Why do their pages perform so well? The 3 points Zac laid out are certainly present–distinct product-specific landing pages, a clear CTA, and repetitions of the search term throughout the page. The clear layout and customer reviews that Matt and Dee mentioned are also definitely part of it, not to mention the massive amount of information.

This bucks the trend of what most search marketers will tell you–that anything below the fold will be ignored. It's more important to address customers' potential objections with adequate information that allows them to make an informed decision. Gone are the days of impulse buys–people want to be over-informed these days if anything.

Excellent point. I was very surprised to read about Amazon in terms of "best landing pages" on the web. Their conversion rates is one thing, but it certainly has nothing to do with their optimization or landing page tricks. Their layout is clear, their prices low, they offer vast range of products, online orders, are international and reliable: all those points together make them the best in their field. I am sorry, but Amazon is not a suitable case study at all for this post. Unless it is expected of us to build an e-commerce or e-store with multiple products. The Amazon reference is so off the mark here that I now wonder about the validity/reliability of the other posts written on this blog…

Their conversion rates on those pages must be pretty low though. The focus of the pages for me is the customer reviews rather than the buying process. Add to that the fact that there is practically zero sales copy.

Amazon does well because of the great distribution, low prices, and the huge traffic they get.