If you are involved in PPC campaigns, landing pages are critical to your success. If you run email marketing campaigns, landing pages are paramount. In fact, landing pages are imperative to organic search engine marketing, press releases, and predominately any Internet marketing efforts. Here are my top 10 Landing Page Optimization Tips.
Ten Landing Page Optimization Tips
- Keep it simple – In today’s “gimme it quick or I’m out of here” world you have to keep your landing page very focused and pretty simple. Tell your visitor what they can get from you easily and quickly. Use bullet points and short paragraphs.
- Tell visitors where they are – For example: when people click on an ad in a Readers Digest email newsletter or just a link in a solo email they are being transported from one medium to another via the web. Putting the heading at the top of the page for them to read first when they arrive is comforting to the user, so they know that the navigation was a success. That eliminates the first question that a visitor may have: “Where am I?”
- Don’t take over their computers – Some landing pages get too tricky trying to impress their visitor. This generally just frustrates them because they have lost control , and the easiest way for them to get it back is to just click on the browser window and close it. Then kiss that potential customer goodbye. Also remember that many computers aren’t running the most up to date software, therefore they may not be able to view some of your brand imaging, thus not letting them view the site. Many computers and systems have firewalls that prevent those programs from running. Just keep it simple and you will please most everyone.
- Offer multiple action points – Some people will hit the landing page and click on the first link in view. Others will read multiple paragraphs before they make an action. Have links available along the pages entirety. Once again make it easy for the user to make a decision at their pace. Track all links with custom tags so as to know which ones are of the most value. That way if you have a multi-stage process like a registration form, survey, or shopping cart you can assess when and where you are having your worst losses.
- Use different forms – You will lose 30% of your respondents for each registration field. So first just try to get an email address so as to start as many new relationships as possible, then you can worry about acquiring new information down the road. Also get a few fields of information so you can separate your “A” leads from your “B” leads. A good rule of thumb is to only ask pertinent information that the user will understand that you need to go about your business. Then they are more apt to give you what you want.
- Take nothing for granted – Common knowledge is not necessarily common. What may be the every day for you can be confusing to others with less experience. Especially if they are from a different country or even company. Sometimes you should even repeat a process for clarity purposes to accommodate those who are confused, but be careful not to be redundant.
- Test multiple landing pages – Make sure to set up more than one page to test different variables. Experiment with how many fields you ask for in your request form. Also, test the length of your site. If it is to long it may bore them, but if it isn’t long enough for the information seeker then they may not “pull the trigger” without ample information.
- Leave it up – It is hard to judge what is working for your site and what is not when you don’t give it the time to develop a certain pattern. Especially with a email campaign; everyone receives so many emails now that it is sometimes becomes impossible to read them all. Although most go through there old emails eventually and there is when time will be on your side. So if you can, try to make your offer as evergreen as possible.
- Follow up tracking – Do your best not to intrude. Wait until they are done with the landing page before you question them. Then ask them to tell you where the hang ups were in the system, something like; “what would make it easier on you?” then you are not putting their intelligence on question. Very often what they will suggest will be the remedy your site needs.
- You don’t know it all – Internet Marketing is still very new and experimental. How we use the landing page is a constant changing art that has a different audience to please every day. That which worked last week may not the next. So be on top of your game and don’t be afraid to change or adapt.
Conclusion
There’s no perfect way to optimize your pages. You need to use the tips here and a good testing campaign to continually refine and measure what performs best in your niche. Sometimes, you might be surprised by the results!