Have you heard of landing pages? You could have a vague idea of what this term means or be completely oblivious to this possibility. It’s true to say that a landing page can impact SEO and help you rank. But it can also help you convert users into customers and ensure that you get a higher level of sales. The latter benefit might be more intriguing to you, depending on current levels of traffic to your site. To win with landing pages, you need to understand what they are, what you can achieve when you use them the right way, and how to design them effectively.

What Exactly Is A Landing Page?

A landing page is a separate webpage that people land on when they click on a link, ad or promotion. They could click on these when on your site or virtually anywhere else online. This is going to depend on your business model. Once a user clicks the ad, they ‘land’ on the new page.

A landing page may also be an entry point to a particular website or a section of the website. Once again, when a user clicks on the link, they end up on the page before accessing the main site.

Is It Just Another Type Of Home Page?

This is the common misconception. A landing page is actually completely different from a homepage. One of the main design differences here is the number of links that a landing page uses. A landing page may only have one link. In contrast, a homepage could have as many as forty links.

A homepage needs a high number of links to ensure easy and more importantly, fast navigation for users. A user should be able to access a homepage and in about three clicks, find the product or service they’re looking for.

A landing page is different because the whole design of the page will be based around promoting a particular product, service or appealing to a subset of users. After browsing the landing page, users should be converted and know exactly what they want. You can then send them specifically to that area of the site with a key CTA (call to action) or button.

Different Types Of Landing Pages

There are two main types of landing pages. One can be used for lead generation. Typically used for B2B marketing, this will include a form, tool, or contact point to collect information from a user. For instance, it might be based around them signing up for a newsletter and thus inputting their email.
Alternatively, there are also click-through landing pages. Often used by ecommerce companies, these tend to just have a basic button as the call to action. Users can click and immediately end up on the page where they can purchase a product or service that they are interested in.

This also points to the two main uses of the landing page. Either, it can be used to build leads or convert. In some cases, a landing page can also boost SEO. For instance, you might use a landing page for region-specific keywords and appeal again to a specific subset of your audience.

Designing The Perfect Landing Page

Before you even get started with the content of your landing page, you need to think about what you want to achieve. Are you looking for conversions, lead generation or SEO. Regardless of your answer, always remember that a landing page should provide users with more value.

Also, the landing page needs to be both clear and to the point. Adding too much information can kill the interest and confuse the user. This is why landing pages are typically quite short at around 250 to 500 words in total. Don’t forget that you only have eight seconds on average to convince your user so cluttering the page isn’t going to help.

Don’t try to be too clever here either. Keep it simple and make sure anyone could understand your message as well as your unique value proposition.

Design

Make sure that you keep the design simple and clear too. You should use a large font to ensure it’s easy to read while also providing plenty of clean, white space. This will guarantee that you don’t need to worry about users getting distracted or sidetracked. You also need to make sure that a landing page loads fast which is another reason to keep the design simple.

The Content

The first step for content of a landing page is writing your heading. This gives you an immediate chance to increase levels of conversions. You should make sure it demonstrates exactly what users are going to find on your landing page and highlights a specific benefit of the product, service or your company.

You’ll also have a subheading. Here, you’re going to explain and offer up the unique value proposition. You can discuss offers here too and guarantee that you are immediately delivering a clear message to users about what is available to them.

You need to make sure that you are adding images that are alluring as well. Use high-quality shots to ensure that the landing page looks professional and captivates the attention of the user. Some landing pages will also use video content to provide a clear marketing message.

The final part of the landing page is going to be the CTA or call to action. This encourages the user to click the link and progress to the next stage, hopefully, to make a purchase. A great CTA will be simple, clear and compelling. Of course, if you have designed your landing page the right way, then the heavy lifting will already have been completed. The CTA is just the final touch. It might help to explore A/B testing here to find out which type of CTA is most effective. It’s also worth noting that the CTA and the heading should correspond. What you promise in one should be reflected by the other and this also helps build trust behind your brand.

You should also make sure that your CTA is at the top and bottom of the page. That way, users won’t have to scroll all the way to click. You can even consider a floating CTA that’s always visible.

Take this advice and you’ll have everything you need to maximize effectiveness with your landing pages.