Producing High Quality Landing Pages
Creating quality landing pages requires much thought and consideration in terms of the content and wording used in conjunction with the purpose. It is of great importance for you marketing campaign to focus on the relevancy and clarity of the page content. Did you know that visitors will only spend up to two seconds on a page before deciding whether it has relevance for what they are looking for? If they cannot find the product or service offering needed they will quickly ‘bounce’ or ‘exit’ the site.
What are the key questions that visitors will be asking themselves when they access your site? In those 2 seconds these three questions need to be answered quickly to ensure the user stays on the page.
- Does this website/company provide the information that I am looking for?
- Is the information on this page sufficient/in depth enough for me?
- Is this a trusted company?
- What actions do I take now?
Great landing pages have the power to convert large amounts of visitors into clients. This is achieved by having a ‘call to action’ where customers fill out a subscription or enquiry form or purchase a product. The page should at least have a phone number to prompt contact in this way.
Landing page points to remember
USP (unique selling point) and benefits in the headline
The headline is the first thing that those browsing the site will see, so make sure you get your message across instantly. For example if you are the leading provider of 3D TV’s in your area, than your slogan should not be ‘3D TV’s for sale’ but ‘Leading provider of 3D TV’s’ or ‘Highest quality 3D TV’s,’ something that is keyword rich but grabs attention.
Concise but informative copy
Keep things short, clear and to the point. Avoid large paragraphs and lengthy waffling as this is a great way to lose your audiences interest. Steer clear of writing about your businesses history and use bullet points to list you key service offerings. Make sure you content keeps its relevancy throughout and has keyword rich text (but not stuffed!) to maintain high Adwords quality scores.
Focusing on just one visitor goal
The general rule is one keyword or offering per page. Try not to clutter up pages with several offers and paths of the visitor to take. If you want people to submit an enquiry, make sure you carry this focus on the way through. You can do this by avoiding using a phone number, newsletter subscription or download on the same landing page. Just the sole link to an online contact form is all that is required.
Prominent calls to action
There is no point in having all of the above if the calls to action to do not stand out. Traditionally, the top left hand corner is the best place for a call to action due to the way the human eye moves across web pages - usually from left to right. Have a large button with a clear call on it saying ‘call now on 0800… for a free no obligation quote.’ Using the word free is great because as we all know, we love free stuff! When producing enquiry forms, remember to again keep the form short and to the point. Keep the fields limited to perhaps just a name and email or a phone number with a simple ‘request call back function.’
Maintain Branding
Keep the landing page consistent and keep the same look and feel about the pages. This means the branding will be consistent offering reassurance to visitors.
Components of landing pages
- A company logo
- A header or H1 aimed at your target audience
- A brief explanation of what you offer should be above the fold.(The area of the screen that is visible to average users without scrolling).
- SEO, keyword rich copy below the fold
- An image of the product on offer or a range of images in a small gallery if required.
- Simple form with 3 fields or less
- Company phone number
- Testimonials for building trust quickly
- All legal website conventions such as a privacy policy or a cookies policy. (Discretely place in footer)
Things to Avoid
- Additional navigation offers and cross-selling links
- Images or pictures with no relevance to the page
- Lots of paragraph copy
- Small, hard to read text
- ‘Click heres’ and ‘read more’ links
- Long forms with too many required fields such as company name or fax number.
If you would like more information about how to create effective landing pages that wil convert potential clients into customers, call Cornish WebServices today on 44 (0) 330 555 4680 to find out more about website design, search engine optimisation, PPC management and other online marketing services.
Published on 28/02/2013
