CHROMATIC

Building a great website and building a great landing page are two completely different things. While a strong website can grab the attention of visitors, a strong landing page can (and should) take those visitors and transform them into conversions.

Although conversions aren't the only important metric used to determine the efficiency and success of a website (and its marketing), they are certainly near the top of the list.

Before I share with you some of the best practices used to create a brilliant landing page, let me first define what a landing page is. According to Wikipedia, a landing page is:

the page that appears when a potential customer clicks on an advertisement or a search-engine result link. The page will usually display content that is a logical extension of the advertisement or link, and that is optimized to feature specific keywords or phrases for indexing by search engines.

Wikipedia provides a very accurate and concise summary of what a landing page is and what it should include. However, there is a lot more to landing page optimization than having relevant and optimized page content (although those two things are really, really important!).

Note: If you prefer to skip straight to our landing page reviews of Suze Orman and Dave Ramsey's home page landing pages, skip to the reviews now » .

The Tips

It's important to note that a landing page probably won't be very effective with the implementation of any single tip on this page. Although each website is different in its own distinct way (at least we hope), each of these tips will generally apply to most landing pages, and therefore you should strongly consider utilizing most (if not all) of them. Let's begin.

1. Content Relevancy

Although it should be fairly obvious, you'd be surprised how many websites fail to include relevant content on a landing page.

A landing page's content should be directly related in some way, shape, or form to:

• organic search engine results page (SERP) listings (Google, Yahoo, MSN)
• Pay-Per-Click ads (Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, Microsoft adCenter)
• inbound link anchor text found on other websites (although sometimes you don't have control over this)
• offline advertising
• a targeted social media marketing/linkbait campaign

I know this seems like common sense, but again, you'd be surprised. If people don't get exactly what they are expecting, it is highly likely that they will become one more bounce statistic and one less conversion.

For example: say you're looking for a specific book. You go to Google, type in the name of the book, click the first result, and land on a page that, rather than showing you information about the queried book, shows you information about books in general. That's poor content relevancy. People want to see information, reviews, and even an option to purchase the book. It is highly likely that you will bounce from that page and return to Google to continue browsing through the results. Keep the content related to as many referral sources as possible.

If you're optimizing for the search engines, it's also important to mention the keywords you're optimizing for within the content. Make the integration as natural as possible. Search engines like Google don't put as much emphasis on on-page content, however, for low hanging fruit and long tail keywords with little competition, it can make a significant difference.

2. Multiple Landing Pages

Many people make the mistake of using their home page as the only landing page for their website. 9 times out of 10, you're going to want to create more than one landing page for your website. Think of a landing page as a fantastic opportunity to grab the attention of a prospect looking for a very specific product, service, or whatever it is your website offers.

For example: someone from Los Angeles, California is looking for information about a trip to Chicago. Rather than creating a landing page that focuses on vacations in the United States (which is what your home page accomplishes), create a landing page that focuses on vacations in the Windy City. No matter what type of medium you're using to funnel traffic to that particular landing page, conversions will be much higher if the page focuses on vacations in Chicago (of course, you have to follow the other tips, but this is a big one, too).

In addition to the Chicago landing page, create a landing page for New York, Boston, and every other major city that your website offers vacation packages. However, there is one very important caveat: if you're optimizing for organic search engine traffic (SEO), make sure that the content on each of these targeted landing pages is significantly different from the other pages. Don't just swap out a few verbs and nouns - really make the content unique. If you don't, you risk running into duplicate content issues which could prevent these important landing pages from even showing up in the search engines. Not good, so be smart!

Note: in some cases, you can (and should) use your home page as a landing page. But that probably doesn't mean that it should be your only landing page. Embrace the power of the long tail search and create some deep link landing pages.

3. First Function, THEN Form

More and more people judge the professionalism and credibility of a website by its design. Over the past decade, there have been significant improvements in both website design software and technology (CSS/XHTML/jQuery). Graphic design continues to overlap into web design, and because of this, more and more people expect - sometimes demand - a modern, aesthetic website.

For example: whenever I'm looking for a piece of web-based software, the first thing that I look for is a well-designed website. If the website is not well-designed, I assume that the software provider is not staying up to date with technology. This assumption leads me to assume that their software is also out of date. I certainly don't want to use and depend on out of date software, thus I move on to another website. Is this always the correct decision? No, of course not. "Don't judge a book by its cover" unfortunately doesn't apply to web design, though.

Either take the time to design an attractive landing page, or hire someone to do it for you.

More important than design, however, is the functionality of a landing page. A well-designed landing page is essentially worthless if the prospect can't accomplish anything. As Peter Kent, author of Pay Per Click for Dummies - a book that has some very insightful information about landing page optimization - (and also Search Engine Optimization for Dummies) says:

If you build your site by using the method I outlined in the previous section (focusing on the form and not the function), you won't end up with a piece of sales software that does a good job of selling and (or) getting visitors to take some kind of action. Instead, you'll end up with a really pretty site that people will look at just before they purchase products from your competitors.

That about sums it up.

In this case, function is more important than form (but seriously, don't skimp on the design).

Also from the book, here are a few key questions that you should be asking yourself (or your client) prior to designing and developing a landing page (and a website for that matter):

• What should the site achieve?
• What things must we make visitors to the site do in order to achieve our goals?
• Where will we lead visitors?
• How will we "convert" visitors into buyers or sales leads?
• How do we create the right impression (competence, experience, trustworthiness)?

4. Call to Action

The primary reason for creating a landing page is to elicit some sort of action - also called a conversion. A call to action tells a visitor what he/she is supposed to do on a particular page.

One of the best ways to create a landing page that fails is to include a small, unnoticeable, weak call to action. By doing this, you're essentially saying "This call to action really isn't that important. If I don't think it's that important, why the hell should you think it's important?".  Now that's a recipe for failure. Make your call to action(s):

• noticeable, but not annoying (size, shape, effects)
• contrasting, but not overwhelming (color, border)
• exciting, but not frightening (unless that's the kind of emotion you're trying to elicit)
• readable (choose a legible font, pay attention to the leading and kerning)
• appear multiple times (without looking spammy; spread them out throughout the page)

5. Clarity is Key

Less is definitely more on a landing page. Do away with the clutter. The visitor shouldn't feel overwhelmed the moment they arrive. Here a few tips on keeping your landing page concise and clean:

• use large text (in moderation) emphasizing the biggest reasons that they should carry out the applicable call to action
• use images (in moderation)
  • web surfers have a very short attention span and not everyone likes to read; images can sometimes be the make or break element on a landing page, so be wise with your image selection
• break additional talking points up into an ordered/unordered list OR use h1, h2, h3, h4, h5 tags to break up paragraphs (but don't write too much!)
• all important information should go near the top of the page (above the fold)
• remove any noise that may distract the visitor from completing the call to action
  • some landing pages offer very little navigation options from the landing page; the risk is usually calculated, however, as strong landing pages should be able to rely solely on the content on that particular page for a conversion

6. Offer Incentive

In this economy, people are extremely weary about spending more money than they need. For this reason, make sure that your prices are reasonable and in line with services or products related in quality and quantity to yours. Research your competitors.

Don't sell yourself short, though. If your product is more expensive than the competition, make sure you explain why. In addition, provide useful facts, and when possible, powerful references and testimonials. If people see that many other people are carrying out the landing page's call to action and getting positive results after doing so, then it will give them more incentive to follow the actions of others and convert.

7. Keep the Visitor on the Landing Page

As I mentioned in tip 5, remove any noise that may distract the visitor from completing the applicable call to action. The noise, however, is not strictly exclusive to the graphic and typographic elements on the landing page.

Avoid sending your visitors to another page unless it is absolutely necessary.

If there is additional information that the user may be interested in learning, then include small pop-up boxes that can be easily closed on click (while still keeping the original landing page open and visible). jQuery Modal offers some attractive and less-obtrusive alternatives to the standard pop-up window. In addition, jQuery Modal won't get blocked by pop-up blockers since it technically isn't a pop-up window per se, but instead, a seperate layer.

8. Simple is Always Better

Got an assortment of different sign up plans or packages? Have a gazillion different newsletters? Focus on something that is basic and easily digestible. Remember, the goal is to inform, educate, and convert the visitor - all on the same landing page. Don't confuse them, and don't make the call to action decision difficult.

If you have multiple, more complex options available, save them for later (after the conversion takes place). Again, focus on the primary conversion. A primary conversion is relative to whatever the topic of the page is. For example: if you have a deep link landing page pitching a basic web hosting plan, try to avoid pitching the premium plan on the same page. Instead, create another deep link landing page promoting the premium plan. Again, if you optimize your SEO, PPC, or online/offline marketing campaigns efficiently, then the basic plan or premium plan should be exactly what the prospect is looking for and they shouldn't need any other options!

9. The Most Controversial Word in Business: FREE

Let's face it, a business model for a business planning to stay in business for the long haul can't consist of giving everything away for free. However, the word "free", when utilized correctly, can do a lot of good.

The word "free" should be used in moderation. It also should be used in a very calculated manner. Whether a call to action is free or something free is received as a result of carrying out a call to action, it certainly doesn't hurt. This tactic is especially useful when offering something for free that a competitor charges for. Again, competitive analysis is key here. You don't want to discredit your service by giving things away, but you do want to add as much incentive as possible in order to get people to convert on your website. Free doesn't always equate to cheap.

For example, at CHROMATIC, we offer free RFP's for our prospective clients. Although our RFP's are free, our services are high-quality. In addition, we have a very quick turn-around time that few large design firms can match. This call to action is included in the footer on every page of our website. We also include more targeted calls to action on pages that warrant them. The point is, no matter which page you land on at CHROMATIC, our visitors will quickly associate us with free RFP's within 24 hours. No obligation, free calls to action are widely successful across so many verticals.

10. Testing, Testing, Testing

Even if  you experience great results after following the 9 aforementioned tips, why stop there? By changing a few elements around on the page; altering the design, color scheme, typography, or imagery; or adding/subtracting content, you may experience exponentially better results. Perhaps one of the greatest technological advancements beneficial to landing pages was the introduction of A/B and multivariate testing.

Essentially, A/B testing allows you to compare one baseline control sample against additional single-variable test samples. In comparison, multivariate testing generally means testing several samples with an infinite number of combinations. One method is not necessarily better than the other. It depends exclusively on your needs.

Using a tool like Google's Website Optimizer (which can be integrated with Google Analytics/Google AdWords) or Omniture's Test&Target, you can easily monitor the conversion rate, bounce rate, and tons of other useful metrics found in most modern day web analytics apps. These metrics will tell you which versions are the most successful, which in turn will answer the question: "Is this landing page acheiving its maximum potential?". After A/B or/and multivariate testing, "Yes, it sure is." will be the appropriate answer to this question.

Our Landing Page Guinea Pigs: Financial Help Gurus

Many people I know (myself included) learn best by visual example and comparison. So, since the economy has taken a turn for the worse (resulting in more and more people turning to financial help gurus for advice), I've decided to analyze two of the top financial gurus' home page landing pages: Suze Orman and Dave Ramsey. In each analysis, I've rated (using A - F) each of the 9/10 tips included above (minus the Testing, Testing, Testing tip since it's too difficult to determine if A/B or/and multivariate testing practices have been or are being used). They are brilliant with financial advice, but just how brilliant are they with employing the best designers/developers/marketers?

Suze Orman (www.suzeorman.com)

1. Content Relevancy: A
   • According to Compete.com, Suze's most popular searches are for her name. However, let it be assumed that her audience consists primarily of people looking for sound financial advice. When hitting this landing page, a user will immediately see the picture of Suze, and also the prominent text suggesting financial support. Mission accomplished.
2. Multiple Landing Pages: A
   • Running a simple advanced operator search in Google (site:suzeorman.com), it's a little bit difficult to find Suze's important pages. However, by looking at Suze's left column navigation, it is safe to assume that some of these deep link pages should be optimized for the search engines. After using Wordtracker's Free keyword suggestion tool, (searching for "women and money" - the top left colum nav option), I am able to deduce that people are actively searching for this keyword phrase. When a search is queried for the phrase, aside from having canonicalization issues (the home page is appearing above the "Women and Money" landing page), the page does show up near the top of the results. Good. This landing page also does a lot of things right, so it's safe to assume that this page was created with conversions in mind.
3. First Function, THEN Form: B
   • Suze's website utilizes Flash for the main slideshow at the top of the page. This slideshow can easily be replicated using jQuery, therefore, this isn't the best choice of technology since a lot of people don't have Flash installed on their computer. If you can mimic a Flash animation or transition using jQuery or another JavaScript library, do it. Aside from this issue, the graphic design does not interefere with the usability of the landing page.
4. Call to Action: A
   • Suze's home page really excels in utilizing effective calls to action. The call to action in the Flash component ("BUY NOW") is one of the first things that people will focus their eyes on. The contrast of the button (white text atop a green backgroud) is good. It's obvious that the call to action is clickable since it is in the form of a button - a universally recognized call to action shape. The call to action doesn't feel crowded and doesn't get lost in the design. There is also a call to action in the right column ("Open a Save Yourself account and get $100*") that is equally effective for many of the same reasons just mentioned for the Flash call to action.
5. Clarity is Key: A
   • There is a lot of information on this landing page. However, it is also the home page, and therefore a bit more leeway is permitted. Each section is properly labeled making it easy for a user to scan the page. Again, since this is the home page, some rules do not apply. For example, there are a lot of links that take the user off of this page. Obviously Suze has other areas on the site that she feels are important, so it only makes sense for her to link to them.
6. Offer Incentive: A
   • Suze does a great job here as well: "Suze's 2009 Action Plan delivers honest, straightforward guideance - what to do, when to do it, and how to do it". She tells the visitor exactly what the book will do. The header also says: "2009 is the Year That You Can't Afford to Make Any Mistakes with Your Money!". This implies that by buying her book, you're protecting yourself from losing money that you can't afford to lose.
7. Keep the Visitor on the Landing Page: C
   • Again, since this landing page is also the home page, some rules do not apply here. Having so many links on the page can and will send visitors to other pages on the website. There are also banner advertisements that will take the user away from the website. Note: on landing pages, try to avoid the usage of banner ads. Banner ads are usually a call to action in and of themselves. This obviously will compete with the primary call to action on the page.
8. Simple is Always Better: A
   • Suze isn't pitching multiple versions of books, or different types of accounts to open. As far as the landing page visitor is concerned, there is only one option for each call to action. This is most ideal.
9. The Most Controversial Word in Business: FREE: A
   • The right column call to action is particularly effective here. This call to action implies that by opening an account, you will receive $100. Better than free, actually getting paid to carry out a fairly simple action is high quality stuff.

Final Score: 93% - A

Dave Ramsey (www.daveramsey.com)

1. Content Relevancy: A
   • According to Compete.com, Dave's most popular searches are for his name and for the keywords "bankruptcy" and "financial peace university". Let it be assumed that his audience primarily consists of people looking for sound financial and bankruptcy advice. When hitting the home page landing page, a user will immediately see the picture of Dave in addition to the content about financial recovery and financial wellness. In this respect, the home page is a successful landing page.
2. Multiple Landing Pages: A
   • As I just mentioned, "bankruptcy" and "financial peace university" are two big organic search referrers to Dave's website. Searching for each of these keywords, you will see that Dave not only has fantastic rankings (he obviously has hired a SEO consultant and/or firm to be able to rank so well for bankruptcyi), but each keyword targets a very specific landing page. Perfectly executed, Dave.
3. First Function, THEN Form: B
   • Dave has a very usable home page landing page. There isn't any fancy Javascript, Flash, or anything else that might increase the complexity of the usability equation. However, the design could be better. Suze Orman's home page really dominates Dave's home page in the aspect of graphic design. It's just a little too bland.
4. Call to Action: C
   • While Suze's home page excels in call to actions, Dave's home page fails. Unfortunately, there isn't really a central point that the user can immediately focus their attention. The yellow banner at the top ("new to dave ramsey") does a fairly decent job of standing out, however, it doesn't do a very good job of explaining what exactly happens when you click the "Start Here" button. The "LISTEN NOW!" call to action in the upper right corner is somewhat small, however, it does manage to stand out with its white on blue text. Definitely room for improvement here, though.
5. Clarity is Key: A
   • Again, there is a lot of information on this page. However, because it is the home page of the website, this is normal. Sections are well-labeled and content has adequate breathing room. I'd do something about those links at the bottom of the page though ("GET PLUGGED IN TO DAVERAMSEY.COM"). They remind me too much of Google AdSense, which in my opinion, makes a website look a little cheap.
6. Offer Incentive: F
   • Dave's home page doesn't do a very good job of explaining why his services are better than the competition. In addition, aside from the "$95 of free gifts" mentioned in one of his randomly loading call to actions in the center column, he doesn't explain why his services are good at all. Ouch!
7. Keep the Visitor on the Landing Page: C
   • Although Dave doesn't have banner ads on the home page, he does have a lot of links leading to other pages. Again, this is the nature of most home pages. However, it does make for a weak landing page.
8. Simple is Always Better: A
   • As far as I can tell, Dave's calls to action do not imply that there are multiple options available. Although the calls to action leave a lot to be desired, they are simple - and that's important in and of itself.
9. The Most Controversial Word in Business: FREE: A
   • The "$95 of FREE GIFTS" call to action in the center column is particularly effective. As with Suze Orman's website, Dave's home page offers free material benefits if you sign up for his..well, I'm not quite sure what you're signing up for because his call to actions aren't very good. But even so, $95 in free gifts is sure to grab the attention of most people.

Final Score: 72% - C

If You're Involved With a Website, Landing Pages Should Must Matter to You

We've covered a lot of ground in this article. Web designers, web developers, web marketers, and website owners should each be aware of the components that comprise a successful and effective landing page. Landing pages have the power to make or break a company.

Got any other effective landing page tips?

Although this list is fairly detailed, I'm sure there are other tips that people have discovered through their process of landing page delivery. If you have anything to share, please leave a comment below. If the tip is good enough, we'll include it in this article and accredit you by linking back to your website.