Your landing page determines the success of your ad campaign so it behoves you to bestow it with attributes which foster conversions. A well-designed landing page yields positive ROI. Landing pages can be used for virtually any purpose but it’s worth bearing this caveat in mind: their purpose must be clear and linked to an appropriate CTA. Great landing page design piques visitors’ interest, enticing them to try your product or service.
Visitors decide within seconds whether your landing page is germane to their needs. If they can’t find what they’re looking for quickly or if the page has functional or usability problems users will abandon it, thereby increasing its bounce rate. Eschew this problem by capturing their attention instantly, enticing them to stay and complete the necessary action for conversion.
A landing page’s relevancy score is linked to its bounce rate, which Google tracks by looking at the portion of visitors who return to the SERP from a landing page. Other factors which affect clarity include the presence of unique content, appropriate navigation, and business transparency.
It’s a mistake to offer too much choice on a landing page. Remember that your landing page should reflect one campaign and one goal only. Landing pages contribute to keyword relevance also. Their presence in the metadata and headers is especially important.
Clutter such as superfluous navigational links, menus and buttons should be eliminated to optimise clarity. Their absence prevents visitors from ignoring your message by navigating away, therefore focusing solely on that page. Visitors feel their time is being respected when a tightly connected experience between the click source and the landing page exists.
As the attention ratio – the number of links relative to the number of CTAs – decreases, conversion rates go up. Therefore, campaigns need to be removed from all distractions that prevent visitors from converting. Such action returns focus to your landing page.
Your headline must immediately grab visitors’ attention by being bold, clear and benefit-driven. In a few brief words, it must stand out and communicate the benefit of your offer. Moreover, the text must correspond to that featured in the ad which triggered the page. Stay on point by repeating key phrases.
The headline’s message can be supplemented by a succinct, persuasive subheadline. The purpose of the subheadline is to expand on the concept of the headline. Taken together, both can form an entire sentence, but visitors’ attention should be first directed to the key phrase in the headline.
Your headline should immediately inform the user about your product or service. It can be further strengthened by an accompanying image that explains your product/service. However, since page load time affects Google rankings, it’s inadvisable to veer too far from the text-based landing page format.
Limit the possible actions visitors can take on your landing page to one. Whether you want them to subscribe or purchase, refrain from presenting options or conversions will suffer. The single action you want the visitor to take must steal focus from the rest of the content.
The CTA copy is the most significant on the entire landing page, yet is often the most neglected. It’s imperative you make it compelling. This can be achieved by using explosive, exciting and persuasive action verbs.
Present your CTA as a button instead of a text link or some other format. Users expect a button and know what to do when they encounter one. Choose a contrasting colour for your CTA. Not only will this make it stand out visually from the other page content, but it’s also more likely to compel a click from users.
Locate the CTA so it slots in seamlessly with landing page content from a cognitive and logical perspective. Approaching page design from a UX perspective will facilitate this.
Bear the mobile UX in mind when creating your landing page. By implementing a mobile-responsive template, you will cater to both desktop and mobile visitors. Users become frustrated when they have to take actions such as screen pinching to view desktop-only pages on mobile or when CTA buttons overlap with pricing. This frustration negatively impacts the bounce rate. It’s advisable to test how your landing page appears on different mobile devices during its design.
In order to retain a consistent brand image, we recommend you select the same colours and fonts on your landing page as your homepage. It’s important to preserve the coherent overall look and feel of your main site. This helps to enforce brand awareness during the eCommerce process.
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By Jeff Sheridan
By Conor McCaffrey