Edit Landing Pages Like a Pro: Cleanup, Offer, Country, and Language Checklist

Hello everyone, today I’ll tell you about how I clean and edit files downloaded from affiliate network or from (pre)landing pages. You won’t find anything supernatural here, just a simple pragmatic approach. You can give this article as a guide to action for young techies/layout designers with whom you are going to work. If, suddenly, you find that I have not described here some point that you regularly encounter, welcome to comments. Let’s start, I guess!

I won’t describe for the hundredth time how to pump out landing pages, I’ll just list the tools:

Plugins WebScrapBook or Save All Resources — the first differs from the second only in that it cannot download the folder structure and shoves all files into one, which can lead to a non-working site if any scripts are used, like Drewlex
wget is a universal fighter, but you will need to learn how to insert into itproxythe desired geo and, sometimes, the referrer
Services for downloading, for example CopySite from XDan — the most convenient option for the average user, but often paid

So, you’ve downloaded landing page, what’s next? Create a backup of landing page (in case we mess something up), and open the index file in any text editor with syntax highlighting: I use NeoVim, you can use Notepad++ or even Visual Studio Code.

Yes, if you are editing landing page which has an index file with a .php extension rather than .html, I strongly recommend cleaning out all the php code and renaming the file. In my opinion, PHP in landing pages from affiliate network is an overkill that is needed only for affiliate network itself, and practically does not bring any benefits to an ordinary arbitrageur.Don’t understand what and how to clean?Easy, just drop PHP-landing page onhostingand pump it out for yourself again!

Cosmetics

Let’s start by clearing the tag<html>, the same WebScrapBook, for example, leaves there the full address of the source site from where you pulled the landing page, and this, IMHO, is unnecessary.

Remove all attributes and leave`<html>`pristine

If the landing page uses Arabic or any other language in which letters are written from right to left, then you need to add the attribute to the html tagdir="rtl".

Checking what’s in the section<head>There is a meta tag with utf-8 encoding. Without it, it happens that the site is displayed in incorrect encoding:

If inside a tag<head>there is a tag<base>then remove it so it doesn’t get in the way?

Cleaning up scripts

Scripts on landing pages are most often found in three places: inside the tag<head>, immediately after the tag<body>and at the very end before closing</body>. We search for them by word<script>and look through everything.

Typically, only a few scripts are used on landing pages:

JQuery
Display dates: date of article, comments, special offers and promotions (dtime.min.js, etc.)
Countdown timer (jquery.countdown.js and analogues) for time or number of packages
masks for phone numbers (inputmask, intltelnum)
a script that attaches a landing page to the form to all links

In addition to this there are:

scripts for roulette, boxes, doors (well-known drewlex.js, For example)
scripts for fake forms comments
scripts for conducting quizzes
scripts for displaying a carousel of pictures
scripts for pop-ups, callbackers, comebackers, shopping carts and other whistles

Everything else that you will come across that can most likely be cleaned out painlessly is:

scripts affiliate network (for example shakesland.js)
pre-monetization scripts
lead stealers
JQuery plugins
Facebook pixel code, Google Tag Manager and Yandex.Metrica

Accordingly, for standard and regularly encountered scripts, you should ALWAYS have links to their CDN or the scripts themselves at hand. The fact is that affiliate marketers don’t really like it when their landing pages is pumped out of everything, and they have learned to stuff lead stealers, pre-monetization, etc. inside the same JQuery.

Therefore, we make sure to replace JQuery with the version from the CDN:

<script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.6.0.min.js"></script>

Usually the latest version is enough and everything will work, even if some other one is registered on the landing page. Plus, just in case, check that JQuery on the landing page is not included in several <script> tags, this happens all the time.

We do the same for all scripts that are in separate files: we either replace them with proven versions or quickly look through them to ensure that, apart from their immediate function, they do not perform anything suspicious.This is suspicious: redirects, accessing any third-party resources, intercepting onclicks from links, creating ifames, working with form fields, the body of the script is encoded in base64 (easy to recognize by the presence of two equal signs at the end of the line ==), minified or obfuscated code (although in general almost all libraries use minification). Yes, you need to know Javascript, but what do you want??‍♂️ Therefore, if you are not strong in it —just replace the files with verified versions! But it is obvious that if the file is calledindex.js, main.js, script.jsetc., then you are unlikely to have some kind of “standard” version to replace it; you will still have to look at the code.

Let us first comment out all the scripts that seem unnecessary to you:

then we check the functionality of the site:

all links should scroll us to the form
all game mechanics should work in the form, if they were there initially
if blur was applied to the images, it should be removed when clicked
working countdown timer
correct dates of the article itself on the landing page and in the comments
all sorts of callbackers/comebackers, if there were any and if you need them

If after checking everything is ok, then feel free to delete the commented scripts.

Can I tell you a little more about a particular type of script?

Cutting out pre-monetization scripts

Affiliates often use “backfix” in their landing pages: that is, replacing the action that occurs when you click on the “Back” button in the browser. Instead of “Back”, another landing page or showcase opens. Here is an example of custom pre-monetization:

Domonetka can be easily detected by eventonpopstate— we just look for this word in all the downloaded html files and scripts, and if we find it, then in 99% of cases it’s her? We can safely delete the entire block shown in the screenshot.

Also, as an option, if you are too lazy to search through files, but want to check, open the landing page in your browser from your local machine. Furtherclick anywhere on the landing page (a necessary condition for domonet scripts on the desktop to be able to work with browser history), and click “Back”. Nothing happened? Congratulations, most likely there is no pre-monetization in the landing page. Why most likely? Because in the domonnet script, for example, there may be a check for localhost. Therefore, it is better to check by searching, or check the “Back” button alreadyafter you have uploaded the processed landing tohostingor intracker.

In addition to custom backfixes, there are backfixes from various services and affiliate network. They can be detected by the following pieces of code:

Also some useancient script by Brooky BryanTo determine whether the “Back” button has been pressed, you can detect its presence by searching for the line “bajb» for all downloaded landing files.

Working with the application form

I’ll say right away that if each of your landing pages has a separate lead submission file, then this, in my opinion, is bullshit.Here’s a video where I talk about how to organize work with sending leads. The point is that there should be one submission file per offer, it should be in a separate folder, and we would only have to register it in the action attribute of the form. For example:../common/orders/ph/enerflex.php

Be sure to check that the form tag has a submit method specifiedmethod="post". Some affiliate network sin by sending leads via Javascript and not specifying the method. Don’t do that!

Next, look at all the form fields and delete those that havetype="hidden". Deleted? Gut. Time to insert all the subs YOU need into the same hidden fields. I always have the same set:

<input type='hidden' name='sub1' value='{subid}'/> <input type='hidden' name='sub2' value='{landing_id}'/> <input type='hidden' name='sub3' value='{sub_id_3}' /> <input type='hidden' name='px' value='{px}'/>
<input type='hidden' name='country' value='{country_code}'/>

You may have other names and values, but I recommend that you organize your work so that the set of fields is always the same. Then its insertion can be organized simply by using a hotkey.

I also often delete in the form<select>, where you can select the country. Why the hell is he needed at all?

If you can’t find the form in the landing text, this means that the form is generated by Javascript, most likely using the Drewlex script.Read about it on my websiteand quickly figure out how to edit its settings.

Processing the name, phone and submit button fields

If you are transferring a landing page from one geo to another, then check that the Name field in the placeholder attribute (if it exists, of course) a suitable example is writtenlocalname. Or, if you translated the landing page into another language, and the placeholder says “Enter your name,” check that the placeholder was translated correctly, often it is not.

With a phone it’s a little more complicated: here we also check the placeholder, if it contains an example of a phone, then it shouldfit local format. If a mask script is used, then it is also necessary to check the number format. Also, the field with the phone number should havetype="tel", not"text", wrote about this several times.

Add Autocomplete for name and phone number to suit your taste?

If used as a button<button>check what she has settype="submit", if instead of it<input>, then there is this one"submit"already worth it. When transferring to another geo and language, be sure to check whether the text on the button has been translated!

Replacing offer

Replacing offer with landing pagee consists of several steps: replacing images, prices, names and form factors. Let’s look at them one by one.

Pictures

Everything here is more or less simple: we take the picture with the can from affiliate network and replace the one on the landing page. You can usually find places where an image is used by searching the html text for something likeprod.pngorproduct.pngornameoffer.png. If nothing is found, you will have to open the landing page in the browser and search with your eyes, after which you open the image in a new tab and look at its name.

The situation becomes more complicated if (in addition to the main picture with the jar) photo with offer is also present in the comments. Usually they put a photo there with a product in their hands, etc. To replace you will have to either find the same photos for your offer (request affiliate network managers), or stupidly delete these very pictures.

If a jar with goods (or name offer) is photoshopped into other photos on the landing page, then you either edit them yourself and replace one can with another, or give this task to professional designers. I recommend the second way.

Price

Usually, finding a block with product prices is not difficult: just search for the word in the text of the landing pageprice:

Changing the price and currency: will you need the skill of multiplying by two to write down the “old” price?

Name offer

We do it stupidly by replacing the text, but I recommend doing it not at once, but one at a time, so as not to inadvertently replace any names of pictures/scripts.

Form factor

If you change ointment to tablets or drops to powder, then you will have to use Google Translate. We translate the entire landing page into Russian and proofread everything. You need to find those pieces of text that do not make sense. The tablets cannot be “rubbed into the knee 2 times a day,” and the powder cannot be dripped into a glass. You will have to correct all this, best of all, of course, using a professional translator. But if you are lazy, then Deepl/Google Translate is at your service, which does not change the fact that you will have to come up with a new piece of text.

Translation into another language

If you or your team are serious about driving traffic to a new geo, and you have landing pages in other languages, then it would be best to use the services of professionals or send the landing page to affiliate network for translation. But until the translation is ready, youyou can use my automatic translation software, it’s quite good!?

After translation, first check all the names: the names of the characters in the story, the names of the commentators. All of them must be from the new geo. Search Google for lists like: “top 100 male names in Bangladesh«and replace.

Next, see all geographical names: city, country, ethno-name (Spaniards, Portuguese, etc.). We edit everything for the new geo.

If affiliate network allows, then we are looking for real local characters: stars, doctors, politicians, etc. and replace the photos of those that were there with new ones.

All that remains is to change the price of the product and the local currency and you’re good to go!

Checking functionality

So at the end of your editing job you should check:

layout: it didn’t work, the site is displayed correctly in both desktop and mobile versions
links do not open in a new or current window, they all scroll to the application form
all game mechanics and additional scripts work
the form contains the correct prices and there is a bank of goods
there are no “double” dates, i.e. the dates for the article itself and for comments are written once. If you see that there are two dates, then you downloaded the site incorrectly (most likely via «Save As» in the browser), you will have to search the text for the current year and delete the unnecessary
Next, all that remains is to send a test lead and check that it has fallen into Rejected

Conclusion

As you may have noticed, when editing landing pages, quite a lot of tasks have to be done manually: changing scripts, names, etc. Think about what can be automated from this: personally, for me, up to 30-50% of landing processing tasks are done by a telegram bot. He has already reached the point where he even uses computer vision and checks to see if the old offer name is in the pictures + can change them automatically. Perhaps someday I will share a similar solution in the public, and I wish you to be a plus and clean out your landing pagesproperly!