing here is that Google ranks a page that targets the keyword in reverse order. Let’s see if other pages qualified for ranking there in the past by opening that keyword in Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer and scrolling down to the Position history:
I only filtered for URLs that had the featured snippet at one point in the past two years. We can see that the rest targets “seo content” in the original order, and Backlinko claimed the first position for a long time. But we need to check whether Google was even showing the featured snippet back then.
You do that by scrolling further down in Keywords Explorer to the SERP overview. Select a date where you want to investigate the SERP for comparison. In this case, I need any SERP between July and September 2021:
There it is: The featured snippet was there, claimed by another page. The last thing I need here is to check the section that was ranking back then by opening the URL on Archive.org after clicking on the caret:
And selecting a screenshot of that page during the time it was ranking for the featured snippet:
We see three rather different definitions. There’s definitely room for the featured snippet optimization. I’d make our definition a bit longer, change the second sentence, and fit in the mention of keywords because I think that’s important. I’d change it from:
SEO content is content designed to rank in search engines. It could be a blog post, product or landing page, interactive tool, or something else.
To something like this:
SEO content is content designed to rank high in search engines for a specific keyword. Creating it requires researching and covering what searchers would find valuable.
I can honestly say that I feel this definition is superior to the competing ones. That should be your ultimate goal when it comes to optimizing for featured snippets regardless of the format.
This was quite an interesting example. One last thing to note here is that your snippet-worthy information needs to be formatted in a way that Google can easily parse, understand, and interpret. A good rule of thumb is that if the reader comes across that information easily, then Google should be able to as well.
Create new content with featured snippets in mind
Let’s make one thing clear from the start: Scoring a featured snippet should be just the icing on the cake, not the main purpose of why and how you cover a certain topic.
The prerequisite for winning the featured snippet is ranking well, so that should still be the focus. For this reason, I investigate potential featured snippet opportunities only after selecting a topic.
Since the major factor of being successful in SEO is aligning with the search intent, you should always analyze the competing pages on the SERP. Let’s take our main topic here as an example because it doesn’t get better than optimizing content to win featured snippets for “featured snippets” keywords.
I have my “featured snippets” topic, and you should select yours based on your keyword research. Look it up in Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer and scroll down to the SERP overview:
I see that the main keyword triggers a featured snippet, so I’m in the difficult position of trying to dethrone Google there:
Honestly, this is a case of a bad featured snippet. It doesn’t really provide value to the searcher. I don’t learn what it is or how it works. Google has a clear advantage of coining the term, so it’s kind of a branded search. But I’ll try my best to create a definition-type paragraph that I think searchers likely want to see.
We already went through the process of creating content for the “seo content” featured snippet, so this is just a rinse-and-repeat process—provide the best answer possible using a suitable format.
Since pages can rank for thousands of keywords, there are naturally many more featured snippet opportunities than just the one for the main keyword. The easiest way to check these is to click through a few top-ranking pages to see all the keywords they rank for:
And filter the report for keywords that trigger featured snippets and have a certain minimum search volume to make it worthwhile (as we’ve already shown earlier). I also included a “1–20” Position filter to make the list as relevant as possible:
Some of those keywords will be almost the same, having the same search intent and featured snippet. I don’t need to check the featured snippets for keywords like “snippet google” or “what is a featured snippet” because the answer and optimizing your content for them remain the same.
We’re looking for keywords that can trigger different featured snippets and are aligned with sections we cover in the article. There are a bunch of these opportunities around optimizing and getting featured snippets:
Look them up and see what Google shows there:
So if I want to have a chance to rank for this, I should include a straight-to-the-point paragraph on how to get a featured snippet instead of explaining the whole process across many pages. This looks like something that can fit nicely into the “Final thoughts” section to sum it up, so I’ll do that.
And since different pages rank for different keywords, it pays off to repeat this process for one to two more top-ranking pages. I found that I should also optimize for the “types of featured snippets” keyword here.
Even if you don’t end up winning the featured snippets, we’re still trying to answer searchers’ questions in the best way possible. That in itself is critical to your content’s success on the SERPs.
Here are a few copywriting tips for winning featured snippets to wrap this section up. You should:
- Format and structure your content correctly (H1–H6, etc.).
- Try to avoid overcomplicated sentences. Succinct explanations win.
- Use the language of your audience. In the end, Google uses featured snippets as answers in voice search.
- Use the ”inverted pyramid” method (where it makes sense).
pro tip
First, it’s a good idea to do so regardless of featured snippets because it can enhance your plain search result into a rich snippet. But I’ve also seen such pages dominate the combined featured snippets with PAA boxes where everything was from a single source.
Getting a featured snippet is equal to ranking first for a keyword. You may already be tracking keyword ranking positions, so let me help you expand it to tracking featured snippets.
Enter Ahrefs’ Rank Tracker.
First of all, I track all important keywords regardless of their SERP features. But we can begin by adding the most important keywords that also trigger featured snippets.
You can do that in a few clicks through the Organic keywords report we’ve already shown multiple times here. You just have to create a Rank Tracking project first for it to appear here:
You’re all set to see when you win or lose a featured snippet. Go to the Rank Tracker’s Overview report, click on the “SERP features” tab, and check the “Featured snippet” row:
As you can see, from the keywords I’m tracking, the project lost eight featured snippets, while 12 new ones appeared on the SERP over the tracked time period (last 30 days).
Here are the key parts to keep an eye on:
- Number of featured snippets you currently own (plus the +/- change in the selected period)
- Number of featured snippets in total for the keywords you’re tracking (plus the +/- change for the period)
- Percentage of all the featured snippets among the tracked keywords that you own (9%, in this example)
You can also change the view from “all tracked features” to “featured snippets” to see your progress over time:
To delve deeper into the specifics on the keyword level, select the “Featured snippet” filter:
And scroll down to the keywords list to see the time comparison data (30 days, in this example):
We can see that the top keyword is among our new featured snippets. But it is more helpful to isolate the featured snippet movements only.
To isolate the winning cases, we’ll need to apply two filters:
- Position – Improved (you rank higher than at the start of your selected period).
- SERP features – You rank for the featured snippet.
Again, scroll down and see the featured snippet winners of the month (or whatever period you choose):
To see lost featured snippets, just apply reverse filters -> decline in positions in the top 10 and only show featured snippets that you don’t own. Unfortunately, you can’t currently isolate cases where you lost the snippet, so you’ll see all declines in the top 10.
Look for keywords that dropped from the first position, like these first two:
You may want to consider checking the position drops regardless of featured snippets anyway. Sort the table by traffic and pay attention to huge traffic drops.
Final thoughts
You should now know everything necessary to win those coveted SERP jumps to the first position. To sum it up:
Optimizing for featured snippets is about providing a brief and valuable answer to the search query in the most suitable format. Getting the featured snippet involves following all the best SEO practices to make the content rank well for the target keyword.
If you have any comments or questions, don’t hesitate to ping me on Twitter.
SEO
Google Performance Max For Marketplaces: Advertise Without A Website
Google has launched a new advertising program called Performance Max for Marketplaces, making it easier for sellers on major e-commerce platforms to promote their products across Google’s advertising channels.
The key draw? Sellers no longer need a website or a Google Merchant Center account to start.
The official Google Ads Help documentation states:
“Performance Max for Marketplaces helps you reach more customers and drive more sales of your products using a marketplace. After you connect your Google Ads account to the marketplace, you can create Performance Max campaigns that send shoppers to your products there.”
The move acknowledges the growing importance of online marketplaces like Amazon in product discovery.
For sellers already listing products on marketplaces, Google is providing a way to tap into its advertising ecosystem, including Search, Shopping, YouTube, Gmail, and more.
As ecommerce marketer Mike Ryan pointed out on LinkedIn:
“Polls vary, but a recent single-choice survey showed that 50% of consumers start product searches on Amazon, while a multiple-choice survey showed that 66% of consumers start on Amazon.”
The source for his data is a 2023 report by PowerReviews.
Getting Started
To use Performance Max for Marketplaces, sellers need an active account on a participating marketplace platform and a Google Ads account.
Google has yet to disclose which marketplaces are included. We contacted Google to request a list and will update this article when we receive it.
Once the accounts are linked, sellers can launch Performance Max campaigns, drawing product data directly from the marketplace’s catalog.
Google’s documentation states:
“You don’t need to have your own website or Google Merchant Center account.
And:
“You can use your existing marketplace product data to create ads with product information, prices, and images.”
Conversion tracking for sales is handled by the marketplace, with sales of the advertiser’s products being attributed to their Google campaigns.
While details on Performance Max For Marketplaces are still emerging, Google is providing information when asked directly.
Navah Hopkins states on LinkedIn she received these additional details:
“I finally got a straight answer from Google that we DO need a Merchant Center for this, we just don’t need one to start with.”
Differences From Standard Performance Max
These are the key differences from regular Performance Max campaigns:
- No URL expansion, automatically-created assets, or video assets
- No cross-account conversion tracking or new customer acquisition modeling
- No audience segmentation reporting
Why SEJ Cares
Performance Max for Marketplaces represents a new way to use Google advertising while operating on third-party platforms.
Getting products displayed across Google’s ecosystem without the overhead of a standalone ecommerce presence is a significant opportunity.
How This Can Help You
Through Google’s ecosystem, merchants have new ways to connect with customers.
Performance Max for Marketplaces is a potential difference maker for smaller retailers that have struggled to gain traction through Google’s standard shopping campaigns.
Established merchants invested in Google Ads may find the program opens new merchandising opportunities. By making an entire marketplace catalog available for ad serving, sellers could uncover previously undiscovered pockets of demand.
The success of Performance Max for Marketplaces will depend on its execution and adoption by major players like Amazon and Walmart.
Featured Image: Tada Images/Shutterstock
SEO
The 9 Best Landing Page Builders For 2024
Generating leads is crucial to boosting your sales – but if your landing pages aren’t effective, you’re going to struggle to turn visitors into customers.
Landing pages play a key role in elevating the effectiveness of your marketing efforts and differentiating, refining, and enhancing the user experience.
In this article, we’ll explore how to choose the right landing page builder for your business before highlighting the nine top landing page builders and what makes them stand out.
Let’s get into it.
Choosing The Right Landing Page Builder For Your Business
With so many options to choose from, how can you decide which landing page builder is right for you?
Here are a few things to consider when making your decision.
- Marketing objectives: Start by deciding what you want to achieve with your landing pages. Are you looking to collect email subscribers, drive sales, generate leads, or promote an event? Each platform caters to different use cases, so leading with your goals can help you refine your search.
- Ease of use: Different builders have different learning curves. If you’re a novice, you should probably opt for a tool that caters to beginners. If you have more technical experience, like coding knowledge, you might want to look to more advanced builders to get the most power.
- Integration needs: Do you want your landing pages to integrate with other software or tools you’re already using?
- Mobile optimization: It’s essential that your landing pages cater to mobile users, so make sure your builder considers that with features like responsive design.
- Budget constraints: Unfortunately, budget matters. Landing page builders come with various price tags depending on their capabilities and features. Make sure you’re working within the boundaries of what you can afford.
While this is, by no means, an exhaustive list of considerations, it’s a starting point to help you choose a landing page builder that makes sense for your business needs.
Now, let’s look at nine of the best landing page builders to choose from.
1. Carrd
- Best for: Simple projects, personal use, and small budgets.
Looking for a great landing page builder that won’t break the bank? Look no further than Carrd.
Carrd is a streamlined landing page builder that focuses on creating single-page websites quickly and easily. It’s designed for simplicity, making it ideal for anyone who wants to quickly create a webpage without needing to build a multi-page site.
Think portfolios, personal profiles, project presentations, and small business showcases.
Carrd’s user-friendly interface and selection of themes allow users to create sleek pages in the blink of an eye without even needing an account – you can just visit the website, pick a theme, and get started. However, you will need to sign up to save or publish your site.
It balances simplicity and functionality to help you craft that pages are clean, focused, and responsive across all devices. If you’re just testing the waters or working with slim budgets, this is the right tool for you.
Pros:
- Extremely affordable, with a free tier available.
- Intuitive and user-friendly interface.
- Responsive design.
- Fast and lightweight, making it ideal for quick and simple sites.
Cons:
- Limited to single-page websites.
- Restrictive layouts/themes, which limit creative freedom.
- Lacks advanced features and integrations found in more comprehensive builders.
Pricing:
- Carrd’s free basic plan allows you to launch three sites with Carrd branding to .carrd.co domains.
- Paid plans range from $9 to $49 per year, and offer additional features like no Carrd branding, custom domains, and Google Analytics support (depending on your membership tier).
2. ConvertKit
Screenshot from ConvertKit.com, April 2024- Best for: Content creators, bloggers, and marketers focused on growing their audience through email.
Billing itself as “the creator marketing platform,” ConvertKit’s landing page builder is targeted at creators, bloggers, and marketers who want to expand their email subscriber base.
If your goal is to create a landing page to help you build an email list, ConvertKit might be the right option for you.
ConvertKit’s landing page builder offers a range of high-quality, customizable templates and integrates with third-party tools to help you get the most out of your site.
It also integrates with the stock photo platform Unsplash to offer access to 100,000+ free images for your landing page.
While ConvertKit’s analytics and customization options might not be as extensive as those of some of its competitors, its ease of use and focused approach make it a standout for email-driven campaigns.
Pros:
- No cost for starting (up to 1,000 subscribers).
- Access to thousands of free images.
- Robust third-party integration capabilities.
Cons:
- Limited template customization and flexibility.
- A/B testing and analytics features are less advanced.
- Priced higher than some basic landing page builders.
Pricing:
- Free plan for up to 10,000 subscribers.
- The Creator plan starts at $25/month and includes benefits like automation features and app integrations. Pricing scales are based on subscriber count.
3. Unbounce
Screenshot from Unbounce.com, April 2024Unbounce is a leading landing page builder renowned for its focus on conversion rate optimization (CRO). Its website promises to help you “build high-converting landing pages with ease.”
It offers a suite of advanced tools, such as A/B testing, dynamic text replacement, and the Smart Traffic system, which uses AI to optimize visitor flow to the highest-converting page variant based on user behavior and characteristics.
It also focuses on features that can help you boost your lead gen efforts, such as opt-in email popups and sticky banners.
With 100+ responsive templates, Unbound makes it easy to create landing pages that are both engaging and effective.
Compared to some other options on this list, Unbounce is a particularly robust platform with tons of customization and integrations – and the price point reflects that.
As a premium offering with a steeper learning curve, it might not be the best for beginners – but its AI-powered features and conversion-focused tools make it a formidable tool for achieving your goals.
Pros:
- Advanced A/B testing and AI-driven optimization.
- Large selection of responsive templates.
- Integrated features for enhancing lead capture.
Cons:
- Higher price point than some other builders, which might not work for those with limited budgets.
- Complex setup and steeper learning curve for new users.
- Some customization limitations.
Pricing
- The Build plan starts at $74/month and covers unlimited conversions, one root domain, and up to 20,000 monthly unique visitors.
- Other paid plans range from $112/month up to $649/month.
4. Leadpages
Screenshot from Leadpages.com, April 2024- Best for: Small businesses and entrepreneurs looking to generate sales.
Need a landing page that will help you generate sales? Consider taking a look at Leadpages.
Its strength lies in its user-friendly, drag-and-drop editor and an extensive collection of templates that streamline the page-building process. Plus, according to the Leadpages website, it’s a platform that converts five times better than the industry average.
Leadages offers CRO tools, real-time analytics, and A/B testing capabilities, enabling users to enhance their page performance effectively.
Its various widgets allow you to add videos, images, forms, and even payment integrations directly onto your landing pages, making it a versatile tool for businesses that want to combine content with sales functionality.
On top of all this, Leadpages now includes an AI Engine for creating headlines and images and an AI writing assistant at some membership tiers, which can help you write better content.
Pros:
- Intuitive no-code editor and easy payment integration.
- Comprehensive A/B testing and real-time analytics.
- Extensive template library with over 250 options.
Cons:
- Higher cost compared to some alternatives.
- Limited ecommerce features and potential mobile responsiveness issues.
- Some users report mobile responsiveness issues.
Pricing:
- The standard plan starts at $37/month for one custom domain, unlimited traffic and leads, and 10,000 monthly AI Engine credits.
- More advanced features are available in higher-tier plans, which start at $74/month.
5. Landingi
Screenshot from Landingi.com, April 2024- Best for: Businesses seeking a versatile landing page solution with a wide range of features.
If you’re in the market for versatility, Landingi is worth investigating.
Landingi offers a flexible, comprehensive landing page builder with a robust set of features, including an advanced editor, popups, A/B testing, and a substantial library of 300+ templates.
Its unique Smart Sections feature allows you to reuse and easily update specific page elements across multiple designs, saving time and headaches.
Designed to serve businesses of all sizes, Landingi’s simple, drag-and-drop builder can help you create and optimize various types of landing pages – and if you have any HTML and CSS knowledge, it can be a pretty impressive editor.
Landingi is a particularly strong choice for small businesses looking to target different customer segments with unique landing pages. The integration capabilities with numerous apps, including payment gateways like Stripe, make it a great choice for companies looking to sell products.
While its rich feature set can be overwhelming for newcomers, and creating pages might take a bit longer compared to other platforms, the level of customization and control it offers makes Landingi one of the best landing page builders out there.
Pros:
- Extensive template library with 300+ customizable options.
- Powerful editing capabilities with Smart Sections for efficient design.
- Broad integration with various apps, including payment systems.
Cons:
- Steeper learning curve for beginners.
- Potentially longer time to create landing pages compared to simpler platforms.
Pricing:
- The Lite plan starts at $35/month and gives you 10 digital assets, unlimited conversions, 5,000 visits per month, and one custom domain.
- Landingi also offers Professional and Unlimited tiers with more advanced features and capabilities.
6. Instapage
Screenshot from Instapage.com, April 2024- Best for: Large businesses, marketing teams, or agencies that require collaboration and advanced optimization features.
If you’re seeking a more high-end landing page platform, Instapage might be the one for you. It offers advanced features tailored for professional marketing teams and agencies with a need to create optimized landing pages at scale.
In addition to a drag-and-drop builder and plenty of high-quality templates, Instapage offers a bevy of features, including advanced cloud-based team collaboration tools, heatmaps for user engagement analysis, robust A/B testing capabilities, AI-generated content creation, and more.
One of its standout features is Instablocks, which allows users to create custom page components that can be easily reused across different projects.
Instapage supports advanced marketing goals with features like AdMap to align ads with page content. Plus, its mobile-friendly design ensures a fast, seamless user experience.
While Instapage offers a premium experience with its comprehensive set of tools and features, its higher price point and complex functionalities may be a barrier for smaller businesses or those new to landing page optimization.
Pros:
- Extensive customization with a library of professional templates.
- Instablocks for efficient design and asset reuse.
- Effective team collaboration features.
Cons:
- Premium pricing will be a barrier for many businesses.
- Steep learning curve for utilizing advanced features.
- Limitations in reporting and visitor tracking for lower-tier plans.
Pricing:
- The Build plan starts at $199/month, with a 14-day free trial.
- Customers will need to upgrade to a customized Convert plan to access some of the more complex features, such as AdMap, heatmaps, and more.
7. Wix
Screenshot from Wix.com, April 2024- Best for: Individuals and small businesses seeking creative control without advanced coding.
Now for something much more accessible: Wix is renowned for its user-friendly platform, which is ideal for creating attractive landing pages with minimal effort.
Like other options on this list, Wix offers an accessible drag-and-drop editor and a range of existing templates to help users craft aesthetically pleasing and functional landing pages.
Wix’s platform has a reputation for being particularly beginner-friendly, with a low learning curve and a free plan to help new users get started without any upfront investment.
For those focused on ecommerce, Wix provides specific features to build landing pages that showcase products and promotions, supported by over 50 payment solutions and tools like heatmaps to enhance user engagement and conversion rates.
While it offers a free starter plan, accessing more advanced functionalities and removing Wix ads requires upgrading to a paid subscription.
Wix’s balance of user-friendly design tools, ecommerce support, and cost-effective pricing makes it a favorable option for those new to web design or businesses needing straightforward, visually appealing landing pages.
Pros:
- User-friendly with an intuitive drag-and-drop interface.
- Free plan available, making it accessible for beginners.
- Ecommerce capabilities with extensive payment integration.
Cons:
- Advanced features and ad-free experience require a paid plan.
- Potential limitations in customization for complex requirements.
- Site speed may decrease with more intricate designs.
Pricing:
- A free plan is available, but it includes Wix branding and lacks more advanced features like payments.
- Paid plans start at $17/month, offering additional features.
8. Elementor
Screenshot from Elementor.com, April 2024- Best for: WordPress users looking for a powerful and intuitive landing page builder.
If you’re a WordPress user, you’ll want to know about Elementor.
It’s a WordPress page builder that has gained popularity for its flexibility, comprehensive customization capabilities, and user-friendly interface.
Elementor allows users to design dynamic and detailed landing pages within WordPress. This feature makes it the perfect choice for WordPress users who want to extend the functionality of their website with sleek landing pages that maintain a consistent look and feel with their existing content.
Its real-time editing features allow for immediate feedback on design changes without any coding.
It also offers dozens of designer-made templates to choose from. You can add custom forms and popups to your landing page, save page components for reuse, and seamlessly integrate with your customer relationship management (CRM) tools to create a powerful customer experience.
While Elementor offers a ton in terms of design flexibility and integration, it’s important to note that it’s exclusively for WordPress users and can be resource-intensive – so it might impact site performance, especially on more complex websites.
Pros:
- Advanced customization and design flexibility.
- Real-time editing and instant feedback.
- Seamless WordPress integration.
Cons:
- Exclusively for WordPress users.
- Potentially impacts site performance due to resource intensity.
Pricing:
- Free version with limited functionality.
- Paid versions start at $59/year, providing advanced features and support.
9. Taplink
Screenshot from Taplink.at, April 2024- Best for: Social media influencers and businesses looking to direct traffic from social platforms to other content or actions.
This one’s a little different than some of the other examples here, but it deserves highlighting.
Taplink is a specialized micro-landing page builder optimized for social media profiles. It’s perfect for businesses and influencers that want to drive traffic from social media to other content or actions. You just use Taplink to create landing pages and share them on your social profiles.
Taplink stands out for its simplicity and mobile optimization, which is crucial when targeting social media audiences.
The focus on quick, effective page creation allows users to engage with their audience without the complexities of traditional website development.
For those aiming to convert social media interest into tangible outcomes – such as lead generation, sales, or content promotion – Taplink is a winner.
While its feature set is more limited than some of the more comprehensive builders featured here, its affordability and user-friendly design make it a great tool for those looking to maximize their social engagement with minimal effort and investment.
Pros:
- Simple and quick setup.
- Mobile-optimized for social media engagement.
- Cost-effective for targeted campaigns.
Cons:
- Designed primarily for micro-landing pages, limiting the scope.
- Fewer features and customization options than extensive landing page builders.
Pricing:
- Taplink offers a free basic plan, with premium features available on paid plans starting from $3/month. The most expensive tier, the Business tier, is $6/month.
There’s A Landing Page Platform To Help You Convert Visitors
Choosing the right landing page builder for your business can significantly impact your marketing success – but the decision will depend on your specific goals and needs.
As we’ve explored, each tool has unique strengths and caters to different aspects of the landing page creation and optimization process.
Whether you’re looking for advanced design capabilities, a user-friendly interface, or specific functionalities like CRO, there’s a platform that can help you not just streamline your landing page design process, but start converting visitors into loyal customers.
More resources:
Featured Image: Griboedov/Shutterstock
SEO
Google’s Search Engine Market Share Drops As Competitors’ Grows
According to data from GS Statcounter, Google’s search engine market share has fallen to 86.99%, the lowest point since the firm began tracking search engine share in 2009.
The drop represents a more than 4% decrease from the previous month, marking the largest single-month decline on record.
U.S. Market Impact
The decline is most significant in Google’s key market, the United States, where its share of searches across all devices fell by nearly 10%, reaching 77.52%.
Screenshot from: https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share/, May 2024.Concurrently, competitors Microsoft Bing and Yahoo Search have seen gains. Bing reached a 13% market share in the U.S. and 5.8% globally, its highest since launching in 2009.
Yahoo Search’s worldwide share nearly tripled to 3.06%, a level not seen since July 2015.
Screenshot from: https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share/, May 2024.Search Quality Concerns
Many industry experts have recently expressed concerns about the declining quality of Google’s search results.
A portion of the SEO community believes that the search giant’s results have worsened following the latest update.
These concerns have begun to extend to average internet users, who are increasingly voicing complaints about the state of their search results.
Alternative Perspectives
Web analytics platform SimilarWeb provided additional context on X (formerly Twitter), stating that its data for the US for March 2024 suggests Google’s decline may not be as severe as initially reported.
From our data (Search Engine website category, US, March 2024) it doesn’t look like we’re there yet: pic.twitter.com/RBUJp4ZLeb
— Similarweb (@Similarweb) May 1, 2024
SimilarWeb also highlighted Yahoo’s strong performance, categorizing it as a News and Media platform rather than a direct competitor to Google in the Search Engine category.
Don’t underestimate Yahoo. They’re doing great. On our platform they’re categorized as News and Media, and hence not a direct competitor to Google in the Search Engine category. But they rank #10 worldwide, #6 in the US, and #1 in their category. Much higher than Bing and OpenAI. pic.twitter.com/O4yJu5QEK6
— Similarweb (@Similarweb) May 2, 2024
At the same time, Google is slightly declining 👀 pic.twitter.com/9i7paeU1QG
— Similarweb (@Similarweb) May 2, 2024
Why It Matters
The shifting search engine market trends can impact businesses, marketers, and regular users.
Google has been on top for a long time, shaping how we find things online and how users behave.
However, as its market share drops and other search engines gain popularity, publishers may need to rethink their online strategies and optimize for multiple search platforms besides Google.
Users are becoming vocal about Google’s declining search quality over time. As people start trying alternate search engines, the various platforms must prioritize keeping users satisfied if they want to maintain or grow their market position.
It will be interesting to see how they respond to this boost in market share.
What It Means for SEO Pros
As Google’s competitors gain ground, SEO strategies may need to adapt by accounting for how each search engine’s algorithms and ranking factors work.
This could involve diversifying SEO efforts across multiple platforms and staying up-to-date on best practices for each one.
The increased focus on high-quality search results emphasizes the need to create valuable, user-focused content that meets the needs of the target audience.
SEO pros must prioritize informative, engaging, trustworthy content that meets search engine algorithms and user expectations.
Remain flexible, adaptable, and proactive to navigate these shifts. Keeping a pulse on industry trends, user behaviors, and competing search engine strategies will be key for successful SEO campaigns.
Featured Image: Tada Images/Shutterstock
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