The 12 Important Things for a Landing Page to be Successful

As you all are aware that a visitor or a prospect reaching your website will spend at an average less than 8 to 7 seconds before he / she exits or clicks something. We really invest lot of resources, energy, time and money to get prospects to our website. We know and we can calculate which campaigns and which sites direct prospects to the website. But, are we providing or delivering the message which the visitors need in those 7 seconds? Here is a simple checklist which will help if you website and the online business are delivering what you want.

1. Try to specify in one sentence, what is the key message a visitors takes from the home page and check is that the campaign or website objective. 
2. What are the three things that tell the visitor on which page or which stage of the shopping cart are they – bread crumbs or shopping cart steps or… This can increase the conversions or reduce the bounce rates.
3. Provide the content in bullet points and in short paragraphs. It is easier to read with the short span.
4. Take care that the key action you want the visitor to take is conveyed properly on the page and is clearly above the fold of the page? The visitor may not scroll down the page in those few seconds available.
5. Have the registration form as short as possible and as easy to fill in as possible. Filling unnecessary information or long forms irritates the prospect.
6. Be aware of the type and demographics of the audience and set the campaigns accordingly.
7. Is there any unique available on the web page or landing page which is not available else where? And is it free? People do not give there contact details just like that.
8. Does your landing page or web page talks the same as what is being conveyed through the text ad, banner, email or any other campaign? If not, it may hamper the conversions.
9. Can the visitor on the landing page is able to perform any other task apart from what you want him / her to do? If you provide too many links and options then the visitor may get distracted or confused. Always try to stick to one objective one campaign.
10. If it is a PPC like Adwords let the ads be displayed when you expect more conversions. Schedule your ads / emails accordingly.
11. Provide your contact numbers (toll free preferably) and email clearly. The prospect may want to call you right away – to track such leads give a specific email and number.
12. Provide you social media links like Facebook and Twitter. The visitor may find it interesting but, would like to be just associated with you as of now.

These are just the simple tips and can really help in increasing the ROI of your camapigns and thus the cost of conversions.

Related posts:
13 Easy Tips to Make Landing Pages More Effective
6 Basic Tips for a Perfect PPC Campaign
5 Easy Tips to Improve the CTR for Google Adwords

 

13 Easy Tips to Make Landing Pages More Effective

Landing page is the crucial first step for any conversion to happen. Be it a download, a registration or a sale, the prospect will spend an average of 8 seconds on landing page. So, you have approximately 8 seconds to make the visitor, what you want him/her to do. In these 8 seconds, the visitor may close the page or will do what you wanted.


Thus, the landing page should be so effective such that those 8 seconds should be more than enough for the visitor to deliver your message and action. So, how do you increase the effectiveness of the landing pages, say for a banner or any PPC campaign?

1. If the visitor is coming to the landing page, through PPC campaign then the keywords which prompted the visitor to click should also be promptly displayed on the landing page or should be used in the body content. So, in the title and header tag try to use the keywords. Have separate landing pages for separate keywords groups in your PPC campaigns specific to the set of keywords they are targeted at.
2. Do not use long paragraphs and sentences. Remember, you have less than 8 seconds. Have short sentences preferably, bullet points. Usually, it is easy to read and understand the bullet points. So, try to deliver the message you want to convey in short and crispy manner.
3. Have your main and important lines on the above fold of the page. Do not expect the visitors to scroll down to read the lines. Just remember, they spend very less time on the page and scrolling down or side-wards will take a couple of seconds away.
4. Have the product image or the screenshot or a nice attractive image to compliment the text you have on the landing page. Images do speak louder than words and can also attract the attention of the visitor.
5. Forms? I hate when I see forms. Moreover, if the forms are too long I hate them more. And, if the form does not trust me as a human and makes me type what I see in the image, I get pissed off again. So, try to make these forms as simple as possible. Ask only the info which you require. Do not try to ask more info. What you may need at the first place is the prospect’s email address, so grab it first. You can use dropdown or radio buttons for other form fields which are much easier to select as the visitor need not type the whole stuff.
6. The call-to-action link or the button should be promptly displayed on the landing page. The visitor should really know what he/she is supposed to do and that also is your objective. So, make these buttons a bit attractive and use a nice call-to-action line like “Get FREE Whitepaper”, “Add to Cart – Use Coupon Code XXXX before Check-out”, “Download it NOW”. Words like Register or Submit will not be that much useful on the landing pages. You need to attract the attention on the prospect for the click.
7. And where can I have this call-to-action button/s? It should be visible in the above fold of the page. Do not expect the visitor to scroll the page up and down or side-wards and click on the button.
8. Test the landing pages for all the popular browsers. Differences in browser rendering can cause pages to display improperly, leaving an unprofessional experience and making the prospect to bounce out. Browsershots.org offers a free service that provides a snapshot of your webpage in most of the popular web browsers.
9. Do not forget to test the landing pages for different resolutions as well. A change in resolution may push the call-to-action button below the fold. Do test the complete process on all resolutions. The best you can do is to know the resolution (size) most of your visitors are using. You can get this info from Google Analytics or any other website stats tool and optimize the page for that and try to adjust the images, buttons etc for other resolution as well.
10. Try to reduce and optimize the download time of the landing pages. If the landing page does not show up in 3-4 seconds, then the prospect may exit from your website or will move away to a different window or page. Avoid using heavy images and flash elements on the landing pages. This post proivdes links to few good tools to optimize download time for the web pages.
11. Try to gain trust from the first time visitors to your website / landing page. If your site is authenticated by VeriSign or you accept payments through PayPal then display the logo somewhere at the bottom or near the “Buy” button.
12. If you have a strong customer testimonial or a perfect feedback, show it on the landing page. You can also display any recognition or award received on the page.
13. The last step is doing numerous tests on the different types of landing pages. You have A/B testing; you have Google Analytics… which can provide the bounce rate and conversions the landing page is providing. Google Website Optimizer allows you to test multiple variables at a time and determines the best combination of them. CrazyEgg will show you where exactly the visitors are clicking. The advantage of this tool is, it will also show the visitors’ clicks even when the element is not hyperlinked. So, depending on that you can have that text / image linked appropriately.

The bottom line which you have to definitely remember when designing the landing pages is - you need to be in the visitor’s shoes and do what he / she will do in first 8 seconds. You landing page only has 8 seconds to lose or make a customer.

Related posts:
5 Easy Tips to Improve the CTR for Google Adwords
6 Basic Tips for a Perfect PPC Campaign

Landing Page Optimization For Dummies