The hottest topic over the last year has been, without a doubt, that of Landing Page Optimization. Consultants are researching it, marketers are investing in it, and new service providers are springing up all over the place claiming to have THE NEXT INSANELY GREAT THING!

Of course, as everyone starts to stake their claim in this new niche, an entirely new lexicon emerges as well with a treasure trove of acronyms, trademarks, patents-pending, and all the other phrases that go with the gold rush.

So, what is it?

Well, I guess the best way to describe it is to frame everything as a "before" and "after" scenario. Let's call the "before" as "The Internet", and let's call the "after" as "Web 2.0". Based on this timeline then, I would suppose that if The Internet was about capturing visitors, then Web 2.0 is about keeping your visitors engaged.

Many companies are investing heavily into technologies and programs that keep visitors engaged. On the front-end - which is all the stuff that a user sees on a website - companies are redesigning their web page layouts so that your experience is as positive as it can be. They are scruitinizing EVERYTHING: the number of words, the font, the font size, the colors, the blend of pictures to words, the number of syllables in words, the size of graphics... and they are testing all this stuff every time you visit their page. On the backend, this is where all the information is collected, and it includes everything from who you are, to how many times you visited, what time, day, date and what kind of software you used to reach the site. Did you click Button A or Button B? Did you click on this link or that. Did you try to click on something that WASN'T a link... and so on.

Whew! Okay. Now... HOW you got to a particular website is ALSO very important. The "doorway" page that brought you in is also known as "The Landing Page" -- the place that creates the first impression. In this space, it is every marketer's goal to minimize the number of unpredicted visits to your site. Some of the tactics that are employed include re-jigging error pages (i.e.: page not found errors), robots.txt files (to tell the search engines which page to visit and which to ignore) and page redirects which causes a visitor to redirect to another part of the site when a page has expired or was erased for whatever reason.

Why is this done?

A real world comparison is moving and having your mail redirected. In the last ten years, how many times did you move? Okay, how much mail do you get today from someone that lived at your current address ten years ago? For many of you, you'll know that you still get mail from people lived at your address LONG ago. Well, websites are no different. The OWNER'S name stays the same, but sometimes the address kinda changes. So when someone tries to visit you, they may be using an address book from five years ago. By address book, I mean a link from someone else's website. Even though the search engines update their directories fairly frequently doesn't mean everyone else does.

So, as we tighten everything up, we also have opportunities to deliver a better experience to the visitor. After all, we know where you are coming from, so why not make your visit a good one.

ENTER PERSONALIZED URLS

PURLS, also known as P-URLS, PERSONALIZED URLS, and in some cases RESPONSE URLS (RURLS), are website addresses that try to alter the context of a visit just enough to make it palitible for you to stay a little bit longer. A real estate agent might create an address like http://www.RealEstateWebsite.com/123_Main/ where 123 Main is the address of your house. Or, a search engine consultant might use the technology to drive targeted traffic to a website using a library of specific keywords and phrases. in its most basic form, it usually consists of a url and a person's name, taking the form of http://www.MyDomain.com/Firstname.Lastname/. The appended signifier tells the software to retrieve everything associated with it, and present it according to a series of defined rules. To this end, we end up creating a piece of software that greets you by name, and has the capability of presenting a host of unique details to you that you have previously indicated as having an interest.

The goal of all this is to tailor your visit just enough to make you want to read more, click more, and ultimately BUY more. When a web marketer can create a page that uniquely identify you, present offers that you want, and NOT create more work for you by having forms already filled in for you... well, I say IT'S ABOUT TIME!!!

That's why we created Dynamic URLS: to quickly and easily empower direct marketers with the ability to create unlimited personalized landing pages, submit the details to a printing company for merging with variable print software, and simultaneously create companion web pages and emails so that a direct marketing campaign has complete 360-degree coverage: print, web, email, and anywhere else you might put a personal url.

Use DynamicURLS to engage your customer a little longer, get their attention, get them to click more into your site, and listen to them! Every click tells a story.

(Wait did someone trademark that last phrase? If not, it's MINE!)

BUY DynamicURLS HERE:
http://www.dynamicurls.com/dynamic-urls-full-version

Download a free trial HERE:
http://www.dynamicurls.com/store/history
(Note: Must be registered on the site first.)

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