5 Tips for Creating an Effective Landing Page

While you might think you have plenty of time to grab your users’ attention with your strong graphics and clever copy, you have less than 8 seconds.

If you don’t grab your visitors in that frame of time, you might as well kiss them goodbye forever. But rather than give up the work that it took to get people to see your landing page, you can improve it to keep users hanging around.

Here are 5 ways you can create better landing pages that make a big impact on your users.

1. Your Headlines Need Intent

Sometimes your headlines are the only chance you have to capture your audience. As soon as the page loads, you need to reach out and grab the attention of your audience in just the span of a couple of seconds. Your landing page needs to match up with the search query and SEO that your audience was focused on and deliver.

If you’re not communicating clearly from that point on, you’ve got no chance of retaining your visitors.

Your content needs to be specific. When you’re crafting your headline, it needs to match up with your overall intent.

Don’t be afraid to be obvious, brief, or to leave white space. Writers are more inclined to make grandiose statements, clutter the page, and leave their audience with questions. You don’t always have that luxury.

Use your headline to take your shot and make it count.

2. Answer “Who, What, and Why” in a Scan

Your audience needs to answer the most obvious questions on their first quick visual pass. They shouldn’t have to scroll before they start getting an idea about what’s going on. Use simple visual cues to help them decide whether you’re worth their time.

You need to give them a clear understanding of what your brand is and what you do. They need a reason to stick around so you’ll have to editorialize about your products and services. You need to underscore any existing brand recognition and otherwise make an impact by telling users why they should rely on your services.

You need to tell people who you are, what you do, and how you do it. You need to especially focus on how you stand out from other similar products, how you’ll be adding to your users’ lives, and how you provide continued value.

Don’t bury important information about your products and services. Encourage them to engage further.

When it comes to getting your users to engage further, nothing below the fold or following the first scroll even exists. None of it matters if you don’t engage visitors right away.

3. Let Them Know What to Do

Once they’ve gotten all the basic information, what do they do next? Do they buy your product? Do they test the pH in their swimming pool? Do they see if their dog is depressed?

If you want to sell a product, you need an “add to cart” button featured prominently and in an obvious location. You need your landing pages to direct people to take action.

You can give users options to write reviews, check out your other similar products, or follow you on social media. Whatever you think they could be inspired to do, make sure they have the option at their fingertips.

They’re not going to rush to look you up on social media. They need a button right there to help guide them along.

4. Measure Traffic Flows

You need to keep track of where people go from your landing page. Depending on how they search for you, they’ll end up going in different directions. Give them options on the landing page but track them closely.

Don’t leave a lot of options that people don’t clearly want. Otherwise, you need to start capturing search queries that are related to the traffic you’re not currently getting but that you want.

In the end, you’ll get a higher ranking because users trust you. When you have strong interactions with your users and share who you are as a brand, you stick in the minds of viewers for a long time. The longer you get to engage with your potential audience, the more powerful the trust you build will be.

That trust is what gets you those “next clicks”. Those steps taken from your landing page to your products or more substantial content are what will make your business flourish. When it’s easy to know what to click on next and how it could benefit you, you provide a better user experience.

5. Make It Easy to Share

Once your visitors have gotten what they need from you, you need them to spread the word. There’s no better way to get a reliable and loyal customer than to use a loyal customer to convince them. Social sharing and social media connecting buttons are vital for this.

You’ve got to inspire them to share what they like about you or what they’ve found. Just clicking through is easy. But when your customers share, it means they’re putting their reputation on the line for their social media audience.

Make sure you’ve got a profile on every major social media site from Pinterest, to LinkedIn, to Facebook. The more ways you give your users to share their satisfaction, the better the result will be for you.

Creating the Perfect Landing Page Isn’t Easy

If you want to create a strong landing page that makes an impact on your audience, you can’t be withholding. While you might want to leave a few concepts up to mystery, most everything you have to offer has to be available from your landing page. You might not get a second chance to win your clients over.

If you’re looking for clever ways to promote your business on a tight budget, check out our guide for making it work.