Best Practices for Effective Landing Page [The Landing Page Formula]

So, you’ve done everything right, from designing a beautiful landing page to using impressive visuals. But why are you still getting little to no conversions?

Chances are you’re not following some landing page best practices. But if you can incorporate them, then things will flow smoothly.

The good thing is you can implement different landing page best practices today and start getting more leads and conversions today—talk of that good return on your investment.

What Makes a Good Landing Page?

A good landing page tells its story concisely and clearly. It communicates its benefits in a concise manner and uses design, layout, and copywriting to attract visitors’ attention. It avoids cluttering the page with too many navigational elements or confusing images which might distract from the message being communicated.

The Landing Page Formula

How to create a winning landing page?

First, we will start with specifying what our goal is for the landing page and what kind of problems it solves for our visitors.

Next, we’ll address how it does this by outlining some specific features on the page. And finally, we’ll finish up by highlighting why this strategy works best for us in terms of goals and goals in relation to our target audience.

So, in this guide, I’ll walk you through landing page best practices.

10 Effective Landing Page Practices


Creating Engaging Copies

Most marketers often ignore this, but your copy determines if your visitors will convert or not.

You might have the best landing page design, but your leads will run away fast if the content is crappy or full of errors. Yes, they won’t even get to your call to action.

Well, you’d rather spend more time crafting an engaging copy that aligns with the search intent than on doing designing.

Here’s how to do it:

  • Delete all filler words in your content
  • Correct your sentence structures. Read your content loudly to identify them
  • Pass your copy through editing software like Grammarly
  • Make your content readable by using short sentences and paragraphs

Split test different copies, then use the one that converts the most.

Side note: If you don’t have time to write your landing page content, hire a good copywriter on freelance platforms like Upwork.

Incorporate Social Proof

You can do everything right like creating an impressive landing page and adding a strong call-to-action, but if your visitors don’t trust you, you can guess what they will do.

The truth is, everybody wants to work with a reputable brand.

Need some proof?

A survey showed that 63% of consumers prefer to buy from purpose-driven brands.

Remember, you’ll be interacting with customers for the first time. So, it’s hard to convince them to trust you, especially with lots of people offering products and services promising overnight success.

To boost your credibility, incorporate social proof in your landing pages. It humanizes your brands, and that makes prospects trust and do business with you.

Here are different ways to include social proof in your landing pages:

  • Feature testimonials
  • Include your social handles. Some people will want to confirm if you’re legit.
  • Indicate the top brands that trust you or those you’ve worked with

Here’s an example:

Landing Page Best Practices

Bottom line: Your marketing budget shouldn’t go to waste because you’re ignoring the power of social proof.

Use clear call to action

The bitter truth is most landing pages never convert because the call-to-action doesn’t align with the copies.

Imagine asking visitors to do something opposite of what’s in your copy. What do you expect? They will ignore your request.

Worse?

Some marketers use generic CTAs for all landing pages. It’s wrong because they can’t have the same intent.

To cut the long story short, have a well-designed landing place with a strong CTA. Do you want your visitors to buy from you, join your email list, or share your guide with their friends and family?

Here are good examples of how to add CTA:

  • Most marketers use their homepage to nudge visitors to enter your email list. So, they include a bribe-to-subscribe offer like ‘Gimme the pdf.’
  • If you’re running an eCommerce ad, you want visitors to buy from you, so create a ‘Claim your discount” CTA.

Here’s an example from Hubspot:

Landing Page Best Practices

They have a clear call to action that encourages visitors to try out their product.

Overall, using a strong CTA will encourage your visitors to click through once they finish reading your copy. You’ll therefore double your conversions if you use the right CTA and place it at the right place.

Bonus tip: Have at most two CTAs and test them on your landing page. Put one at the top and the other at the end then note the one that generates more leads.

Use Multiple Pages (Sales Funnel)

It’s boring to read lengthy copies.

I don’t know about you, but I get tired halfway. It’s even worse to have a long copy with grammatical errors—prospects will never get to your CTAs. That means no conversion for you, baby.

Yes, you want to give your prospects everything in one copy. Why not capture their emails then give them the nuggets in the form of weekly newsletters?

First, start by understanding your audience. I advise against trying to reinvent the wheel here. Instead, give them the information they’re interested in, then wait and see how your copy converts well.

Here are tips for capturing and maintaining your audience’s attention from start to finish:

  • Have a catchy headline
  • Hook your readers- convey your message in one word if you have to
  • Remove fluff
  • Cut out the extra sections.
  • Use a mix of short and long sentences.

Your copy will flow smoothly, meaning you’ll keep those visitors nodding and reading. And they will read and click your CTA.

Boost your page load time

People prefer fast services. I bet you do the same. Imagine waiting more than 5 seconds for a page to load.

That means slow page load time could be one of the reasons your landing pages are experiencing a high bounce rate.

Yes, you’re frustrating your readers. They will develop a negative attitude towards your brand, and that hurts conversions.

Normally, most visitors get bored and move to the next guide if a website takes more than 5 seconds to load—no reads, no conversions for you. And that’s how your marketing budget will go to waste.

Bottom line: Ensure your site loads in the fastest time possible. We recommend you test your page loading speeds on Google page insights. If it’s low, optimize it with the right WordPress speed optimization plugins.

Here are tips to improve your page speed:

  • Clean your website’s code. A clean code loads faster.
  • Some themes are buggy, so change yours if you have to.
  • Use small-sized images. You can compress the large ones.
  • Runaway from cheap hosting. Cheap, shared ones are among the reasons most sites struggle with low page speed time.
  • Remove the unnecessary images that make pages load slowly.

Check on page speed as much as you design a user-friendly landing page.

Test multiple landing pages

Most marketers focus on scaling their content but ignore conversion rate optimization hacks, yet it’s a goldmine.

The truth is, there’s nothing like a one-size-fits-all landing page. If your ad’s landing pages aren’t converting, why not create more and split test?

Top marketers can confirm that we don’t have a formula for creating the best landing pages. That’s why they keep on testing and testing different copies.

So, have at most three landing pages. Then start split-testing. You’ll know the aspects to improve in your copy like:

  • Headline
  • CTA button colors
  • Images

For instance, you can test the impact of using images and videos and stick to the one with the highest conversion rates.

Eye-opener: This is where most businesses with a huge marketing budget are winning. They have multiple landing pages for the ads and email lists. But that doesn’t mean you can’t experiment with it if your budget is limited.

Overall, expect an increase in lead conversions if you test and use a high-converting copy.

Pick high-quality images

What’s the first thing you think of after seeing a site with low-quality photos? For me, it’s a spammy site. Imagine the number of people who think like me.

Well, poor-quality images will disgust most readers and make them ignore your site. Apart from that, some brands use stock photos or large images that distract readers. You’d rather dump them and use plain text.

To give your visitors a good impression, feature high-quality images on your landing page.

Here’s an example:

  • If you need more demo sign-ups, show real photos and videos of people using your product.
  • If you have a fitness website, display quality images of the before and after to skyrocket your conversions.

Note: Ensure your images align with your copy’s message. Here are reasons to do so:

  • Your visitors will get a good feel of your brand.
  • It will increase the amount of time people spend on your site. For instance, the majority are likely to enjoy reading your infographics.

Pro Tip: Hire a decent graphic designer to give your brand a unique feel so that you differentiate yourself from the competition.

Use standard typography

It’s heartbreaking to splurge on a good copy only for your readers to stop reading it because they’re straining.

The reality is, most landing pages have extra-small or large images. Others use those that are too light or dark. That makes it daunting for your audience to read your pieces.

My point is don’t focus on getting creative with your fontsit can backfire and attract high bounce rates. Imagine reading a piece written in Italics when you’re used to standard fonts. It’s tough, right?

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. That’s why marketers with simple copies are getting more conversions.

Moral: pick a standard font type and size and stay consistent.

Here are some bonus tips:

  • Switch to normal font color. Some people are sensitive to colors like red and yellow.
  • Get a font that matches your brand’s voice
  • Space your texts for better readability

Pro tip: Check how your font size, color, and layout display on different devices before hitting publish.

Optimizing Pages for Different Devices

Here’s the thing:

We have websites with layouts that break on different devices. Your page loads well on desktops but looks pathetic on mobile phones and tablets—those using the two devices will abandon your page as soon as they land on it.

So, optimize your landing pages for all devices. How? Test and check how the pages appear on different devices before launching your campaigns.

Here’s a quick checklist:

  • Confirm that your CTAs are clear- they should also be clickable.
  • Test your page loading speed on different devices
  • Use a consistent font
  • Make your texts readable
  • See how your pop-ups appear on your landing pages. If it’s unresponsive or distracts your readers, you’re likely to get few conversions

Notably, the majority of web users use mobile phones. Your hard work will therefore go to waste if you don’t create a mobile-friendly site.

So, hire a good designer for the job. If you have some tech skills, redesign your site using a lightweight theme. It might load 2X faster.

Don’t Forget About Headlines

Woe unto you if you’re ignoring the power of headlines. It’s the first interaction you make with leads, so it determines if they will read your copy or not.

If you don’t know, a copy with a catchy headline and clear message is likely to experience more conversions—your visitors will stop scrolling to click your site.

Don’t just create a headline. Make one with a unique value proposition. Then deliver your promise. You’ll disappoint your readers if your copy doesn’t match what they’re looking for.

You better spend more time creating a catchy headline as much as you do designing your website or crafting your copies.

Overall, your landing page will convert like crazy if you have an enticing headline, clear copy, and strong CTA.

Summarizing best landing page practices

The reality is making landing page mistakes will cost you lots of conversions. Chances are, you’ll bore your readers and they will straight up run away from doing business with you.

The good news is you now know different landing page best practices. So, incorporate them today—it’s the small changes you make that will lead to a dramatic increase in your sales in the future.

You’ll see an increase in the number of people visiting your site. A rise in your conversions like email signs up and so on. And that’s what your business deserves.

About Author

Lito James is the founder of Massivepeak.com. He is an entrepreneur and marketing specialist who helps businesses to get more leads, subscribers, and customers. Massive Peak has been featured on G2, Cloudways, Sujanpatel, GetResponse, Renderforest, and many more. Follow on LinkedIn | Twitter

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