why different tactics on paid vs. natural search

[Kate]

The more I work on paid and natural search, the more I wonder why the tactics for landing pages seem so different.

On paid search campaigns, my company has found that putting forms on landing pages converts far better than having an informational page without a form. Of course this won't apply to all terms and all companies, but it certainly applies to us and our main moneymakers.

But on natural search, we're optimizing pages without forms for the very same terms. Can someone explain to me why we wouldn't put a form on those pages too? Or on every page of the site for that matter? Aren't these visitors pretty much exactly the same guys?

Is this just me missing something that everyone else has been doing for a long time, or is there some other explanation?

Kate

[Rank and Smile]

Hi Kate!

If I'm not mistaken, I'm confused by your terminology...I don't understand why your company would link paid search to landing pages (aka: "doorway pages," pages made exclusively for search engines) and not simply to the branded website's form page (which you'd want to do in order to track ROI).
In the second part of your post, if you're referring to doorway pages again, then I'm not sure why your company wouldn't put a form up (if it's clear that this is the best way to convert visitors). If, however, you're talking about the branded website, then it's clear why you wouldn't want to do this (you would seriously compromise website integrity!)

[joedolson]

Originally Posted by Rank and Smile

If I'm not mistaken, I'm confused by your terminology...I don't understand why your company would link paid search to landing pages (aka: "doorway pages," pages made exclusively for search engines)

I think you are misunderstanding what Kate is saying - "landing pages" is not synonymous with "doorway pages". Simply stated, a landing page is a page on your site customized to emphasize the unique selling point an advertisement is pushing. For example, if you're using AdWords and have ad text which reads "Buy our Specialty Widgets!", you'll want to direct that ad to a page specifically geared towards selling customized widgets - not just to your general company homepage, or to your standard branded order form. Your landing page needs to be specific and targeted. This is very different from a doorway page - no deception is involved in creating a high quality landing page.

Originally Posted by Kate

But on natural search, we're optimizing pages without forms for the very same terms. Can someone explain to me why we wouldn't put a form on those pages too? Or on every page of the site for that matter? Aren't these visitors pretty much exactly the same guys?

That's an interesting question. The logic does seem to follow - make EVERY page a conversion page. It seems to me that from a conversion perspective, it's nice for a visitor to be able to convert as easily as possible from every single page of your site. And for e-commerce concerns such as Amazon, that's true - you can convert on pretty much ANY page you enter. However, this logic isn't usually applied for service websites or information websites.

But, then it may be a matter of perspective - a conversion form out of context may just not make any sense. Not every page on a site is necessarily suited to that kind of user behaviours - landing pages for PPC ads are specifically geared towards sales. You're advertising something; the visitor presumably wants it; they can buy it right away. Boom. Finished.

Organic search is more flexible - the user may be looking for anything. They may be looking for company information, somebody's name, a phone number - and an order form may just get in the way when they're trying to browse your employee directory.

Realistically, any page which is selling your product should have a link or form to convert the visitor - but that doesn't need to extend to every page of the site.

(Well, that was a rambling post...)