Before we get started, let’s just quash any ‘what are landing pages’ queries. A product of Search Engine Marketing (SEM), landing pages are designed to be the entry page for users from organic traffic (SEO) or paid traffic (PPC), as well as any other delicate, specialised form of traffic.
What makes landing pages different from regular pages? Landing pages are created as dedicated, optimised entry points to your website, leading strongly towards a definite goal such as newsletter signup or product checkout. The pages are generally not listed on the sitemap as they aren’t designed for common browsing.
Landing pages are created to lead towards a very definite goal. (Image by Frank Jakobi under CC)
According to Marketo Automated Marketing in a blog post published in December 2007; only 52% of websites with landing pages analyse and test these pages for better Conversion Optimisation. Furthermore, an estimated 44% of Business to Business (B2B) transactions are handled through the company home page rather than a dedicated landing page made exclusively for the service.
Writing Better Landing Page Copy
Unfortunately there is no right or wrong way to write a landing page, but with the perfect mindset you can create pages with more appeal, a sense of persuasion and urgency and increased credibility.
Web users are fickle and have the power to leave your site and track down your top competitor within a few clicks, so important to keep them on your page. Like all Web copy, it is important to make text on a landing page easily scannable. While you’ll want to include as much detail as possible, you’ll also want the user to extract as much of the information as quickly as possible and move on to the next stage of the cycle.
Avoid copy that’s too distracting – this could extend to off topic commentary, misleading, jargon-laden pitches or even excessive formatting.
Persuasion is the number one priority of this page, so strong calls to action should be used wherever possible - from the initial meta description which lures in traffic from the SERPs to the headlines, image captions and so on. Calls to action should be short, snappy and memorable.
Avoid linking out to irrelevant pages in your copy. The necessary contextual link to the next step can be included in the introduction of the page as well as after the call to action in the footer to ensure visibility both above and below the fold.
- Clearly highlight price(s).
- Keep copy short and distilled.
- Be Persuasive, but not pushy.
- Look for opportunities to increase credibility/transparency.
On Page Elements
Thinking of the bigger picture will help to understand the mindset of your market. Consider the page before the user appeared on your landing page as well as the next step towards the ultimate goal - visualising the customer click path rather than merely the page in front of you.
That said; your landing page should be comprehensive and operate as a stand alone portal. Users shouldn’t want or need to navigate anywhere else. The success of your page depends largely on the user experience, so keep as much of the important content above the fold and avoiding distraction by reducing excessive colours or additional images.
Testimonials help to improve credibility, so try to include a good quote on all of your landing pages. By making your contact details or FAQs visible, you can convince even the most lukewarm of fence-sitters to take the next step toward conversion.
If the purpose of your landing page is to gather signups, make sure that you’ve included all the important registration terms and other details on the page to increase transparency.
There is some debate about common page navigational elements and landing pages, but remember that removing navigation is a drastic and noticeable move. At the end of the day, landing pages help to usher the way for your customers. ‘Herding sheep’ will result in a bad user experience and a definite drop off in conversions.
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Muti
Good points and straight to the point.
It's also great to point out that if conversion rates improve from such "small" changes to pages the profit margins for sites almost double. It's become vital to any website this year more than ever.
I have a question though, do you at all find running conversion optimisation tests (MVT) for clients, or rather trying to get clients to approve budget for such tests?
I have a wicked landing page optimisation presentation from Graham Cooke from Google, from the SMX London Expo 2008, drop me an email if you're interested, i'll send it through.
Posted by Brett Pringle on 2009/04/16