What Is a Landing Page?

Many businesses can benefit from the increased visibility and potential leads and sales that a website can bring but it’s important to make sure that the site you build is effective for its purpose. As with all things in life, first impressions matter.  This is especially true for websites as people browsing online will quickly lose interest if they find a page boring or unnecessarily wordy. A recent study by Microsoft found that our attention spans are growing ever shorter in the modern world. It reported that people now have an average attention span of 8 seconds, less than that of a goldfish. In other words, the first page of your website that a potential customer or client sees is incredibly important for keeping their attention.

The best way to ensure your website is converting as many visitors into sales or subscribers as possible is to create a landing page. A landing page is a single web page of your site that a visitor is directed to when they click onto a link, web search result, or online advertisement. Its sole purpose is to convert visitors into sales, and therefore should be as focused as possible.

The most effective way to create a landing page is by keeping things simple and clear. Any text you use should be concise and to the point, and unrelated information should be avoided. Remember that the first impression is key and gaining the immediate full attention of the visitor is the goal.

How to Create a Landing Page

To start building your landing page, you should first focus on what you immediately want to gain from it. This could be collecting email addresses for your newsletter or selling your latest product. Once you’re focused on your aim, it will be easier to create a landing page that is effective.

There are two main types of landing pages to consider:

1. A bridge page – This type of landing page is specifically for grabbing the visitor’s attention before directing them further into your website. It can be for a special promotion of a product, a new product announcement, a recent post about a change in the business, or some other announcement that is designed to increase traffic to other areas of your site.
2. A form page – This is a landing page that is more about building your audience for later conversion into leads and sales. It will be a prompt with a short form that will ask for information from the visitor, typically including their contact information so you can add them to your mailing list. To increase the likelihood of the visitor giving their email address, you can offer a discount or exclusive content when they subscribe.

Landing Page Design

Now that you know the type of landing page you would like to create, make sure to include the following five features into your page:

1. Headline

This is a no brainer: you want your headline to immediately attract the attention of the visitor and be short and to the point. Most of the time, it should also be relevant to the rest of the page. For example, if you’re asking for contact details for an email list, don’t use a headline talking about a product for sale.

2. Design

Looks are also important when it comes to first impressions. Pages that people find aesthetically pleasing are more likely to keep the visitor’s attention and convert them into a lead or sale. Use colors and a style that matches your overall brand.

3. Mobile compatibility

These days, everyone has a smartphone and people are using their mobile devices to access the internet more than ever. Around 58% of internet traffic in 2018 came from mobile users, so it’s crucial that you create a landing page that is usable on mobile devices.

4. Call to action

A call to action is a button or link which prompts users to click on to sign up, subscribe, make an order or so on. It’s ultimately the end product of your landing page so you want to make it stand out as much as possible. Your call to action should be clearly stated and make people want to act. It may include phrases like "buy now," "read more," "download now," or other commanding phrases.

5. Images and video

Although not always necessary, good images and videos can help to deliver a message without the use of written words and encourage visitor attention. Landing pages with videos have also been shown to potentially increase conversions.

Although all of this can seem like a lot to handle for someone just starting out in the creation of their site, you should know that there are many website builders available to help you easily get the job done. Not only will website builders allow you to create and customize your website, but they also offer you the opportunity to create a landing page that will have all of the features listed above.

Easiest Way to Create a Landing Page

Here are a few recommendations for website builders that can take a lot of the difficulty out of building a website and will help to create a landing page that works best for your business:

Wix

One of the most popular and effective website builders available is Wix, thanks to its large range of templates and styles. With Wix, you can fully customize your website without having to learn any difficult coding languages. They have multiple price options, search engine optimization features that help you to reach your target audience, and landing page templates to allow you to specifically create a landing page.

Hibu

A bit different from traditional website building services, Hibu offers a team of professionals who can create a website specifically for you. They consult with you to complete your site based on exactly what you need and saving you from doing it yourself. All of the sites created by Hibu are fully usable on mobile devices and any type of landing page design can be created for you.

Jimdo

Jimdo doesn’t just rely on templates so the creation of your site is a little less restrictive. An intelligent AI system builds a website around your needs and if you have experience with coding, you're allowed to add your own. There are a few price plans to choose from including a free option, which gives you a chance to see if the service is right for you before committing to a subscription plan.

Once your landing page is set up, it’s important to promote the page effectively either by using ads or organically through your social media accounts and email marketing. Most of the best website builders receive data based on landing page traffic. Based on this data, you can evaluate the effectiveness of your landing page design and call to action, and tweak the design of your page if necessary.

Ultimately, the landing page is very effective for converting visitors when used correctly. By utilizing these tips, you should have no trouble creating a landing page that will help you successfully reach your goal.