Crash Course to Effective Landing Pages

Build Effective Landing Pages to Boost Conversions

Great landing pages are effective tools for guiding and informing visitors. The faster your visitors find what they are looking for, the better your odds are of converting them into customers.

Learning how to build an effective landing page is easy to learn, though it does require a different set of criteria and guidelines than what is used to create a general website. This beginner’s guide is designed to walk you through the process.

What Do You Want Your Landing Pages to Accomplish?

As with any project, creating landing pages that turn visitors into customers starts with identifying which specific goals you want each page to accomplish. The goals you set for your pages will serve as easy-to-follow blueprints for crafting pages that work to help you meet your business goals.

Each page should have a set of parameters to compare the results against. These parameters will serve as a yardstick by which you can measure your page's success. For example, you might decide that you want to see your page have X number of conversions within a certain period of time (i.e. 30 conversions in the next 15 days.) The original goals you set for your page will influence these parameters.

Call Your Visitors to Action

Landing page optimization heavily depends on goal specifics and keeping each goal simple. Each page should direct a visitor to perform a simple action, such as providing his/her name, email address, etc. This call to action serves to further engage your audience with your website and keeps them focused.

Keep It Clean & Focused

Your page copy should guide your visitors to achieve a specific goal you have set. Keep your page free of anything that could distract them from the page's call to action. If the goal of the page is to get visitors to sign up for your email list, then that should be the page's focus. It should be written in a way that makes them want to sign up for your mailing list, not leave the page.

Every piece of vocabulary on that page should support your call to action. Internet users tend to have short attention spans-- they want to find what they are looking for and where to go next as efficiently as possible. This is where a clean, clear page copy works to your advantage.

Just the Basics, Please

Visitors shy away from forms that ask for too much information from them. The best way to engage these types of visitors is to only ask for their most basic information. For example, sometimes, a form might only require a name and email address. This will increase your chances of having them sign up.

Optimize Your Landing Pages with These 5 Effective Tips

Other Page Design Elements to Keep in Mind

• Landing pages that convert have design elements that are different from regular web pages.
• Landing pages should not contain traditional site navigation. Only include essential links needed to accomplish the landing page's goal.
• Short pages (no scrolling required) help to guide visitors to where you want them to go.
• Place any call-to-action in the upper portion of the page for the best chance of keeping visitors engaged.
• Long pages (that require scrolling) should list several calls-to-action throughout the page.
• Avoid any design elements that may create visual distractions.
• The use of single-column copy tends to result in higher conversion rates.
• Remember to test your page's design layout until you learn what does and doesn't work for your particular business needs.
• One of the easiest ways to build quality pages is to use an Unbounce landing page template. No HTML coding knowledge is needed. Simply drag and drop your design elements into the template.

Conclusion

Creating great landing pages is an effective way to improve the user's experience, increase meaningful conversions, and ultimately help you reach your business goals.