In our previous post, you learnt about the basics of a landing page. Now it’s time to go into the details of the landing page – the design and content elements.
Compare these examples:
Example 1:
Example 2:
Are you able to figure out which is a better landing page? Pretty obvious, isn’t it?
But it’s not always so easy to spot the differences. Here are some tips to guide you on how you can build your own landing page and differentiate from the bad ones:
Look and Feel
As in the above examples, the landing pages are constructed with its brand colours, and are relatively simple and easy to navigate. In other words, you are free to play around with contrasting colours, the amount of whitespace and folds to make your landing page stand out. Just remember that the landing page is an extension of your brand! Everything on your landing page should be congruent with your core value proposition and telling of your brand elements.
Technicalities
With the surge in people using mobile devices, your landing page needs to have a responsive design and be mobile optimised. Users are looking for immediate answers to their search queries. If your page takes more than a few seconds to load or isn’t mobile optimised, you are pretty much in trouble.
URL and Titles
Studies have shown that shorter URLs tend to rank better on search engines, so make your page URL short and keyword rich. The same works for title tags. The closer the keyword is to the beginning of your title tag, the more likely it is to rank better. You may also want to add modifiers like “2016”, “best”, “guide” to help you rank better for long tail versions of your target keyword.
Copy Elements
While the examples above are click-through landing pages and focus more on visuals, most landing pages would probably have more text in them.
Headlines should be easily noticeable and concise to capture the attention of readers. They should also be relevant to the ad title.
As for the text body, avoid overpromising. You should provide verifiable information so that your page visitors can make their own comparisons and make the choice on their own. Text length should not be too long because it needs to stay readable. For that, bullet points might be useful. Your keywords should also appear within the first 100 words of your text. Match your copy and link title to your AdWords campaign to increase relevancy and improve your quality score, so as to reduce your pay-per-click costs.
Make use of internal links to guide your page visitors to other pages on your site to retrieve more information. Including outbound links to related pages can also help you to rank better.
Above all, remember to read through your text to make sure that everything is legible and that there are no grammatical errors. U w0Nt WaNNa R3aD SUMtHinG LYKE TIS in the entire page right?
Rich Media
In example 1, some of the images aren’t loaded while some are blurry. Therefore, for a better overall visual experience, high resolution videos and images should be included. But be sure not to overdo it such that everything is cluttered. Also, make sure that your image file names include your targeted keywords to help in your rankings as well!
Call-to-Action (CTA)
There must be a strong CTA on your page. Comparing examples 1 and 2, the CTA button in example 2 is placed prominently, in the center, at the bottom of the page. This is in conjunction with how users are likely to read the page, from top to bottom, left to right. Whereas in example 1, the CTA button is much smaller, in grey and placed on the left, which may be easily overlooked. So, be sure to keep the CTA button where it can be seen, preferably above the fold and use contrasting colours or directional cues so people won’t miss it.
If you’re going to include forms on your landing page, make sure you’re not prying too much information. Try to minimise the number of fields that users have to fill so they won’t be turned off by the lengthy procedures. You should also include a disclaimer to assure them that their personal information will not be used for purposes other than marketing.
Certifications
To imbue further credibility amongst readers, include accreditations that your organisation has amassed, and include logos of your clients and co-partners. You may also wish to include endorsements by prominent figures or testimonials by your customers as social proof.
Social Sharing
While this may not seem important, having prominent social sharing buttons increases the chances of your content getting seen by more people. So if you think your content has the potential to become viral, why not include social sharing buttons and make it known to the world?
Contact Information
Last but not least, always include your company information so that people can find out about the company and learn how to contact you.
After everything is settled, you might want to design two or more versions of the same landing page by varying certain factors and keeping some constant. Then, conduct A/B testing to find out how different variations affect the actions of site visitors on your landing page and the eventual conversion rates.
For example, you can play around with the colours of your CTA button to see if people would be more likely to click it when the colour changes. Apparently, it has been found that red, green, orange or yellow are some of the best colours for CTA buttons. You can also try this out on different sections of the landing page. Based on the analytics, you can then be more certain of what your target users are more likely to respond to and can design better landing pages.
Now that you have completed this two-part guide, start creating your own landing page! With so many platforms out there like wix and wordpress, you no longer have to be knowledgeable in html coding or have a flair in designing to make great landing pages.
So, go try it out yourself!
References:
http://backlinko.com/on-page-seo
https://blog.kissmetrics.com/landing-page-design-infographic/
https://www.optimizely.com/ab-testing/
http://www.smartinsights.com/lead-generation/lead-generation-strategy/perfect-landing-page/
http://unbounce.com/101-landing-page-optimization-tips/
