So you’ve got your website, and you’re all ready to start letting the traffic flood in. Your Google AdWords are doing their job, and all is well. Seeing all sorts of traffic on your site is wonderful, but what happens when you realize that no one is buying anything? Enter the Landing Page.

So what is a Landing Page?
Maybe you’ve heard the term before, maybe you haven’t, or maybe you even have a Landing page on your website already. Either way, they’re important. A Landing Page is a single web page that appears in response to clicking on a search engine optimized search result or an online advertisement. The Landing Page will usually display directed sales copy that is related to the advertisement, search result or link.

Why is a Landing Page so important?
A landing page takes the idea of the ad displayed on the Search Engine, and gives clear direction for the viewer to do something. Basically, when the viewer looks at your Landing Page, all of the thoughts and curiosity brought on by the ad viewed on the Search Engine are affirmed on it’s corresponding Landing Page- thus leading the viewer to do something with it’s call to actions. In a way, it’s much like a funneling effect:

Viewer sees ad -> Viewer clicks ad -> Viewer sees matching information on Landing Page -> Viewer takes action with call to action on Landing Page -> You get viewer information!

What makes an effective Landing Page?As alluded to previously, a Landing page has one purpose: to compel your viewers to complete an action (also known as conversion). The more you can do to complete this purpose, the better. A few helpful tips  are as follows:

  • Simplicity: Don’t let your Landing Pages get muddied up by navigation and such. This will distract your viewer from completing the goal of the page.
  • Design: Keep an eye-catching design that leads to your CTA. If your page is always pointing to your call to action, it’s a win.
  • Phrasing: It’s all in the language. Good phrasing will be just as effective as good design. In the same way, bad phrasing will as effectively turn viewers away as bad design.

Test, Test, Test!
When all is said and done with your sweet Landing Page, you’ve got one step left: Testing. This means measuring the traffic that comes to your page, seeing what that traffic is doing, and measuring the bounce rate. Bounce rate is the measurement of viewers that come to your website, and then leave right away- hence the term “bounce.” Of all of the different statistics you could get, bounce rate would be most telling in terms of your Landing Page. So how do you measure these statistics? There are a few different methods, including Google Analytics. Another great method is our own Inbound Advisor, which not only gets statistics, but our trained advisors give expert advice that will help you get more conversions.

Examples:So what kind of designer would I be if I wrote a blog post about design and didn’t show any examples? Here are 5 great (though not perfect) examples of AWESOME Landing Pages.

Bear CSS:

Bear CSS - Helping you build a solid stylesheet foundation based on your markup

CrowdSPOTTR:

Crowdspottr - Go out and socialize!

Designed To Move:

Designed To Move - A physical activity agenda to fuel the future.

Grooveshark

Grooveshark - Preview the New Grooveshark

Squarespace:

Build a Website - Squarespace 6

Enjoy!