A landing page is the first page the web user arrives at using a specific URL, or clicking a link in an email or at another site. They are popular because they are more effective at accomplishing their purpose than standard pages. However, there are certain characteristics that effective landing pages have in common - here are seven of those characteristics.

1. The landing page should have only one objective. The objective can be for the reader to buy a product, sign up for a newsletter or to click on an active link to go to another page. The action can be anything that you want. The key is there is only one thing you are asking the reader to do. There is no confusion for the reader - they either take the action or they don’t.

It’s been revealed by Google spam fighter Matt Cutts that Google has just updated a lot of Webmaster documentation that was previously confusing or out of date.

The updates relate to the following topics:

• Robots.txt documentation
• User feedback
• IP delivery/geolocation/cloaking
• Nofollow documentation
• Better definition of doorway pages
• Quality guidelines update - “Primarily for users”

See Matt’s post for the full explanation and links to the new updates.

I got into search engine optimization back in 1998. It sure has changed a lot since then. Back in the day you could use invisible text, load keywords to the point of overflowing and fill META tags with anything even close to what you had on your page. And you could do well on Google, Yahoo, Alta Vista; all the biggies. Not anymore.

Today SEO is about a 75% / 25% split between links and content, with inbound links being the most important thing. Especially on Google. When all is said and done, you can get to the top of Google in just two simple steps. Seriously. I’ve done it hundreds of times and it’s easier than you’d imagine.

Step 1: Develop Great Content

Writing great SEO content is a snap if you follow this simple 5 step formula…

1.) Write naturally as if speaking with a friend. Record yourself actually speaking to a friend about the topic of your Web page and it will all come together automatically.

1. New Domain? Old Domain?

Do not purchase a brand new domain unless you absolutely have to. Google now has an “aging delay for all domains” check. New domains will be considered unreliable and need to “age” before it gains importance in the google index. If you had to use a brand new domain, expect to see 9-12 month delay before you are able to achieve top 20 position in any keyword. The trick is buy an old or expired domain.

2. Don’t go for the popular keywords.

Do not try to tackle the popular keywords such as “travel” “computer”, instead add a word before or after the keyword such as “travel tips” or “computer news”. Many top 20 positions in less popular keywords is a thousand times better than a top 200 position in a extremely popular keyword.