Landing page optimization is a practice that is often overlooked. Whether you are optimizing your website for the first time or are revisiting your online marketing strategies, landing page optimization should be at the top of your to-do list. What is landing page optimization? The phrase “landing page optimization” could have quite a few meanings but since we are focusing on beginner tips, we will keep it simple – landing page optimization is the practice of optimizing your landing page(s) in attempt to increase conversions or sales.
Below are 3 tips for beginners to be taken into consideration when visiting or revisiting your landing page optimization strategies:
- Know your goals – while this isn’t necessarily an actionable tip, it is worth talking about and can certainly open your eyes to your website’s potential and possibility to increase conversions. If you don’t know your goals, it is hard to develop a strong landing page. If your goal for a given landing page is to act as a form of lead generation, make it known. If your landing page is designed to showcase a new product, you might want to make your lead generation tactics a secondary item. There are a countless number of goals for a landing page so by making yours known in the beginning, the rest of your developmental process should be fairly easy.
- Develop user friendly content – if you own a website, you have heard the phrase “content is king” a million times. Depending on the purpose of your landing page (product promotion, lead generation, branding, etc.), your content should be developed accordingly. This is your chance to tell your visitors why they should choose your products or services over your competition. This is your chance to tell your visitors why they should submit their personal contact information to your company. Develop content that isn’t deceiving or off-topic or and if you do, I can assure you that you will see higher exit rates and less interaction. When developing content, keep your potential users and search engines in mind equally for the best results.
- Have a clear, concise call to action – this is probably the most important tip we will cover in this post. After you know your goals and develop the best content for your landing page, you need a call to action. After a user reaches your landing page, what are they supposed to do? If the purpose of your landing page is to gather contact information, make sure your lead gen forms are clear and visible and easy to find. If you are promoting a new product and are looking to generate sales, make sure your shopping cart isn’t a maze. Upon landing on your product page, your visitors should be able to purchase your product without navigating through 20 pages of your website or through paragraphs of “spammy” content. When it comes to calls to action, simplicity can go a long way.
To sum it all up, a landing page can single handedly make or break your website and whether or not a visitor will convert, return to your website and share their experience with their peers. It is to the point where ranking under known performing key phrases is not enough. You need to grab and keep your visitors’ attention, outperform your competition and give your visitors a positive experience that they will want to share (the power of social is huge!). So the next time you are discussing or revamping your website’s marketing strategies and goals, make sure your landing pages are optimized.
Craig,
I’d like to also add that the title of the page is very important. We at Reachable (http://ReachableHQ.com) have done research around the landing page title and have found that it may be one of the most important elements on the page. If your interested, check out this post:
http://reachablehq.com/blog/how-to-choose-a-landing-page-title/
Best,
-Charles
Charles, I agree with you 100% and it is definitely worth mentioning. A compelling title is a must. Thank you for your input!