8 Landing Page Best Practices

So, you’ve made the leap and opened up a website to help sell your product. But, you want to make sure your customers have something to see when they land at your shiny new site. Well, this is where landing pages come in. Think of them as the complimentary bottles of water that you get when you check in to a hotel. They make you feel welcomed and mainly are there to help encourage you to possibly raid the mini-fridge later. However, a bad landing page can have customers go off your site faster than you can say bounce rate. Well, that’s what we’re here for, to help you make sure that when potential customers come to your site, they don’t want to leave. Here’s our list of the top 10 best practices you should use when building your landing pages.

Tip #1 – Why Do I Need A Landing Page In The First Place?

Good Question! Let’s break this down a bit before we answer it. First off, what is a landing page? Well, a landing page is a standalone page that’s tangentially attached to your website. They’re also designed for someone who’s on your site to complete an action, whether this is signing up for a mailing list, purchase something, it can also simply be used as a gate to gather information before the visitor gets to the main part of your site. Mainly, this page is used for someone to complete an action and leave the page. So if you’re looking to build a mailing list to help gain repeat customers, and let’s be honest here, who isn’t? Then that is why you need a landing page or several for your site.

Tip # 2 – Make Sure Your Landing Page Can Adapt

No, I’m not talking about making your landing page into some kind of AI bent on…hold on I’ve seen this movie before. Anyway, adaptive content means that the landing page works on multiple streams. I.e. Can work across social media platforms, slideshares, email blasts, can be syndicated, you get where I’m going with this? However, don’t try to make it work with every single channel out there, all you’ll end up with is a headache. Make the landing page work across a few channels where you know that these channels are where you want to get traffic from.

Tip #3 – Make Sure The Landing Page Is Responsive

Alrighty guys and gals, it’s 2015, mobile is not going away, it’s just getting bigger. Mobile made up 55% of all search in 2014, so you can imagine what it is now. Plus, portents are pointing towards Google giving extra goodies (read: ranking factor) for sites that are mobile friendly. So what do you have to make sure that you have to do? That’s right! Make sure the landing page is responsive and can work across all devices; mobile, tablet, and desktop because you will get traffic across all 3, so make sure you can handle all 3.

Tip # 4 – Pay Attention To Your Competitors

The best way to do research to see what works for landing pages and what doesn’t, is looking at what your competitors are doing. Got a competitor that’s taking your lunch money? Mosey on over to their site and look to see what’s good about it. Watch for trends, and read articles (like this one!) to find what’s big, what’s good, and what you should move past/get rid of if you have it. This leads us to our next point…

Tip #5 – A/B Test Like There Is No Tomorrow!

Split test, split test, split test…did I say split test? Split testing is a great tool as it lets you dissect what your customer base responds to by finding out what they like and dislike about the landing page. Not only will you gain insight into your customers’ behavior, you’ll also help to increase your conversion rate, by implementing these incremental changes.

Tip #6 – Seduce Your Prospects With Your Copy

Alright, so we’re going to switch gears here and talk more about design than concept. One of the biggest things when dealing with landing pages is you have a very short window to convince someone to stay. According to Hubspot, 55% of visitors spend less than 15 seconds on a page before leaving. So you have to make sure your content is short, concise, and to the point whatever it is you’re saying. If you can’t read it in 15 seconds it’s too long.

Tip #7 – Make That Call To Action Big And Beautiful

When building your landing page, having your customers performing an action is the reason why you built it in the first place. So you’re going to want to make sure that the CTA that you build for the page is big and in a prominent position above the fold. Additionally, you’re going to want to make sure that you use your copy to entice your visitors so that they fill out the form. Finally, only ask for information you need, additional information might turn off your visitor and they’ll leave.

Tip # 8 – Landing Pages Are Not The End Of The Rainbow…Thank You Pages Are

So you’ve designed the landing page, your potential customer has filled out the form for more info, now what? Getting a user to fill out your form is not where the process ends. You’re going to want to direct them to a thank you page for a few reasons. Firstly, it allows you to engage with the customer further. By directing them to a landing page, you can direct them from there to check out your blog, the rest of your site, or interact with you on social media. Additionally, a thank you page allows you to explain what happens next, and when your prospect will get their info/white paper/free stuff.

Well, there you have it folks, by using these best practices, you’ll have a high-converting landing page in no time! Need help? Or looking for something more than just a landing page? Swing by mountainmedia.com or give us a call at 1-877-583-0300.

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