Do landing pages help SEO? The question usually comes from a team with a page that converts well on paid traffic and wants it to earn organic visits too. The answer depends on what the page is. A landing page is any page built to get a visitor to take one action. Whether it can rank depends on whether it also answers the query someone typed.
The framework here follows Semrush’s guide to SEO landing pages by Ravi Pandya, which sets out seven practices. Semrush sells SEO software, so read it as a vendor’s checklist, but the practices themselves are standard.
Do landing pages help SEO, or just convert?
The tension is structural. Conversion-focused pages are often thin by design: a headline, a few benefits, a form, and nothing else to distract. That works for a visitor who already clicked an ad and knows what they want. It gives a search engine very little to judge the page on, and it gives a searcher comparing options very little reason to choose it over a fuller result.
So there are really two kinds of landing page. One is built for paid or email traffic, where the source already did the persuading. The other is built to rank for a commercial query and then convert. The second needs more content, more context and a proper place in the site’s structure. Trying to make one page do both jobs usually means it does neither well.
Semrush’s seven practices for landing page SEO
Semrush’s list covers the full process, from choosing the query to earning links. The table summarises it and adds where each one tends to go wrong.
| Practice | What Semrush recommends | Where it goes wrong |
|---|---|---|
| Keyword research | Target transactional and long-tail keywords | Chasing a broad head term the page cannot satisfy |
| Search-intent alignment | Work out what the page needs to discuss and what it should look like | A sales page for a query that wants a comparison |
| On-page elements | Titles, descriptions, headings, alt text, internal links, URLs | The page is orphaned, with no internal links in |
| High-quality content | Benefits, reviews and substance beyond the pitch | One hero line and a form |
| Mobile-friendliness | Make the page work well on mobile | Forms and pop-ups that block the content on a phone |
| Page performance | Meet Core Web Vitals | Heavy scripts and video loaded above the fold |
| Backlinks | Earn links to the page | Commercial pages rarely attract links on their own |
Match the query before you design the page
Of the seven, intent does the most work. Semrush’s advice is to “put yourself in the user’s shoes. And ask yourself what the page needs to discuss and what it should look like.” Look at what already ranks for your target phrase. If the results are product and service pages, a landing page has a chance. If they are guides and comparisons, a sales page will struggle however well it is optimised. Our guide to search intent covers how to read a results page for this.
Transactional and long-tail queries suit landing pages best, because the searcher is already close to a decision. A phrase such as “accounting software for freelancers” or “emergency boiler repair in Leeds” describes someone ready to act. That is the territory our post on bottom-of-funnel content covers in more depth.
Give the page enough to rank on
A landing page that ranks usually carries more than its paid-traffic cousin. That means the benefits written out in full, answers to the objections a buyer actually raises, reviews or testimonials, pricing context where you can give it, and a short FAQ. None of this has to bury the call to action. Put the form high, then let the content below it serve the visitor who is still comparing.
Reviews deserve a specific mention because Semrush lists them alongside benefits. They add the kind of detail a seller cannot write about itself: how the product held up, what the service was like, what surprised the buyer. Use real reviews only, attributed where customers have agreed, and keep them current.
The on-page basics apply as usual: a descriptive title and meta description, a clear H1, real headings, alt text on images and a readable URL. The step most landing pages miss is internal linking. Pages built in a separate landing-page tool often sit outside the main navigation with no links pointing in. Link to them from relevant guides and category pages, or from a hub such as one of our pillar pages, so they inherit some of the site’s authority.
Mobile, speed and links
The last three practices are less about the landing page as a format and more about any page that wants to rank. It has to work on a phone, which for landing pages mostly means forms that are easy to fill in and no overlays that hide the content. It has to load quickly and meet Core Web Vitals (our page speed and SEO guide covers the detail), which is harder than it sounds when marketing tools add tracking scripts and video.
Links are the hardest. People rarely link to a sales page unprompted. The usual route is indirect: publish useful content that does earn links, then pass that value on through internal links to the commercial page. A guide that answers the informational version of the query, linking to the landing page at the point where the reader is ready to act, does both jobs: it earns the links and it hands the reader over at the right moment. That pairing is usually more effective than trying to build links to the sales page directly.
When to keep a landing page out of the index
Not every landing page should rank. Variants built for paid campaigns, with near identical copy and a different headline for each ad group, add nothing to search and can compete with your main page for the same queries. Those can be noindexed, so search engines leave them out while the paid traffic still reaches them. Keep one strong, indexable page per commercial query and point organic effort at that.
Here is the limitation. Semrush’s seven practices are a vendor’s checklist, not a ranking study, and following all of them does not guarantee a landing page will outrank the guides and comparison pages that often hold commercial queries. Some queries simply reward a different format. The checklist tells you how to give a landing page a fair chance, not whether the query wants one.
The practical order: check the results page for intent, decide whether the page is for search or for paid traffic, then build accordingly. More guides like this sit in our strategy archive.
Frequently asked questions
Do landing pages need SEO?
Only if you want them to rank. Pages built purely for paid or email traffic can skip it, and campaign variants are often better noindexed.
Can a landing page rank on Google?
Yes, when the query has commercial or transactional intent and the page carries enough content, internal links and performance to compete.
Why don’t my landing pages rank?
The usual causes are thin content, a mismatch with search intent, and no internal links pointing to the page.
What keywords suit a landing page?
Transactional and long-tail phrases, where the searcher is already close to a decision.
The takeaway A landing page can rank if the query wants a landing page and the page gives it enough to work with. Decide each page’s job, build the search version properly, and keep paid-only variants out of the index.
