Landing page layouts are extremely important for every conversion marketing or PPC (paid per click) campaign. Understanding how to create a landing page that converts potential customers in to paying customers is a combination of art and science. When creating a new landing page, it’s important to consider the arrangement of content and design for a great user experience. Below are 6 landing page optimization best practices to help you create pages that convert.
Consistent Headlines and Titles
This is a common mistake we see when auditing landing pages for new clients. Headlines that are misleading or poorly written will stop your conversion campaign before it even starts. For example, if you have a PPC ad running on Google or Facebook and your ad has a specific headline that grabs a potential buyers attention, the landing page headline needs to be written the same way. If a potential customer clicks on your ad and arrives on your landing page, often the landing page title will be the first clue that they are on the right page, it is relevant and what they expected to find.
Quality Text Content
Often times, landing page failures can come from poorly written content. As stated above, the content needs to match the ad that captured a potential customers’ attention. Once they arrive on the landing page, your text content needs to be clear and concise. First make sure you content speaks to the exact audience you are looking to attract. Then be sure that the content is helping readers learn more about your products or services. The written content should be filled with quality information that will help potential buyers feel good about making a purchase. Finally, make sure you’ve checked the page for spelling and grammatical errors.
Landing Page Trustworthiness
How can you expect someone to make a purchase on your landing page if they don’t feel like the page is trustworthy? Every landing page should have a section for reviews that provides social proof. If you are able to have a recognizable person within your industry leave a review for your service/product that will help dramatically. If you are unable to get a identifiable name that’s ok, but be sure to add at least three honest reviews along with a photo of the person leaving the review. Reviews without photos provide little to no help, because they feel like fake or made up reviews. Also be sure to add your contact information to the landing page and make sure it’s easy to find. Lastly, make a small investment ($70) in an SSL certificate to provide your users with a sense of security, that your website is valid and has a secure connection.
What’s Your Call To Action?
Have a clear call-to-action (CTA) on your landing page. Going back to the PPC ad in the first example, make sure the CTA matches the intent of the person who clicks on the link in your ad. After you sell a potential customer with your quality content and social proof, you want to make sure they understand and more importantly, complete the CTA. If your landing page is a long scrollable page, we suggest adding the call to action under each section to make it easier for users to find.
Make A Valuable Offer
What is the purpose of this landing page? It’s important that your offer to potential buyers is easy to understand. Describe the value that your product or service will provide the reader. Make sure it’s relevant to what they are looking for and ideally it solves a problem. Also one of the most important considerations to make when reviewing your offer is to make sure it’s competitive. How does the offer stand up to what your competitors are providing. Clearly state how your offer is better then the competition as well as point out a differentiating factor that makes your offer better.
Landing Page Design and Navigation
Last but certainly not least is user experience on a landing page. Making sure a potential customer knows how to navigate the page is extremely important and can be a little more complicated than it sounds. First format the content in a layout that flows well from top to bottom. Then make sure you have a contemporary design that matches your branding. Next make sure your page loads quickly. Nothing repels a reader more than a slow loading-landing page.
By focusing on these 6 landing page optimization best practices and making sure your pages don’t fall victim to these oversights, will increase your conversions considerably. Having relevant headlines, quality content, trustworthiness, a clear calls-to-action, a compelling offer and great user experience will also help raise your quality score for your PPC campaigns. If you have any questions or would like more information about creating quality optimized landing pages, call us at 202-683-6881 or send us a message.
