Landing Page Optimization Best Practices

Learning the best ways to write, design and test landing pages will help you get more sales. That’s because landing pages are the power tools of your digital marketing strategy, specifically designed for the purpose of converting visitors into leads.

Landing pages encourage website visitors to become customers by asking them to complete a lead form with their contact information in exchange for something of value, like an offer of more information, something free, an event registration or something else.

The neat thing about a landing page, rather than a website homepage or contact page, is its specificity. A landing page eliminates everything that can distract a visitor and captures their complete attention by giving them just one option to choose from. And that option is filling out the lead form to receive something relevant and valuable to them.

How to Optimize a Landing Page

Make sure your landing page will perform well in search.

In addition to driving visitors to your landing page through email blasts, social posts and other marketing methods, make sure your page is optimized with target keywords for your paid campaigns and organic search. When someone searches for your key phrase, they should find your landing page. Similarly, when you target a keyword with paid ads, those words should exist on your landing page.

Make a mobile landing page.

More than half of website traffic comes from mobile devices, so the user experience must be the same no matter what device a person is using. This means making your landing page responsive. Give any visitor every possible opportunity to convert, no matter how they’re viewing your page.

Create a seamless experience.

When people arrive on your landing page, it should be exactly what they expect based on what they’ve learned about it from you. Use content that’s consistent with your ad copy.

Write a headline that focuses on user benefit.

For every 10 people that visit your landing page, at least seven of them will leave the page immediately – if they don’t understand what’s in it for them instantly. The headline must clearly communicate the value of your offer to them.

Including an image is mandatory; using video is even better.

In the good-to-know department: Not only do people prefer to see video from companies, but 88% of video marketers say that video gives them a positive return on investment. The key is to create an effective video that, like an image, illustrates how the person will feel once they receive your offer while not distracting them from following through to the call-to-action in the first place.

Write content that compels action.

The content on the page should guide people to the action you want them to complete. Speak directly to the person and engage them as if you’re only talking to them. Delete needless distractions such as other CTAs or slow page load time. In fact, a single second delay in page load time means seven percent fewer conversions and 11 percent fewer page views.

Place the lead form above the fold of the page.

“Above the fold” means that people don’t have to scroll to get to the form, it’s in view as soon as they navigate to the page. You can even design the form to scroll with the person as they move down the page.

Ask these questions about your offer.

Does my offer solve a pain point for my target audience?

Is there a clear benefit that a lead can gain from this offer?

Can my offer rival the competition?

You’re looking for answers that indicate the offer is outstanding and will compel a person to want it. It also has to be relevant enough for them to give you their personal information in order to get it. That’s all!

“Free” is good, “Exclusive” can be better. “Fear” as in “fear of missing out,” may work best. People don’t like to lose their ability to choose. Once you make it clear that your offer is in high demand, hard to obtain or in short supply, they’re going to clamber to get it.

Make the CTA stand out.

The most important element of a landing page is the call-to-action (CTA). Focus your CTA copy on the benefit to the person who’s visiting and get to the point. Use no more than five words. Encourage people to act now by using action verbs, e.g. Get, Download, Click, etc. and include a visual, like a big button.

No guesswork should be involved in navigating your landing page.

Once someone gets to your page, they should know instantly that they should submit their info by completing your lead form.

Ask your visitors for essential info only.

You may want to gather as much information as possible about your lead but asking only for the information you need will create a low barrier to entry. A name and an email are more than sufficient to nurture a new lead.

Test your landing page.

Test a few of the most impactful elements of your page, like headline copy, the image or video, the CTA, lead form length and fields, and other content on the page. Consider A/B testing or split testing our landing page, which means dividing your traffic to different versions of a page to see which performs better.

Include a thank you page.

A thank you page starting your lead nurturing process. A thank you page thanks to your new lead and delivers the offer that you promised (usually in the form of an instant download). It gives you an opportunity to interest your new lead in additional relevant content such as links to relevant content on your site. It also serves as a chance to connect further with your lead by inviting them to follow you on social media or to subscribe to your blog – anything that help to form a relationship with them.

Track landing page metrics.

It’s difficult to know exactly what will work when you launch a page. Measure and track meticulously in the beginning until you reach a relatively good conversion rate. Track page visits, the traffic sources, submission rate, the number of leads that you generated from your form, bounce rate and form abandonment. Use heat mapping to find out where people scroll, what they read and how they engage with your page. Finally, make a list of industry benchmarks to judge your landing page against to know if it’s performing as expected.

Do you need help optimizing landing pages? Demand Machine is here to help you convert new customers, develop lifelong client relationships and make the most of your ad dollars.

Want to see what we can do for you? We’re ready and waiting. Contact us today!