Whether you’re trying to collect leads, drive sales, or do something else entirely, landing pages do what your website can’t by honing in on one dedicated conversion goal.
Websites distract your visitors with multiple products, services, and offers. In contrast, landing pages keep your audience focused on a specific campaign (and make ’em much more likely to convert). If we’re talking quick-fire tactics that get results, landing pages are it.
But how can you be sure that your landing page is gonna hit the mark?
Below are the five core elements of a high-converting landing page:
Improve ad performance and increase conversions with these simple items to consider
Ever clicked on the link in an ad to be directed to a website where you have no idea how to find what you the ad was about? Same, my friend, same. If you are anything like me, when I see an ad for a cool new product, I don’t want to have to hunt through a website to find the details I’m looking for. I want the ad to bring me directly to it. Relate?
But why should I build a landing page when I have a stellar site?
I know - you’ve invested in building an incredible website so it seems like a waste to have to create a landing page. Keep in mind, the landing page you use in an ad can be the homepage or an existing page on your site if it truly is the best option for your ad. Maybe you already have an existing page that specifically relates to the campaign and that is a great option to use. And in some cases, the homepage may be the best option if it’s killer with easy UX where users can easily find all those important details.
The homepage of a website should always be relevant and important to your audience. However, sometimes creating a simple landing page with a few essential elements can make everybody happy. Everybody, you say? You read that right. Your digital ad campaigns such as Google Ads and Facebook Ads will receive higher quality scores, users won’t get frustrated by perceived clickbait, and most importantly, your conversions are more likely to go up. In fact, according to HubSpot, landing pages convert at almost 10%! A win-win so why wouldn’t you do it?
Besides the obvious that you want people to find your site with strong SEO, having a specific landing page can connect directly for particular ad campaigns. It can be helpful to have a relevant landing page for specific ad campaigns. For example, if you are running a campaign for a specific region in the South, you can build a separate landing page that speaks directly to fans in South Georgia versus the broad fanbase across the entire continental United States that your website caters to.
Creating a good landing page is where it all starts
Okay so maybe you see the purpose behind landing pages, but now you are wondering how do I create a landing page that performs well? Never fret. We’ve got you covered with these 5 essentials to make an effective and engaging landing page:
Include a clear CTA from the start - From the moment a user lands on the page, the CTA should be clear. In fact, according to HubSpot, personalized CTAs convert 202% more than the average, boring conversion. If you are selling concert tickets, there should be a “Buy Tickets” button above the fold that easily grabs a user’s eye. If you want users to read an important article, be sure to have a good headline that looks clickable. Users don’t want to read through every detail of your life story before they find out the purpose of the page. Within the first few seconds, they’ll give up. Think of the food blogger who writes out every detail of their week before sharing the recipe and you just want to know what you need to buy while at the grocery store - that “Jump to Recipe” button at the top is a huge life saver!
Always have relevant content - When writing the copy of your landing page, it’s always important to ask "does this answer the questions that fans or customers would want to know?” If the answer is no, make a list of those details that your customers will want and add that in the copy. Be sure to include the important keywords from your Google Ads campaign as Google will scrub the page and assign your ad a relevance score based on if those keywords are used on the site. Basically, if those keywords are written in the copy, Google is more likely to match your page and your ad with the people you are looking for! Also, to improve SEO, be sure to write your copy directly on the site or in the hard code instead of uploading a bunch of graphic images with text. I love fun, cute infographics as much as the next girl, but search engines won’t pick up the words in those images so use them more as a fun design addition rather than the main source of your content.
Fast Load Times - This is so often overlooked, but so necessary. Make sure your page is optimized for quick load times. The longer your page takes to load, the more likely people will lose patience and leave, causing your bounce rate to be high. Search engine algorithms factor in load times when ranking your site on Google and other search engines so a slow-loading site is not going to rank as well organically. The easiest way to check this is to clear the cache in your browser and go to the site on your desktop and your mobile device and see how long it takes. If you find yourself staring at a blank screen, it’s too long. There are also many tools that can be used to test your optimization too, including these suggestions from Geekflare. Optimizing your page and site is a whole topic in itself, but one quick tip is to optimize the size of your photos - I’m a big fan of Optimizilla for this.
Visually appealing - No one likes a boring design, right? You want to grab the user’s attention from the moment they land on your page. It’s essential to design something clean and beautiful that fits the vibe of the brand. I’m sure you’ve landed on a page that just made you go “yuck, that’s old” and it looks like it hasn’t been updated since the start of the internet. Don’t be that person. In the modern world of SEO and social media, it can be hard to balance imagery with enough copy to get your site ranked organically, but with the right design, you can balance between the copy and the fun photos and videos without compromising your SEO results.
Easy UX - Always design your page with the user experience in mind. Remember, we don’t want users to hunt for the information they are wanting. If they are purchasing concert tickets, they don’t need to read all the fine print before they see the price or the option to Add to Cart. The page should be clear, sleek, easy-to-read, and should direct the user through the website to what they need. Think: buttons and navigation. Bonus points if your button is a color that contrasts it’s background. You don’t want the user to hunt for where to click “Buy Ticket.”
So there you have it! 5 easy essentials that can turn your okay landing page into something great. That’s not too bad, right? It may seem like a hassle, but the results of your campaign will certainly pay off and you won’t regret the little extra thought you put into your landing page. We’re always here to help so if you have any questions about how to turn around your digital marketing strategies, call us today!
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