Give Your Conversion Rates a Boost with Better Landing Pages

| 2060 Digital

Even if your keywords and ads are getting people to your website landing pages, if you can’t get them to convert, it won’t matter how your other efforts are performing. In fact, conversation rates are more likely to be improved through a well-planned landing page than through a shiny new ad. An ideal landing page will captivate the user as soon as they arrive on your site. By keeping them around a few seconds longer, you’re increasing your chances of interaction and potential sales. The good news is that it’s not too late to tweak your landing pages for optimum conversion. Here’s how:

Keep it simple.

A landing page functions to do one thing – collect lead information. In order to do that, you have to make it crystal clear why the consumer should convert and what they need to do in order to do so. And that’s it. The content on your landing page should focus on the benefits your lead will receive from submitting their information – whether it’s a free quote, an ebook, a white paper or a phone call, be specific about what they will get and how it will help them.

Once you’ve decided on the content, choose a straightforward format. People generally don’t want to read long paragraphs of text, so use informative headers, photos and bullet points, and don’t forget to streamline your form. You don’t have long to capture your visitor’s attention, so don’t make them guess what they have to do to convert.

Remove navigation.

Remember, a landing page is not a homepage. While a homepage is designed to provide an abundance of information and direct users around your site, a landing page should be free of distraction, focusing on the objectives of your current goal or campaign and capturing the conversion. Once the “submit” button is pressed, then you can take your new lead to a page with navigation restored so they can freely visit your site.

Don’t ask for too much.

Though it’s tempting to use landing pages and forms as market research, users may be put off if they’re required to fill out a lengthy form. Going back to the point of keeping things simple, consider what you really need to know. The most important information to get is their email address in order to keep in contact through newsletters or alerts.

A good rule of thumb to follow is to ask questions in proportion with the value of the offer. For example, if you’re simply getting people to sign up for a email newsletter, you only need their name and email. If they’re submitting information to download an ebook or claim an offer, you could probably ask for a bit more about their interests or company. If they’re requesting a call or quote, you can ask even more specific information in order to better serve them.

Take a look at load time and mobile responsiveness.

Just like with any page on your website, if your page load time is slow or if the landing page isn’t optimized for mobile, you’re going to see people bouncing off without converting. You can check out your page analytics and formatting to determine if your page is taking too long to load or if there are files and fonts that aren’t viewer friendly.

Test your page and form on a variety of mobile devices, as well. With more and more people accessing the internet from their tablets and phones, it’s imperative that you optimize even your landing pages for mobile.

Consider adding video content.

Research has shown that using a video on your landing page can help increase conversion by up to 80 percent. A video can increase visit length, raise trust and play on the tendency of viewers to watch information rather than read it. Videos are also an effective way to show off your product (or the benefits of your service), how it’s used and how each potential customer could benefit.

Better landing pages don’t have to take too much time and effort – but they do require constant vigilance to make sure that you’re capturing as many leads as possible. Review your landing pages with these tips in mind to boost conversion rates and generate new leads.