Perhaps you’ve heard of search engine optimization, social media optimization, and other SEO techniques. But are you familiar with the process of optimizing a website to increase conversions? The process is called landing page optimization.
As mentioned, landing page optimization or LPO focuses on improving website elements to increase conversions. Conversions may include website traffic, visits, clicks, engagement, and sales. On the other hand, the website elements that can be optimized are URL structure, page titles, keywords, meta descriptions, tags, and the content itself.
Optimizing your landing page promises a higher conversion rate. And the best thing about this technique is that you’ll get more customers for a lower cost. Think about it. You’re spending all your marketing budget on your website but you’re not doing any optimization. It’s just like betting on something worthless, right? Whereas, a lower budget with a great LPO can give you huge marketing success.
How do you optimize a landing page? And what’s a good conversion rate for a landing page? If you’re confused about getting started with landing page optimization, this is the ultimate guide for you.
Key Takeaways
- Effective landing pages streamline the user experience by focusing on essential elements such as compelling headlines, succinct descriptions, and strong calls to action (CTAs).
- Optimizing landing pages starts with a deep understanding of the traffic sources and user behavior, ensuring the content aligns with user expectations and needs.
- Techniques like A/B testing, page speed improvements, and the strategic use of pop-ups help refine the user journey to maximize conversion rates.
- SEO Alignment: Integrating SEO best practices with page content not only enhances discoverability but also improves the relevance and engagement of landing pages.
- Keeping the page’s purpose focused and minimizing distractions like unnecessary links or complex forms ensures that users are guided toward conversion without confusion.
What is a Landing Page?
In digital marketing, a landing page is a single web page that’s designed to capture leads and generate sales. It’s sometimes known as a static page or destination page. Landing pages serve as the essential step to acquiring new customers. This is where you can put special offers, deals, or set up web forms.
You may ask: are landing pages good for SEO? Since landing pages aim to optimize user experience, they’re technically good for SEO. They make tracking visitors’ actions easier and attract leads from search engines. Hence, a landing page is essential to improve your SEO, drive more traffic, and build your brand.
Do Landing Pages Still Work?
Landing pages might be overrated but yes, they’re still effective. They help you make a lasting impression and promote your products and services efficiently. Landing pages are normally straightforward, which is ideal for users with a short attention span. With just a few clicks, you can already engage with a brand or purchase a product. Most importantly, landing pages build credibility and you can always test them to see their effectiveness.
To convince you more about the marketing power of landing pages, here are a few statistics:
- Businesses that have 10-15 landing pages see a 55% increase in leads (HubSpot)
- 48% of marketers create landing pages for each new campaign (Marketing Experiments)
- 90% of visitors read your headline and call-to-action (TechJury)
- 52% of marketers reuse landing pages for their campaigns (Marketing Experiments)
- 48% of landing pages include multiple deals and offers (Marketing Experiments)
With these statistics, we can say that businesses still find landing pages as an effective tool for marketing success. The more landing pages you build, the higher conversions you’ll get. The average conversion rate for landing pages is between 5% to 10%. If you go beyond 12%, you’re 90% better than your competitors—which is a good indication. Content is also crucial in attracting visitors and acquiring new customers. Hence, you must always create a strong headline and CTA.
What Makes a Good Landing Page?
Now that you already know the basics of a landing page, how does it work, and why it’s important? Wondering how to get an optimal landing page conversion rate? Check out these must-haves for a good landing page.
The Essential Elements
It all starts with the essential elements. Building a page without knowing the right format and content would be useless. To create a good landing page, it must have:
- A headline
- A subheadline (optional)
- A brief description of your deals or offers
- Media (images or short videos)
- Testimonials, reviews, badges, awards, certificates (optional)
- A webform or CTA button
Clear and Simple Objective
Your landing pages mustn’t have too much information. Keep it simple and straightforward. Simply describe what the page is about and what actions you need from your visitors. As for the media, it’s acceptable to have at least one image and one short video. Too much of them may distract the users or affect your page’s loading speed. If you’ll put links, include only the necessary ones. Just focus on your CTA and always know that complexity never converts.
Only Ask for the Most Important Details
When you create forms, make them as simple as possible. Only ask for what your business needs and stay away from sensitive information. Some of the basic information you can include in your web form is the person’s name, company name, position or title, phone, email, and the comment box. If it’s necessary, you may include the user’s location.
Never Use Your Homepage as a Landing Page
You may be tempted to use your homepage as a landing page since it’s the first thing that visitors see when they visit your site. But this isn’t good practice. Homepages are usually overloaded with information, making your visitors confused and leave your site quickly. The same is true for your main product page and other sub-pages. Always dedicate a special landing page if you want better conversions and more effective customer acquisition.
Focus on Value
How do you make a valuable landing page? Forget about the “Contact Us” button. Instead, use a more enticing call-to-action like “Download Now” or “Join Our Mailing List.” That way, you’re showing your visitors that you have something to offer and they’ll get something in return if they sign up for your form. Some of the ideal things that you can offer are valuable guides, free demonstrations, trials, or evaluation. They’re great methods to keep in touch with your visitors until they become your buyers.
Be Consistent with Your Call-to-Action
If your ad sources say “Download Our Ebook,” make sure your landing page says the same thing or something similar. When users click your PPC ad or email and see a different CTA on the landing page, it will make them feel disconnected and they’ll likely hit the “Back” button. Consistency is the key, and confusing your visitors is never a good marketing move.
If you want to advertise your landing page through influencer collaborations, you may check our Jocial review. Jocial is an influencer marketing company that connects brands and creators.
Getting Started with Landing Page Optimization
Landing page optimization generally deals with your page’s design and functionality. Just like products, your landing page must attract potential customers and convince them to take action on your page. A well-optimized landing page can bring you high conversions, while the opposite may ruin your marketing efforts.
Here are the 11 landing page optimization best practices that every marketer should know:
1. Understand Your Traffic
Before creating a landing page, you need to analyze your website traffic. You can do this through Google Analytics. Knowing your high-converting traffic sources will help you build a more targeted and effective landing page. Traffic sources may include email, social media, influencer marketing, or paid ads.
2. Define Your Landing Page Theme
Set a theme and design that are consistent with your brand image. For example, you need to optimize your landing page according to your brand’s color palette. Fonts and media types may also matter. Lastly, don’t forget to upload a company logo and select an appealing main image for your landing page.
3. Make Your Offer Clear
As mentioned, your landing page content must be simple and straightforward. Avoid too much information and say directly what you’re offering or what your visitors must do on your page. If you want to offer advice, put it in the headline. If you want users to join your mailing list, create a CTA button for that. You can literally write anything on the content, but it should always appear smart and convincing.
4. Avoid Unnecessary Actions on the Landing Page
The number of actions on your landing page must be limited, or visitors will find it too time-consuming. Remove unnecessary links, extra form fields, or excessive buttons. Again, good conversions always come from simplicity—not complexity.
5. Simplify Your Landing Page Form
When creating your web form, choose carefully the fields or details that you want to include. Focus on the basic and most important ones; stay away from confidential information. While adding more fields gives you better lead information, it might reduce your conversion rates. Internet users are more inclined to short, simple forms than long, complicated ones.
6. Use Scarcity Techniques
Scarcity techniques always work in eCommerce. People are more likely to get an offer or purchase a product when the deal’s limited. On your landing page, you can put scarcity words beside your CTA button. For example, you want visitors to download your free marketing guide. You may use the words “only 3 left” to encourage them to take action. Time limits are great human stimulators—they always remind us that nothing lasts forever and we should grab every opportunity that comes our way.
7. Establish Trust and Credibility
Aside from brand recognition, you should establish trust and credibility for your business. You can do this by adding customer reviews, badges, special awards, or certificates to your landing page. You may also add your social media links so visitors can see your reputation on other social sites. Most importantly, include your contact details on the landing page—it’s the best business verification any user can get.
8. Try an Exit Pop-up
Have you ever noticed a small box or form pop-up when you attempt to leave a page? That’s called the exit pop-up. Exit pop-ups can be helpful to create conversions and they’re less intrusive than entry pop-ups (the ones you see the moment you land on a page). To create effective pop-ups, focus on a compelling image, strong CTA, and headline. Try offering other promos to entice your web visitors.
9. Improve Your Page’s Loading Speed
Page load time plays a vital role in increasing your conversions, especially that more users are browsing on mobile. The faster your page loads, the lower the abandonment issues and bounce rates. Hence, work on improving your page’s loading speed and avoid putting too many visuals on your landing page.
10. Optimize for Search Engines
As discussed previously, landing pages are good for SEO. When you optimize your landing page for search engines, you’ll get higher chances to rank on top of Google’s search results. This will bring you more web traffic and landing page conversions. Google AdWords is the best optimization tool—helping you focus on more relevant keywords and tracking your PPC or CPC campaigns.
If you’re looking for another tool to optimize your campaign results, you may check our Juulr review.
11. A/B Test Everything
A/B Testing is the process of comparing two versions of your landing page content. From the design to main content, web forms, and CTA buttons—you should always test your landing page elements. This method allows you to monitor which elements are weak and not gaining attention; thus helping you better strategize your landing page optimization and focus on the strong points.
Landing Page Optimization Tools
Manual optimization may work for some businesses, but using optimization tools can give you optimal results and maximum sales. Below are some of the best tools that marketers trust for their landing page optimization:
- Unbounce
- Instapage
- LeadPages
- Hello Bar
- UserTesting
- Olark
- Crazy Egg
FAQ:
- What is landing page optimization?
It involves refining web page elements to increase user engagement and conversion rates effectively. - Why is understanding traffic sources important for optimization?
Knowing where your users come from helps tailor the landing page to meet their specific expectations and increase conversion likelihood. - How does A/B testing contribute to landing page effectiveness?
A/B testing allows marketers to compare different versions of a page to determine which elements most effectively encourage user conversions. - What role does SEO play in landing pages?
SEO enhances the visibility of landing pages in search results, attracting more targeted traffic and potentially increasing conversion rates. - Why is it crucial to maintain a clear objective on a landing page?
A focused objective ensures that all elements on the page lead users towards the desired action, improving the chances of conversion.
Reap the benefits of optimized landing pages
A good landing page optimization relies on many factors, including design, content, user experience, and SEO strategies. You may not be familiar with the process but the landing page optimization checklist that we’ve provided will definitely help you get started. Again, the goal of LPO is to gain higher conversions and more customers. Once done right, it will give your business more sales and profits and will make you an SEO champion in the online world.
If you’re interested to know more about digital marketing, you can read our post: “Top 10 Digital Marketing Tools for Any Business in 2022.”
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