Handy Tips for Building a Powerful Landing Page

What is a landing page and why is it important?  A landing page is your clear call to action on your website.  It is a common misconception that a landing page is your web site home page. In fact, it is not.  A landing page can be any page on your web site that prompts a visitor to take a certain action.  In marketing, the term is referred as “A Call to Action. 

So why is this important?  For the majority of people who land on your website, they will be skimming for what you have to offer.  Your landing page should be designed to specifically convert a visitor to purchase your products or use your services.  It is important to explain why this will benefit them.

There are a few tips to a successful landing page:

Have a clear objective – A landing page must have a clear objective. It will need to identify exactly what the page is designed to do such as fill out a contact form, download an e-book, make a purchase or any other specific action.

Keep it simple – A good rule of thumb is to keep the landing page simple. Do not distract the visitor with irreverent information such as links, extraneous text, navigational elements and images that is not related to your call to action.

Be consistent – Make sure the ad text used matches the landing page headline. If this is altered slightly, it will result in confusion and cause uncertainly for the visitor that will most likely hit the back button instead of a conversion.

Highlight important points – A visitor will search for keywords and phrases that are important to them and relevant to their needs so use this early in the landing page.  Use the keywords and phrases in the content at the beginning of a sentence.

Have a clear call to action – This needs to be obvious to a visitor or the entire message of the page has been lost. Whether it is a graphic element or large linked text, make sure that the user can find this easily. If the content is short place the “call to action” on top of the page. The “call to action” can be placed on the bottom as well.  If the content is longer, have an additional “call to action” to make sure that the users notice them.

A successful landing page is often the determining factor whether to push users towards that one objective and that is to convert them.