Landing pages are becoming more and more common as the internet expands. They are used for a variety of purposes, but are usually associated with some form of marketing or sales. Most landing pages are quite simple, have little content, and focus on making the viewer take a particular action of believe a particular thing. Landing pages play a huge part in modern web design. If you don’t understand them and what they are used for, then you are losing some serious potential for your website to expand.
What defines a landing page?
Generally, the aim of a landing page is to present a particular point or to sell a particular product. It is therefore important to make sure that you don’t use irrelevant content that is going to distract the viewer. A good landing page has a number of defining features, including:
- A single page web design (in most cases) which is clear and succinct.
- A clear selling point, call to action, or click to action which encourages the viewer to do something.
- A number of links to your main website, the product that you are trying to sell, or to anywhere else you want to direct the reader to.
- Simple, clear graphics which fit in with the main sites design.
A good landing page will have some or all of the above qualities, but experienced web designers can often craft a workable landing page with different styles or features.
How do people find your landing page?
Generally, you will have to do some sort of advertising if you would like people to be able to find your landing page. Most people will arrive there from clicking on sponsored links, pay per click (ppc) adverts, or social media adverts. However, it is also worth investing some time into on and off-page SEO, especially if you have a popular or well-known website already.
What sort of landing pages are there?
There are two main types of landing pages.
Reference landing pages:
Reference pages tend to focus on providing information to the viewer. They might summarise the benefits of the product that they are trying to sell, outline why you should use a company’s services, or even just give information about something in the hope that you will click through and purchase it.
Transactional landing pages:
On the other hand, transactional landing pages are all about getting the viewer to give up their information and/or money. They actively encourage a person to buy something, and will often withhold some of their information until some details (e.g. email address) are provided by the viewer.
Should I use landing pages?
If you have a product to sell or a service to offer then yes, you would be stupid not to use some form of landing page. Doing so will help you get more conversions, increase your revenue, and should help you become a more successful online business person.