Best Practices to Create the Perfect Landing Page

There is no exact formula to create the perfect landing page, but there are definitely a few elements that can increase your chances of creating a captivating one.

One of the most important steps in creating the perfect landing page is to know the goal of the landing page. In an ideal world, what should visitors do upon reaching your landing page? Once you define what your goal or conversion will be (complete a form, make a purchase, etc.), you can start creating the landing page. It is essential to make updates and variations of your landing page to test and improve your conversion metrics.

Here Are 8 Best Practices to Follow When Creating a Lead-Converting Landing Page:

1. Short, Sweet & Uncluttered Design

The look, feel and overall structure of your landing page will have a substantial impact on the effectiveness of it. The overall strategy behind the design of a landing page should be to make it as easy as possible for someone to convert.

All elements of the page should work towards the conversion objective, directing those visitors to the right area of the page. If your landing page is too busy or distracting, visitors will likely return to their previous page or leave your website completely. This will create a higher bounce rate on your website and ultimately negatively impact the overall performance of your ad campaign.

2. Clear, Concise & Catchy Headlines

When a visitor goes to your landing page, you have 6-8 seconds to catch their attention and keep them on your website. For perspective, goldfish have a longer attention span (9 seconds).

The landing page headline and subheadings should be straight forward and clear. Tell your visitor exactly why they are there and promote the value of what you are offering. Most effective landing pages confirm the offer with the headline and use the sub-heading for further explanation of the offer or to share the value proposition. In all, the landing page headline and advertisement wording should complement each other to capitalize on conversion opportunities.

3. Trustworthy Testimonials

Trust Signals: Good landing pages make abundant use of trust signals, which can indicate to visitors that their offer and brand are trustworthy. Trust signals can take a number of different forms – testimonials are a classic form of trust signal, capitalizing on word-of-mouth to reassure visitors with endorsements from past clients or customers. Utilize truthful and compelling testimonials to reinforce your brand and message.

4. High Quality Content

It is important to remember why people are visiting your landing page. Keep your forms short and concise with the information relevant to the landing page. You can always collect further information in a qualifying phone call or email after the form has been submitted. Always remember to think like a consumer! From a marketing and lead generation perspective, our instinct is to gather the most information possible, but for a potential lead, this can be a turn off. The more fields you require then they less likely they are to fill out the form.

5. Strong & Eye-Catching Call-to-Action (CTA)

Make sure your CTA is displayed at least once in a visually distinct, centralized, and obvious that it is clickable. Don’t make people guess at what they should click on. If your page lacks a CTA, visitors will likely return to their previous page or their search results. When researching what CTA to use, identify the keywords people might be searching for regarding your service or product. Would it be something “Free” or maybe use “Buy Now” or “Download Now.” Whichever you choose, make it as easy as possible to convert.

6. Use Images & Videos

The human brain processes an image faster than text. A user will be affected by the images on your landing page immediately, so make sure you are leaving a lasting impression. If you want to draw more attention, make it bigger. When making images bigger, make sure it doesn’t affect the speed of your landing page. Remember, the images and videos should be web-quality and relevant to your product or service.

7. Be Sure You’re Mobile Friendly

In this technology era, it is essential that your landing page be easily navigated on mobile devices. Three things when it comes to being mobile-friendly; make it easy to navigate, fast loading and ultra-clickable. Once you create your landing page make sure you test it on a mobile device.

8. Keep It Above The Fold

The space the visitor sees without having to scroll is where the most important parts of the webpage should be. When deciding what to put above the fold, remember all of the best practices we have discussed thus far. Start with a headline, keep it simple and clear, and tell the visitor what to do. You can always visit competitor landing pages to see what you are up against.

Don’t Forget: Always Be Testing

Optimize a landing page for conversion over time. Run multiple test, change copy, images and call-to-actions to see what resonates most with users. Your first go around on a landing page may not be perfect and it will need tweaking until it’s perfect. Don’t give up – instead test, modify, and improve.

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