Landing Page - Getting Web Site Landing Pages Right

A landing page is the destination URL that users visit after they have clicked on a search engine result, a paid search listing or any other link that might bring visitors to your web site. The average web site visitor will know after just a few instances if the site she is currently looking at grabs her attention and might eventually have the potential to turn a casual visitor into a paying customer. Hence the importance of getting a landing page right, especially if the web site owner is paying for the traffic.

Here are some considerations aiming at improving landing pages and as a result web site conversions and return on investment.

First of all it is important to understand that search engines rank pages, not sites. A web site hence may have several landing pages optimized for different keywords. While the home page usually is the highest ranking page of a site in the search engines, it would be wrong to assume that it automatically is the best landing page. In fact, any web site optimization should try to get other pages than the home page into the search engines as well.

There are a few common mistakes related to landing pages, these include:

1.) Not realizing the importance of landing pages. The attention span of web site visitors is very short, so any web page has to grab the attention of visitors, engage them and eventually induce them to take action. This ideally happens on the landing page, we cannot expect the casual visitor to click to another page after the first page she visited was already boring.

2.) Overburdening the landing page with information. A good landing page will be targeted and not divert the attention of visitors. If we try to make a clear call to action we cannot tell the visitor about every aspect of our business on a single page.

3.) Suppose that the best copy is brief copy. While the attention span is short on the Internet, it does not mean that visitors do not want to read copy to inform themselves. A visitor's decision to take action has to be supported with relevant information.

4.) Presenting the visitor with a contact form on the landing page. Yes, the landing page is supposed to deliver a strong call for action, but it would be foolish to believe that a visitor will taken action right away after 'landing' on a page. It is impossible to push people on the Internet, so the landing has to provide a good opening to pull people along to take action.