Landing Pages: Good Quality and Good Conversions
10/04/2012
When considering landing pages for SEO purposes or for use in any other marketing campaign, it is absolutely critical to focus on the clarity and relevancy of the page and its content. On the whole, visitors will spend only a second or two looking at a page to decide how useful and relevant it is for them. If they don’t find what they’re after, or if your site has functional issues, they’ll abandon your site.
Key questions your visitors will be asking themselves in those precious initial seconds need to be answered promptly and satisfactorily.
- Does this website have what I am looking for?
- Is there enough information for me here?
- Is this website/company trustworthy?
- What do I do now?
A good landing page which converts a high number of visitors into customers, whether by filling out a subscription form, picking up the phone or buying a product right away, will follow a certain structure which has been proven to produce consistent results.
Points to Remember
Unique Selling Points (USPs) and Benefits in the Headline
Immediately get your key message across here. If you sell cheese, for example, don’t just say “Cheese for sale” in your headline. Say “Best tasting organic cheese” or “Lowest priced quality cheese” instead.
Short, helpful copy
Keep things clear, relevant and concise. Avoid putting paragraphs of waffling information about your company, its history etc – your visitors aren’t interested in that. Use bullet points to get key information across, but make sure the content is relevant and sensibly keyword rich (though not overly stuffed!) to keep Adwords quality scores high.
Focus on one visitor goal
Don’t clutter pages up with multiple offers and routes for the visitor to take. If you want people to submit an enquiry, that should be the only call to action on the page. Don’t offer a phone number, newsletter subscription, free download and sign up link on the same landing page. For lead generation, for example, have your phone number and a link to the web enquiry form as your call to action – nothing else.
Remove navigational clutter
It is fine to have your normal top or side menu showing but don’t cram the page full of additional links and cross-sells. You want the visitor to focus on the message and get in touch with you or make a purchase, not get distracted by other things and navigate away.
Prominent calls to action
The one action you want your visitors to take needs to be highly obvious. The top left is the best place for these due to the way people’s eyes move across web pages (from the location of the Windows Start button, up and left). Have a big, clear button with a nice call on it – something like call now for a free quote is a good start, everyone likes to see something with the word “free” in it! For enquiry forms, keep them short and sweet so people aren’t baffled by lots of boxes – consider a “request a call back” style form which just has name and phone number on it, but can be a powerful lead generation tool. Always include an enquiry phone number, not just the form!
Maintain Brand
Avoid the temptation to making the landing page different in appearance or theme to your overall website and brand. Keep the same look and feel as the rest of your site to keep up brand awareness and offer reassurance.
Landing Page Components
- A headline which is aimed at your target audience
- Your company logo
- A quick explanation of what you offer above the fold (i.e. the portion of the screen that can be seen by average users without needing to scroll down)
- Longer explanations and SEO copy below the fold (if needed)
- An image of the product on offer, or a small gallery if appropriate
- A simple form with no more than three fields
- Your company phone number
- Customer testimonials - great for quickly building trust
- Legal links to privacy policies etc (normally kept discreetly in the footer)
Things to Avoid
- Lots of extra navigational offers and many cross-selling links
- Irrelevant images or pictures which aren’t related to the offer/product
- Small, hard to read text or long paragraphs of copy
- Any links like “click here to read more” or “click here to subscribe” – if the content won’t all go above the fold, just let people scroll down. Scrolling is better than clicking!
- Lengthy forms with extensive fields like “Company Name” or “Fax Number”
For more assistance in creating effective landing pages which will convert your visitors into customers, give Cornish WebServices a call today on +44 (0) 330 555 4680 to find out more about our website design, PPC management, search engine optimisation and other digital marketing services.
