By: Arthur Cooper
Submitted: 2010-10-31 18:50:45 | Word Count: 664
If you want to be able to analyze the efficacy of your own landing page, consider for a moment the last five websites you visited, focusing specifically on their landing pages. (the first page you ‘landed’ on after clicking an advertisement or banner). Did you stay and ‘click through,’ exploring the website further, or did you close out of the site after just seconds? What ‘worked’ for the site? Now, consider your own landing pages. Take a moment to review analytical numbers for your site, focusing specifically on what visitors did once they landed. How long did they stay? Was that time frame enough to perform a specific action? How do they actually navigate through the site itself? Which links did they click?
Understanding and recognizing the best landing pages, as well as the tools, techniques and ideas that make them work, is central to developing your own landing pages to their fullest potential.
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In their most basic form, landing pages are the first opportunity a business has to build credibility, establish authority and offer visitors your unique opportunity. For this reason, landing pages must be both highly relevant and unique. For example, if a user is searching for “prada handbags”, the landing pages should utilize headers with the words “Prada Handbags” prominently displayed, and the images and content used throughout the page should support this message. A poorly designed landing page is often the root cause of lost conversions. Utilize landing page design techniques to ensure that visitors to your site don’t fall prey to the ten-second rule: if the page doesn’t generate excitement, most users leave within ten seconds.
The best landing pages also focus on functionality. A landing page that is unclear or makes it difficult to find the information or product a visitor is interested in is a landing page that doesn’t work. By carefully designing a landing page that includes adequate white space, pertinent images and/or graphics, and a clearly stated call to action, it is possible to both increase conversion rates while decreasing bounce rates.
Design elements in general should be aimed at keeping the visitors’ focus on the target product or service. By carefully selecting engaging images, videos, content and other design elements, every part of the landing page can offer you another chance to complete the sale, get users’ contact information or even simply provide additional information to them.
There are several other areas to review when designing your landing page. These include:
1. Presentation of pricing information
2. Page format
3. Navigation options
4. Use of buttons and their placement.
As a final step, it is important to test each element of your landing page. Utilize the split test in which several versions of the landing page are run concurrently and reviewed for effectiveness.
It is advisable to work with a qualified consultant or designer who is familiar with optimization and design principles to ensure that the best possible landing page is being utilized for your business needs.
We can help you optimize your landing pages and increase your conversion rates. Contact us today for a free initial consultation.
