Tweet

Effective Landing Pages

Written by: Jennifer Horowitz

Article Overview: Whether the landing page is used for a PPC campaign, an SEO landing page or for some other ad, campaign the same principals apply. Your landing page is vitally important to your success, so make sure you follow the rules I've outlined.

Effective Landing Pages

How To Create An Effective Landing Page

Driving traffic from PPC (pay-per-click), an email campaign or any advertisement to your home page is a mistake.

Sending your prospects to your homepage, which is filled with so many different options and hoping they take action is a recipe for disaster.

You want to drive your traffic to a landing page that focuses on conversion. Your landing page should be independent of your main website, and its sole purpose should be converting traffic.

A landing page is focused on a single action that you want visitors to take – with the theme or topic of that page being relevant to the keyword or topic of the PPC ad, email campaign etc.

Warning: This list may seem a little long, but each point is very important to the creation of an effective landing page.

Here are some key points to consider when creating your landing pages:

Many visitors will scan your entire site before deciding whether to read your copy. So you must design your landing page with scanners in mind. Do your headline and subheads tell your story?

Go through your copy and reading only the headlines and subheads to make sure they are compelling.

Typically Landing pages work best when designed as a single column. However, please test this theory for yourself.

Remove any navigation elements. Your regular navigation will just serve as a distraction. You want to keep the prospect moving forward, and not have the eyes wandering all over the page.

Graphics and copy unrelated to the offer can be a distraction and interrupt the flow through your Landing page.

Keep your critical elements “above the fold.” Research shows you have anywhere from 3 - 8 seconds to convince users to stay on your site. What they see must convince them they are in the right place and give them a reason to stay.

Make sure your call to action is above the fold.

Your call to action should be repeated for each full screen view that the user sees while scrolling through the page.

Above the fold is also the best place for your product image. Images work best to the left of text.

The headline may be the only thing your visitors read. This makes your headline vitally important. Your headline should be compelling and match the message from the PPC ad, email campaign etc that drove your visitor to your Landing page.

Subheads should be included for every major information point. This will break up copy and make it easier to read.

Bullet points are essential for any lists.

Never ask for more information than you absolutely need when asking people to opt-in. Make sure the information you are requesting is relevant and tell the user why it is relevant.

Having a visible privacy policy next to any form copy will also help.

Your “Submit” button is the final step people have to take. Make the text compelling. "Submit" is not compelling. Try "Give Me My Free Report” or “Yes, I Want My Free Report.”

Related Articles
  Quality landing pages to get more sales
  Landing Pages – The Key to Turning Potential Customers into Paying Clients
  Teleseminars - 5 Elements of a Successful Lead Capture Page
  How To Start Your Own Business Using Landing Pages
  How to Navigate Browsers to your Landing Page

Article Tags: email campaign, email campaign, Landing Page Driving traffic, landing pages, PPC, PPC



Related Forum Posts
Do the Yellow Pages still work? - People are increasingly turning online to find suppliers and research solutions to the problems they are having. Is it still worth taking out an ad in the Yellow Pages? Could there be a better way to use that money? Do you still use the Yellow Pages?
Re: Secrets About Landing Pages Revealed! - Hi Greg, Thank for posting this, it's very helpful. Landing pages can convert very well if they are well written.
Re: Facebook Advertising? - Hi Mal, I just added you to my circles. It'll be interesting to know how you think the two services, Facebook Pages and Google+, compare.
Re: Examples of Great Landing Pages - Kevin, been a while! hey I just reviewed the Landing Page - I like it! The structure is all there and I like how the testimonials are "related" to the business benefit of becoming a Partner - Nice work! Two points: 1. Have you tried other headlines or split tested other headlines? You can use google website optimizer to do it. I know you can come up with a slightly stronger headline unless this one came out on top. 2. I feel that when the page first loads it looks "incomplete". It's just a visual thing. I guess i was expecting a border around the content, a header image maybe... it's just the way i am wired to expect webpages to load. This point may be insignificant. Testing is the only way to know for sure.
Re: Money Does Not Guarantee Happiness - Thanks for singling this point out, Chris. One book that comes to mind that covers it in an overall approach is "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen Covey. He addresses our inner life and the way it can change our effectiveness home and at work. There are corporations who have taken this model and effectively molded their business around it.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Life is a Balancing Act!

Implementing Internet Business Ideas

Starting A Set of Books

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.