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The Art of the Landing Page – Seven Tips for Increasing Conversions

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June 30, 2009

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Landing page optimization and testing can have a dramatic impact on your online marketing profitability. But even without testing you can quickly eliminate several common mistakes that can instantly skyrocket conversion rates. These approaches work across a surprisingly wide variety of circumstances and industries:

Remove choices.
You should be very clear about your desired conversion action (whether it is a sale, download, form-fill, or simply a click-through to another page). All other clickable links or choices on the page should be eliminated or at least visually de-emphasized.

Keep your promises.
Your visitors arrived from somewhere, and an expectation was set before they even landed on your page. This could have been in your pay-per-click ad, a third-party blog posting, or a comparison shopping engine. Make sure that you understand the context from which they arrived. It is critical to align the content of your landing page with their intent and expectations.

Don’t be loud.
Minimize visual distractions as much as possible. Do not use a wide variety of font styles, colors, and sizes on your page. Remove images and interactive rich-media content unless it directly supports your conversion goal and is a clearly superior way of conveying important information. Bland landing pages are often the best converting ones.

Reduce anxiety.
Unless you work for an internationally recognized company, you have no brand-strength or credibility with your online audience. You should do everything possible to reduce anxiety on your page by using safe shopping seals, and other indicators of your trustworthiness. The logos of trade associations, acceptable payment methods, and money-back guarantee seals can all be powerful ways to make your visitors feel safer.

Enhance affinity. 
People want to feel an affinity for your product or service. By transferring recognition or goodwill from other sources you can help reinforce their desire to act. Liberally use logos of well-recognized client brands. Add the badges of media sources that have covered or mentioned your company. Prominently display glowing testimonials from existing customers.

Have a clear call to action.
Have a prominent and clear call to action. Make sure that you spell out exactly what will happen if someone fills out the form or clicks on the desired link. Do not clutter the area around the call to action, let it stand out by its isolation on the page.

Cut down your text.
People don’t read on the Web. Study after study has shown that less content on a landing page leads to higher the conversion rates. Ruthlessly edit your text down to simple headlines and short bullet lists. Cut out the self-promoting marketing speak that people will not read anyway. Detailed information can be linked to on supporting pages.

If you follow these best practices you are guaranteed to make your cash register ring more often.

Tim Ash is the CEO of Site Tuners.

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