5 Steps to a Better Landing Page

[Spider]

Okay - I can see the argument for a single-purpose landing page as described, with a single choice (or, as VG says - 2 choices, click or leave.) It is not 50/50, though - well, the choice is but the results won't be, I think. If 100 people come to the dedicated landing page, I don't think one can expect 50 completions and 50 desertions. More like 5 clickthrus and 95 exits (5% isn't bad, I think.)

I think wasting 95% of your visitors (or whatever percentage) is a shame. Can't we try to keep some of that traffic? They came for a purpose somewhat allied to our business, even if the particular offer wasn't to their liking. I'm sure someone must have done a study to determine the most effective number of choices. Perhaps 2 choices--

-- Buy (desired result)
-- Investigate further
-- Leave

Or 3 choices--

-- Buy (desired result)
-- Investigate A further
-- Investigate B further
-- Leave

I wonder, on average, how many people who don't buy straight off would come back and buy after they have investigated further.

[Dan Furman]

If 100 people come to the dedicated landing page, I don't think one can expect 50 completions and 50 desertions. More like 5 clickthrus and 95 exits (5% isn't bad, I think.)

*snip*

I wonder, on average, how many people who don't buy straight off would come back and buy after they have investigated further.

Happens to me a lot - I know I get bookmarked often, then many times the person returns later to contact me.

[vangogh]

If 100 people come to the dedicated landing page, I don't think one can expect 50 completions and 50 desertions.

Absolutely. I don't think you're going to get a conversion rate to match the rate of choices. Say your 5% estimate of success is right when you offer the two options (buy or leave). Had you added navigation and links to other options that conversion rate might have been 2%. The idea isn't so much that your rate of success will mimic how many options you present, but rather the fewer options you present the more likely someone will choose the option you want them to choose.

[Spider]

Yes, I can see the suppositions. I wonder, though, if anyone has done any testing to determine an optimum number of landing page choices.

[vangogh]

I can't say I've done the testing myself, but I believe those who have tested have found it's best to offer as few options as possible. Every extra option only reduce the odds the option you want is the one chosen.

[painperdu]

spider, the landing page is meant to be at the end of a funnel process that filters out prospects. In other words, if everything was done correctly and ideally the landing page with only the choices of action or leave should be the exact place the user wanted to be.

The landing page shouldn't be like a trap door where the user is surprised to be. It should be a well thought out buying process meant only for users interested in your offer. Of course this is marketing and not an exact science so there will be users who find themselves on a landing page not meant for them but then again . . .it's marketing.

[Spider]

...the landing page is meant to be at the end of a funnel process that filters out prospects. ...

That's interesting. I was under the impression that the landing pages being referred to in this thread were for SE-marketing - where someone searching for widgets would find a landing page for widgets in the SERPS.

So, do we have two different kinds of landing pages? One for searchers and one for site visitors?

Landing page for searchers >> You wanna buy my widgets? Click here or leave!

Landing page for visitors >> Now that you have read about our widgets, seen the varieties we offer, know how we make them (etc. etc.) This is where you make up your mind to buy - so, put up or leave!

If that is the case (please forgive my frivolous descriptions), how does a searcher distinguish between a landing page - buy or leave - from an information page(s) that will help him decide if a widget is really the answer to his problem.

[vangogh]

Landing pages is one of those terms that can be confusing since different people end up calling different things landing pages. In one sense they are simply the first page a visitor lands on your site. In another they're a highly focused page meant specifically to sell a single product. The latter page might still be the first one seen on your site, but that person has been usually been primed on other sites or in ads to be highly targeted toward what your page is selling.

Here's how the article defined landing page

A landing page is a page that displays specific content based on how the user is referred. For example, if you ran a newspaper campaign about a new product, you would direct them to a “landing page” that promoted that product specifically.

It's referring more to the second kind of landing page where the visitor is already primed.

So while the page may be the first someone sees on your site in the sense they've landed there, it's still a page with a single focused goal. It doesn't have to be to sell a product directly, though it often is. The goal might be to collect an email address or get a subscriber to your a blog, etc.

It gets confusing though since the term landing page makes it seem like the page is going to be the visitors first impression of you and you always hear the phrase thrown around how every page on your site is essentially a landing page. Usually though if you see an article about landing pages, odds are it's the single focused page where much of the priming has happened off the site.

[Dan Furman]

Look at it this way, Fred... say you're a plumber. You have a ten page website. A few of those pages are for individual services (one for water heaters, one for remodels, one for new construction, etc)

Your home page, obviously, gives the birds-eye view of your business. The navigation bar will have links, and maybe the "services" link has a javascript flyout that shows the individual pages, etc. And maybe even your homepage copy has a bulleted list to a few of the services

Fairly normal so far, right? Despite that I used "plumbing" in my example, I'm really describing millions of business websites.

Now, say you run a google ad for water heaters. Instead of sending those clicks to your home page, why not send them to your water heater services page? And tweak the copy ever so slightly to "welcome" people as if this is the first page they are seeing (which to many, it now might be)

THAT'S now considered a "landing page".

In other words, because you control the google ad and where the click ends up, why not send the people interested in water heaters to a water heaters page, and send the remodel people to the remodel page, etc etc? It falls right into the "solve the problem people came with" quite nicely.

When landing pages are discussed, the conversation is almost always talking about PPC, e-mail, or some other type of "direct" advertising. Because it's very easy (and fast) to control who clicks. With organic, it's nowhere near as timely - you might have to wait a year, making it impractical for testing products, strategies, etc. This isn't to say you can't tweak pages to welcome organic traffic, but it's MUCH more scattershot, and usually not implied whenever landing pages are discussed in the context they usually are.

[vangogh]

Now, say you run a google ad for water heaters. Instead of sending those clicks to your home page, why not send them to your water heater services page?

Yep. You always want to take people to the most direct page that matches your ad. Someone who clicks on a link to your water heater services page has shown an interest in your water heater services. Don't make them spend another click or two to find that page. Take them right to the page and also make sure to match your page heading to the ad. They clicked looking for water heater services so make the main heading on the page read Water Heater Services.