A document with Google's strategy for capturing Leads is “filtered”

This month of January we saw that an internal and confidential Google document has been leaked about its strategy for getting links, the document compiles the best practices for conquering potential customers.

What can we find inside the leaked Google document?

The document states that a website to get links from potential customers must appear reliable. That means that the website must be attractive, legitimate and not superficial. In addition, it also states that the website needs to offer a “clear value proposition”, which is the same thing, to help you solve what you are looking for.

It's about serving the potential customer, promising to make them attractive and improving their life. If your website quickly convinces the visitor, and they feel happy, they will fill out the forms, as stated in the Google document on lead capture.

Nowadays, the Key to successful Lead Capture is to find the balance by providing enough information to convince users with our value propositions to invest their time filling out our form, and to give us their personal information. The simpler the forms, the better, so users will have no reason to abandon them.

Optimizing the conversion of the acquisition of potential customers

The manual on User Experience (UX) Google for attracting potential customers suggests ten areas to be optimized within the Landing Page and ten in the forms.

Home/Landing Page Optimization

• Transparent Call to Actions (CTA).
• Descriptive CTAs.
• If calls to action are important, include a button at the top of each page.
• Make the benefits clear.
• Don't use full-page interstitials.
• Remove the automatic carousels.
• Use legible font sizes.
• Use social proof.
• Provide answers to questions that users may have before they feel comfortable filling out a form.
• Add urgency.

1. Conversion optimization

Conversion optimization is the creation of a Landing Page that leads the user to perform the action we want them to do. This means doing things like creating calls to action in the foreground, such as: “Click here to buy”. Calls to action should be simple and easy for users to contact us, they should build trust, such as: adding testimonials, seals of trust, the design has to be professional, etc. We can even add elements with a sense of urgency, messages like “time is running out”.

2. Clear and simple messages

People don't like to read. We can see this especially on mobile devices. Therefore, it is important to clearly communicate how our product or service can benefit the user. It's important to answer a potential buyer's questions.

3. Building trust for lead capture

Buying things online still generates a bit of suspicion, although it is getting less and less every day. That's why it's important to add testimonials, trust seals, certificates, etc. to help eliminate user fears.

4. Usability

It's important that the site is easy for users to use. For example, that the size and type of the font are easy to read, that the page has a good design, etc.

Optimizing the form

Here are some tips for users to fill out forms:

• Mark the required fields with an asterisk.
• Use online validation.
• Use autofill.
• Reduce the name of fields (remove optional fields, use the full name instead of first name, last name, etc.)
• Use the right keyboard for each device
• Do not use dropdowns for entries with less than 4 options, instead opt for buttons.
• Use an open-field entry for numeric entries instead of large drop-down entries.
• Use pagination or a progress bar if there are more than two steps in the conversion flows.

Describe the main group's calls to action

Google discourages the use of generic calls for actions such as “Get Started” or “Learn More”. Google says that these calls to action (CTAs) are too generic and don't communicate what the benefit is. Google recommends stating exactly what the user should expect. For example, we can write more specific Call-to-Actions such as “Click here to download the Whitepaper for...”.

Social proof to increase lead capture

Even though it's called social proof, it has nothing to do with social media. It's about social as in society, about friends, colleagues and people we trust.

Google says: “Social psychology studies repeatedly indicate the importance of conscious and unconscious dependence on each other to find clues in almost every decision we make”.

“Increase credibility: Users consider how others perceive the content, services and products they find online. Adding an indication for other people, or even better, family members, can help with decision-making and eliminate uncertainty about the content or product.”

As we've seen, Social Proof is powerful for trust, and even a Nielsen report states that 70% of consumers trust the opinions of online users. The same study confirms that 63% of consumers say they are more likely to buy on a website that shows their reviews.

Mobile Optimization for Lead Capture

In the Google manual for capturing leads, we can see how all the examples they show us have been made with mobile phones. This is a very important detail to keep in mind. Optimizing a website for mobile is more difficult than optimizing it for desktop.

If you want to learn more about lead capture, you can contact us, or you can download the Google manual”UX Playbook for Lead Gen”. The document has 44 pages, several examples and links to more research and articles.