Optimizing Your Landing Page for Higher Conversions

Do you use landing pages or the simple squeeze page – or both? You can dramatically increase conversions with a well-crafted landing page. And those who do sign-up will be more invested and interested in your business. Why?

A smart landing page will have the following:

1. The right amount of persuasive content that hooks the reader while capturing attention.
2. A design that works visually and makes readers comfortable.
3. An offer that is irresistible.

Should you use a long or short landing page?

We’ve all seen both and there is a general guideline you can follow, or at least test – and you really must test. The answer lies with the product or service you’re selling. It makes sense when you think about it.

If you’re the person who is considering a higher priced product or service, you want to make the right buying decision. You will want to have more information as you move through the funnel.

That’s exactly why your landing page for higher priced items should be longer. You’ll need to take more time to highlight benefits and features, for instance.

Elements of high-converting landing pages:

1. 100% consistency between your landing page headline and your ad. That is, if you used an ad to drive traffic. Nevertheless, the source of traffic and the copy used to drive that traffic must be consistent with the landing page headline.

2. Avoid “link bleed” which means extra links that often distract the reader and make them click away from your landing page.

3. Keep your most important, persuasive, and strongest copy above the fold. You know that readers will make a decision to leave or stay within seconds. Grab attention with your headline and the copy (above the fold) must keep them interested.

4. Use testimonials and anything else that serve to create more trust, comfort, and social proof. Remember that you only have one chance to make a great first impression. People will be judging you and determining if you can be trusted.

5. A strong call to action is a must-have component on landing pages that convert. This is true in sales copy and anytime you want the reader or prospect to take a desired action.

Go back and re-visit your calls to action wherever you have them if you are not sure if they are optimized. And more importantly, have you ever tested different calls to action? If not, then you should do it and soon.

Start testing ASAP – it’s not hard and it’s profitable.

Optimizing your landing pages for higher conversions can be simple or in-depth. You can use the simpler A/B split testing or more in-depth multivariate testing. At least get started, and the headline is a great place to start.

Along with the headline, you can test the effectiveness of a secondary headline. If you try a secondary headline, be sure it’s short and consistent with the primary headline.

Analyze your copy and learn to make it very tight with no unnecessary words. Use action verbs instead of passive verbs. Here’s an example of both:

Action: Red widgets save you time and money.
Passive: Red widgets can save you time and money.

Yes, it takes time and patience to optimize for conversions. But you know the potential for greater profits makes it worthwhile.

Tags: landing page conversions, optimize landing page, testing landing page