A lot goes into creating a website. Language has to be exact. SEO has to be taken into account. Images have to be just right, and branding has to feel organic.
You’ve probably done a lot of work to ensure you get this right. One thing you must get right is the landing page. This is the page users will see first. It is the key to a good conversion rate, so getting the landing page right is vital, and the following tips will help with that.
1. Hook the Target Audience
When learning how to make a website, people do a lot of research, and one thing that has to be thoroughly studied is the site’s target audience. Understanding this group of people should help you create the best site, and this includes the landing page. It’s vital that the landing page connects to your target audience. It has to speak their language, cater to needs, desires, and it has to be clear.
2. Directness is Vital
A landing page shouldn’t encourage visitors to leave right away. You want them to stay there and absorb the content you’ve created for them. You don’t want to provide too many distractions. Keep in mind that distractions can be all sorts of things including links even if they go to other pages of your site. Navigation links should be included as well. Remove these from your landing page, and this will help keep your bounce rate low.
3. Focus on Responsiveness
Responsiveness is a must throughout your website, and this includes your landing page. Many online users use multiple devices to access the web, and you need to anticipate that. Your landing page has to adapt to multiple devices, be it a desktop or a smartphone. Many online users leave a landing page because it takes too long to load, or the page simply doesn’t adapt to their smartphones.
4. Stick to Simple Layouts
A clear and direct message is all that matters on your landing page. The reason you don’t want distractions here is the same reason you don’t want to add any irrelevant information. You want to keep things as concise as possible. Only show visitors what they need to know. White space is your friend, so add as much white space as you can. Taking this approach not only makes your landing page more effective, but it makes the information memorable.
5. Readability Really Matters
The next thing you need to worry about is readability. Website builders may overlook this. Sometimes, this problem occurs because of an attractive font, but don’t let that distract you from the fact that you need the clearest font you can find. While other fonts may be more aesthetically pleasing, if they are hard to read, they won’t help you. Readability goes beyond the type of font used. You also need to worry about using simple language. Be sure to add bullet points or anything that’ll help with readability.
6. Using Media to Engage
It’s true that using all that white space and attempting to be concise is going to make it easy for users to leave once they soak in the information you have. If you want to keep them engaged so that they are curious enough to explore the rest of your site, you’ll need a powerful tool: media. The good thing is that media comes in many forms, such as images, videos, or even GIFs. You’ll need to incorporate these in story form to ensure visitors continue looking.
7. Forms Need to Be Short
Some landing pages have forms. If you need yours to collect vital information, then keep it short. Yes, the more information you collect from your visitors, the more data you can use to your advantage. It makes sense that you want to add all sorts of questions to your forms, but try to resist this. Longer forms will turn visitors off and make them leave your page. Stick to shorter forms that can be filled out quickly.
8. Getting the CTA Right
Removing distractions is vital, but you still need to lead your visitors somewhere. This is where your CTA or call to action comes into play. It has to be done right. It can’t be too pushy, and it has to be offered at the end of your message once you’ve convinced visitors to keep exploring. The CTA has to be quite convincing, and it has to have a bit of urgency attached to it. You can do this by simply adding words like “now,” “free,” or “go.” These are powerful persuasive words. Try to make sure you also make the CTA button as big as you can. You don’t want visitors to miss it.
Hopefully, this information helps you build a strong and effective landing page to go along with the rest of your site.