11 Elements Your Landing Page Must Have

The Definitive Guide to Optimizing Your Landing Page.

Do you know what makes a landing page a great landing page? What are the elements you need to think about?

So no more talk – this is a long article so you need some coffee – ready?

 

Call to Action

You would be amazed to see how many landing pages that doesn’t have a call to action. A call to action could be to sign up for a newsletter (like I have here – so please sign up).

A call to action could also be to fill out a web form and of course to buy something on your landing page, or maybe you want your viewers to download a PDF.

Some tips about call to action is:

• Be clear – tell the user what action he should take
• Use only a limited number of calls to action – if you have too many calls to action, you will confuse the user. Like download our PDF and remember to sign up for our newsletter and by the way you can buy this product now. This is not good right?
• Uses of buttons – buttons are great if you want the user to click on something as a call to action, much better than just a text link. (Hmm I have to change some of my calls to action)
• Supporting information – some of the users might not be ready to do the action yet, they will need some more information about your product or service, so be sure it’s easy to find on your landing page

Read more – How to use call to action for your SEO

 

Headline

You have to create a powerful headline. The headline is the first element that the user will see – the user will focus on the headline to check your main message before putting the attention to the image (I know, sometimes its the image first)

The goal of your landing page is to make sure your visitor is staying on your landing page. So if I made a Google Adword ad saying – Blue Cheap Cars – and when the visitor click to my landing site he will read – 11 elements you must have on your landing page – he will quickly leave my landing page again.

So spend some time thinking about your headline – is it really interesting enough to make the visitor curious enough to keep reading? (Well – if you are reading this, I guess my headline was good enough for this article).

Some tips for your headline:

• Keep it short and direct – if its to long you have lost the attention from the user before he even starts to read, he might just jump to the image instead
• Get the users’ attention – if you make the user curious he might just have to keep on reading
• Use relevant keyword – be sure you use a relevant keyword, it’s good for the user and good for your SEO

Read more – How to write a killer headline

 

Simplicity

This is really important for your landing page – you need to make it simple for your user. If your landing page is too complex you will confuse the user and he might leave you right away.

So think about your use of colors, the use of images, the size of your elements on your landing page.

You don’t have to fill up the page with a lot of text and images – the use of white space on your page could make it simpler.

And if you have too many calls to action on your landing page you will again confuse the user.

Some tips about simplicity:

• Every element should encourage the user to take the action you want him to
• Have one primary call to action – you can have more calls to action – but be sure the user has no doubt about what you want him to do
• Use the white space to make your landing page simple – this way your landing page will not look like it is cramped together.

Read more – The importance of usability when building a website and Don’t let me think usability

 

The eye flow

Think about the eye flow of your landing page. The eye flow is the order in which the user will read or consume your information.

The reader will properly first get his attention to the headline, then the image (sometimes it is the other way around), and then maybe you have some colorful elements on your site. So when you design your landing page think about the order in which you want the user to look, and design your landing page to support that order.

A way you can check that is to use heat maps. You can install programs like ClickTale.

Use graphical elements like icons, arrows, images to direct the attention and the eye flow of your user.

Use high-contrast between your background and your elements. If you have a high contrast your elements will stand out much better and you can control the eye flow much better.

Some tips to the eye flow:

• Sit down with a piece of paper and write down how you want the user’s eye flow. With that paper you can now design your landing page much better.
• Use elements like arrows, icon and images
• Use high contrast colors between elements and background

Read more – Google heat maps and SEO, 3 images strategies to boost your traffic and Points to consider while designing a user friendly website

 

Relevance

Relevance is important for every single visitor that visits your site.

You will have to create a landing page for each of your campaigns. The key is relevance.

If your Google Adwords ad tells the visitor that you have a 40 percent discount this month – you better have a 40 percent discount on your landing page. If your ad says “40 percent off…” and then your landing page is saying “40 percent off…” then the visitor will find it very relevant to read the page right?

You could have different landing pages for a Facebook ad, Google Adwords ad and so on. You could make special discount codes and different call to actions depending on what website the user is coming from. This way you can also better measure how effective your marketing campaign is.

Some tips regarding reliance:

• Create a landing page for each campaign.
• Customize your landing page to each source of media

Read more – Boost your conversion rate with dynamic keywords on your landing site

 

Reduce the risk of taking action

Your potential buyer don’t what to take to much risk buying from your web shop (or whatever your goal is).

He might be concerned about his security, his privacy and maybe of being scammed. So the question is how can take some of the risk away from him.

Well you can do something.

Maybe you should offer him a guarantee that you will buy the product back if he is not completely satisfied.

Take a look at the questions you get from your customers – maybe many of them are concerned about the transfer of money, the time from the buying until they have the product or maybe about the security in general.

Some tips about reducing the risk of taking action:

• Offer a compelling guarantee
• Create a FAQ with the most common questions
• A free trial (you could offer a free trial for 1 week if that is possible) or a low priced item to get started

Read more – Design to sell – 5 tips for your design

 

Scarcity

Scarity is a great psychological trick for the landing page. If you create a sense of scarcity you will tell your users that they have to be fast before you run out of stock. Or maybe the first 7 days they will get a discount.

So scarcity is a way that you will encourage your visitors to take action.

Some tips about scarcity:

• Urgency – use a number of days when you write about scarcity.
• Dynamic information – maybe you will only sell 200 items on your landing page – so you could make a dynamic count down saying “now only 24 left”

 

Trust elements

Most of your visitors might not know your shop or your products when they arrive to your landing page. So there is a an old saying when you are in the sells business:

“I don’t know you, I don’t know your company, I don’t know your product – and tell me why should I buy from you?”

You will have to create trust when people are coming to your landing page.

There are a number of ways you can do this – say that 50.000 people can’t be wrong, that you have 20.000 followers, 10.000 have bought your product, testimonials from previous buyers, positive reviews, comments from blogs.

If 10.000 people have bought the product you will trust the product right? And if 20.000 people are following the company on Facebook, it’s a trustworthy company.

Some tips about trust

• Show your social data from social media like Facebook, Twitter and Google+
• Local trust elements are always great – this will show everybody that you are real
• Be honest about your testimony and reviews (no no no don’t let your girlfriend or mother write a testimonial)

Read more – How you can build trust and authority to your website and get higher ranking

 

The Perfect Landing Page

Now let show you how you can put all this information together into a great landing page. I found this awesome Infographic at Kissmetrics. So take a good look at it.

You don’t have to make your landing page like this one – but it can give you some ideas.

By the way I would also include a social sharing button on the page – even though I know you don’t have too many different calls to action. But the social network these days is very important – for potential customers and for the SEO. That’s why the headline of this article is “11 Elements Your Landing Page Must Have” and not 10.

Click on the picture to see it larger.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Conclusion

The design of landing pages is crucial in prompting users to take your desired action.

By following the simple tips mentioned above, you’ll be well on your way to creating effective landing pages.

All the best to you, Henrik

 

PS – remember my goal is to make you sign up for my super duper fantastic newsletter – and if you do, you can download my 4 complete SeoCustomer guides about SEO, SEM, Social Media Traffic and Link Building – sign up here.