Are you looking for ways to drive traffic and increase conversions on your website? Having a well-crafted landing page is key. An effective landing page can capture leads, boost engagement, and encourage visitors to take action.
Creating an optimized landing page requires more than just slapping together some visuals – dozens of tips and tricks go into crafting the perfect page.
This article has well over 11 essential best practices for designing and launching your high-performing landing pages! Read on to discover great tactics that enhance visibility and bring quality leads.
Consistency across all landing pages is key. Logos, layouts, and brand colors should be the same so that visitors recognize the company and donate to look for other recognition elements.
Any copy used for branding must also reflect the tone of voice associated with the business, staying true to its core values. This way, visitors will expect the same messaging style no matter where they land.
When creating brand consistency across landing pages, pay attention to the details. Logo placement and size should be uniform throughout, as well as font types and sizes.
This creates a familiarity with prospective leads, who will view your business more positively when they see these recognition elements.
Aside from visuals, make sure to incorporate any taglines, slogans, or other key messages in the same way across all landing pages.
This should be done in a way that allows visitors to quickly understand your offering and brand story without having to search for details.
The primary goal of a landing page is to get visitors to take action, making it essential to craft the perfect call-to-action (CTA). Your CTA should be clear, concise, and direct for visitors to understand exactly what they need to do.
The copy and visuals of your CTA should also be compelling enough to inspire visitors to take action. Make sure your CTA stands out on the page with bold color and size, using contrasting colors from other elements of the page.
When creating the CTA, consider where you want visitors to go. If it's a sign-up page, include links that provide more information about what they are signing up for.
The copy should also be specific enough so that visitors know exactly what will happen after they click on the link or submit their information.
Make sure you test different versions of your CTA and measure the results to see which one performs best.
This way, you can get an idea of how engaging your CTA is and make adjustments accordingly. Check the page's performance regularly to ensure your CTA is working effectively.
Simple and intuitive navigation on your landing page is key to helping visitors quickly and easily find what they need minimally – avoid overwhelming users with too many choices or links.
Don't bury important information under several clicks either – keep the most important elements at the top of the page so that visitors don't have to search for them.
Lastly, don't forget a call to action button – this should be visible and easy to locate on your landing page. If possible, try to include it in more than one place. This will allow visitors to take action from anywhere on the page.
Make sure all your navigation labels are clear and concise, using words and phrases that are easy for visitors to understand.
Your navigation should be organized logically – make sure the order makes sense, and there's a natural flow from one page to another. Try not to include too many options on any page either – keep it simple.
Your landing page should have a clean, organized design. Keep your copy concise and avoid cluttering the page with too many visuals or information.
Limit navigation options to help visitors focus on the desired action. Pay attention to white space and use images sparingly.
A minimalist design is easier to navigate, aiding visitor retention and conversions. Optimize your page for mobile devices by using scalable elements that resize across form factors.
Simple typography helps visitors read quickly and easily, and including visuals like icons or illustrations can break up the text and make it easier to digest. Also, remember to keep your color palette consistent throughout the page.
Your landing page should also be easy to use and interact with. Ensure all essential elements are visible and accessible, such as CTA buttons, forms, or other interactive elements.
Remove any unnecessary elements that will get in the way of the desired action. Aim to design an intuitive experience that helps visitors take action quickly and easily.
Storytelling is a powerful tool for connecting with target audiences. You can build an emotional connection and create engagement by telling stories about your brand, product, or service.
Not only does storytelling help you get attention from potential customers, but it also helps educate them about the benefits of what you offer.
This landing page's best practices recommend storytelling to increase conversions and generate positive customer feedback.
Source: Oxywear Redesign
Studies show that storytelling techniques can help create a more engaging experience for users, who are more likely to remember your message and take action.
It's an effective way to differentiate yourself from competitors since it allows you to stand out with your unique story.
To start, you need to determine which story will be the most effective for engaging your target audience. You can do this by understanding what motivates them and their pain bullet points.
Once you have an idea of what resonates with them, you can craft a compelling story that will capture the attention and imagination of users.
Visuals are an essential part of any landing page. With best practices for using visuals on your landing pages, you can increase the effectiveness of your overall page design.
To start, you should use visuals to reinforce the message you're trying to communicate. This could be through static images or videos that explain your service or product quickly and effectively.
Be sure to choose relevant visuals for the page, as this will help keep visitors attention. It's important to use high-quality images that look professional and convey a sense of reliability.
It would be best if you also aimed to keep your visuals simple and uncluttered, making it easier for visitors to digest the information. It's a good idea to use visuals consistent with your brand identity and aesthetic so that your landing page is cohesive and looks professional.
Mobile-first design is designing websites, applications, or other digital products focusing on mobile devices first.
When creating these products, the designer will consider how content and functionality would look on smaller screens like phones before adding features for larger desktop devices.
The mobile-first design offers several advantages, including improved performance, better user experience, and greater scalability. Here are the best practices to consider when designing for a mobile-first audience:
1. Make sure your content is optimized for smaller screen sizes – Text should be easy to read with larger font sizes and longer line lengths; images should be well-optimized for smaller screens, and buttons should be large enough to tap easily with a finger.
2. Make sure elements are easy to interact with – It's important that users can understand the function of elements at a glance, so use well-defined buttons, links, value propositions, and other interactive objects. Ensure navigation is intuitive by having clear and visible menus and buttons.
3. Make sure images are well-optimized – Image size and resolution should be optimized for mobile devices, as large images can slow page loading. Compress image file sizes to reduce their overall size without sacrificing quality.
To ensure that the landing page is mobile optimized using the Lighthouse tool from chrome to test. Check how to do it: Lighthouse overview
Accessibility is important to consider if you want your website to succeed. It refers to how easy it is for people with disabilities, such as those who are visually impaired or have difficulty using a mouse, to access and use your web pages.
To ensure that your website is accessible for all users, there are key landing page best practices to follow:
1. Provide alternative text for images - Alternative text, also known as tags, "is a short description of the image that can be read aloud by screen readers. This helps those with visual impairments understand what's on the page and navigate it more easily.
2. Use headings - Headings are an important part of any page and make it easier to read and scan by breaking up content into sections. Use proper heading tags (H1, H2, etc.) that increase in importance as they go down the hierarchy.
3. Make sure your site is keyboard navigable - Someone with a disability may not be able to use a mouse, so make sure your site is navigable via keyboard.
4. Use descriptive links - Links should clearly describe where the user will go when clicked. Avoid generic phrases such as "click here, more," and opt for descriptive language.
5. Make sure your font is large and readable - Use a font size of at least 16px or larger to make it easier for those with visual impairments to read your content. Stick with the basic fonts, such as Arial, Georgia, or Times New Roman.
6. Allow users to adjust font size - Give users the ability to make the text on your page larger or smaller as needed. This can be done with a simple widget that allows them to select their preferred font size.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is optimizing web content to rank higher in search engine results in pages and increase organic traffic.
SEO helps businesses reach their target audiences more effectively by improving visibility in search engines. The goal of SEO aims the user experience, making it easier for people to find information quickly and accurately.
SEO is an ongoing process that involves multiple elements, including technical and non-technical aspects.
On the technical side, SEO involves creating optimized content for search engines, ensuring site speed and performance, and optimizing images, social proof meta tags, titles, descriptions, and URLs.
The non-technical side of SEO includes keyword research to identify target keywords, link building to increase website authority, and creating compelling content.
It is essential to monitor site speed when it comes to landing page best practices. Site speed affects the user experience and can significantly impact conversions if not properly managed.
A good rule of thumb is that any page taking more than three seconds to load should be considered slow, and anything longer than five seconds should be deemed unacceptable.
There are a few ways to check site speed. The first is using Google PageSpeed Insights, which will give you an overall score and a list of suggestions for improving your page speed. Monitoring tools such as Pingdom or Sucuri can also track and compare performance over time.
The most common culprits for slow page speeds are unoptimized images, large and unnecessary code files, and clunky plugins. To improve speed, try compressing and resizing large images before uploading them to the site.
Minifying CSS, JavaScript, and HTML can also reduce the size of code files. Finally, ensure your plugins are overloading the server by disabling any that you don't need.
Heatmaps are an invaluable tool for understanding user behavior. They provide a graphical representation of how users interact with websites and apps, allowing you to identify areas that need improvement or refine strategies for enhanced user engagement.
Heatmaps use colors to illustrate hot spots – where visitors interact the most – and cold spots with fewer interactions or none.
There are a variety of heat maps to choose from, depending on the purpose of your analysis. Click maps track user clicks and mouse movements; scroll maps measure vertical scrolling depth; attention maps assess how far users engage with particular elements on the page. Session recordings provide an in-depth look at individual user sessions from beginning to end.
Analyzing heatmaps is a step-by-step process, but the first step is always assessing the overall layout of your landing page.
Does it feature relevant information above the fold and utilize white space for better readability? Is it optimized for mobile devices so users can navigate easily on any device?
A/B testing is an effective way to optimize your website and generate more leads.
Testing can determine which combination works best by different elements of your page, such as headlines and images; it is important to keep high-converting landing page best practices in mind when A/B testing so that the results are accurate and useful.
First, always make sure to have a control version of the page to compare your tests against. This gives you something to measure the other versions against so that you know if they're successful or not.
Additionally, it's important to test one variable at a time so that it is easy to track changes in user behavior for each element.
Another key component is ensuring that your sample size is large enough to detect any differences between versions confidently.
You also want to ensure that the two versions of the page are presented randomly so that one doesn't always show up first.
For further reading check out: https://www.toptal.com/product-managers/digital/a-landing-page-design-guide
This article has provided a useful overview of 13 key landing page best practices.
Remember that the main goal is to provide an effective, easy-to-navigate page that engagingly conveys your message and encourages visitors to take action.
By taking into account the best practices outlined here, you'll be able to create landing pages that are effective in driving conversions and helping your business reach its goals.
Best practices in designing a website include having a clear and concise navigation system, optimizing the page speed, creating a well-designed landing page template, incorporating a responsive design, using visuals to draw attention and guide users, understanding typography principles, utilizing calls to action, ensuring mobile compatibility and preparing for A/B testing.
The main purpose of a landing page is to convert visitors into leads by providing customers with information about your product or service and prompting them to take action, such as signing up for an email list or making an online purchase.
There are best practices for creating an effective landing page copy: use a clear and concise headline, include persuasive copy that speaks directly to the customer, make sure your call-to-action is prominent, optimize with relevant keywords, create a sense of urgency, focus on one single goal per page,
Keep navigation links to a minimum, high-quality feature visuals (images/photos), use white space effectively, offer incentives (promotions/discounts), design for maximum readability and usability, ensure mobile compatibility, and track progress.
Your landing page design should include a clear and concise headline that speaks directly to the customer's seeds or wants; persuasive copy outlining what makes your product or service unique and why;
A prominent call-to-action (CTA) button; relevant keywords to optimize with search engine optimization (SEO); visuals that draw attention and guide users to the CTA; white space for easy reading, offers or incentives such as promotions/discounts; and tracking metrics.
To ensure your landing page is optimized, use relevant keywords throughout the copy and visuals like headlines, body copy, images, and CTAs. Additionally, it's crucial to create a sense of urgency by including limited-time offers on the web page.
Moreover, focus on one single goal per page so that visitors know exactly what to do when they land on the page.
To create a sense of urgency on your landing page form, you can include limited-time offers, countdown timers, or other incentives to encourage people to take action immediately.
Additionally, use persuasive copy and visuals that focus on the benefits of taking immediate action instead of waiting.
Some tips for making your CTA stand out include using contrasting colors from the rest of the page so it pops out;
Placing it in an easily accessible area, such as near the headline or at the bottom of the page; adding a sense of urgency by including limited-time offers; and formatting it in a way that stands out from other elements of the page.
To track the success of your same landing page, you can use analytics tools to measure key metrics such as conversions, bounce rate, time on page, and average order value.
Additionally, you can conduct A/B testing to compare different versions of the page in terms of effectiveness. Lastly, establish predetermined criteria for success or failure so that it's easier to determine which version was most successful.