The purpose of a landing page is to draw users in and get conversions. In order to have a successful landing page you may need to test out different styles, and make according after monitoring selected metrics. It can be incredibly frustrating when you’ve worked so hard to drive traffic to your site but see little change in your click-through rate. First you need to set some goals, what do you want your landing page to accomplish? Then test out a variety of different things and see how they preform, if nothing change or things change for the worse, it’s time to re-invent your landing page. Check out these 4 Tips to help you increase conversions:
Remove Unnecessary Details
Get your message across in a simple and concise way. There’s not reason to clutter up your page with unnecessary writing or text. When someone initially lands on your page they want to know what you have to offer, and they don’t want too much information that overwhelms them. The landing page of your site should be designed to get your information across in a simple and concise way that draws people in, and makes them want to click through and discover more.
Check out Skype‘s Landing Page: Skype provides you with basic tools to get where you need to go when you first land on their site. There isn’t too much information, or a menagerie of images. You can find everything you need in one click.
Check out Airbnb‘s Landing Page: If you’re looking for a place to stay Airbnb has you covered. What’s great about this site is that all the tools for finding what you need are in one place. Immediately when you land on the homepage you can either find a place to stay or list your space. Easy, simple, effective.
Check out Lover.ly‘s Landing Page: What I really love about this landing page is that you can immediately search their site for wedding inspiration based on a color or theme. In addition there are a few images on the site to help you get started for planning your special day. Instantly find what you’re looking for without fuss.
When you’re going to design your landing page consider these basic elements:
- What is the message your site wants to convey?
- What is the service you are providing?
- Why does someone need this service?
- How can we best provide this service?
- What information does someone not necessarily need when they land on the page?
- What are people mainly searching for?
Once you’ve answered these questions you can change and alter your landing page to get the message across and direct your users to where they need to be.
Make Your Headlines Stand Out
People are going to click through if they see an article that has an interesting and catchy title. The title or headline is the selling point, it’s what draws a reader in, it’s what makes them want to check out the entire article or page. Your headline should look nice, be big and bold, and really make an impact. Think of it as the first line of a book you’re interested in reading, it’s goal is to capture attention.
Check out Mint‘s Landing Page:
The header for this page is absolutely astounding. Many people are confused with money management and how to spend responsibly. Mint.com’s header provides people with a solution, they tell their potential users that money management is simple and easy. If your site is meant to serve as a solution for a problem, then tell people that right away.
Check Out BuzzFeed‘s Landing Page: What I love about this landing page is that it is filled with catchy titles. Many of these titles include a #, for example 10 ways to be happier, or 28 funny pictures of cats. These titles tell the reader exactly what they are going to see or experience. Headers and titles that feature numbers, top 10 lets, best of, solutions for, and other starters generally have a higher click through rate.
Develop a Strong Call to Action
Encourage people to sign up to stay connected with your site, maybe provide an incentive such as a free trial period. Whatever you do, you want to make it easy for people to connect with you. There should be a sign up or a form on your landing page that allows users to immediately stay in contact with your service or site.
Check out SEOmoz‘s Landing Page: What’s great about this landing page is that SEOmoz is honest and open, they have a sign up button that tells you exactly what you’re signing up for and they even offer an incentive. In addition they make it easy to connect with their social channels by featuring them on their landing page so you have instant access to them everywhere on the web.
Check out Square‘s Landing Page: I love that square has a simple and concise landing page, but what’s also great is that they offer a simple sign up form on their page. In addition to making it easy to sign up, they offer their users an incentive of a free device to further encourage them to sign up.
Check out Pinterest‘s Landing Page: Pinterest has an incredible simple landing page that offers you two options: log in or sign up to use their service. That’s it, you can’t browse check things out, they immediately know they want you to become a member. If you don’t already have an account, and you click “sign up” they make it incredibly easy to become a part of their site by offering multiple sign-up solutions. You can become a user on their site without having to provide an entirely new set of information for your profile, simply connect with Twitter or Facebook.
Showcase Your Success
Give yourself some credit, one of the best ways to make your page stand out is to show all of the awesome companies or websites that utilize your service or have written about you. If someone has said something awesome about your site or service make sure your audience knows about it, because it increases your credibility and shows that you are a reliable source.
Check out Balanced Payment‘s Landing Page: What’s great about this landing page is that Balanced Payment’s shows you the logos of other companies that are utilizing their product. When you see one of these logos, and you think to yourself “oh yea, I know them,” it makes you really want to learn more about their service when they already have other companies utilizing them.
Check out UserTesting‘s Landing Page: What’s great about this landing page is that they show all of the awesome sites that utilize them as a service. It gives them a ton of credibility and makes you think, well if these sites find value in User Testing, so should I.
The Final Word: The changes you make to your landing page may not immediately impact your conversion rates. Give it some time, analyze key metrics that are important to your site, and then change things again if it isn’t working out in your favor. There’s nothing wrong with making changes until something works right.
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I'm a recent graduate of the University of San Francisco with a degree in Biology and a passion for the creative arts. I love building websites, trying new things, and I have a passion for social media.
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