10 Top Landing Page Optimization Tips to Boost Conversions

Landing pages are a crucial element to any marketing strategy. They are also a big challenge for marketers. It takes a lot of experimenting, optimizing and observing to get things right.

But companies who do succeed, see the growth in conversions. For example, a study concluded that companies with more landing pages could generate a 55% growth and, even though, most landing pages have about 1-3 percent conversion rate, there are a lot of cases in which the numbers are well into the double-digits.

Here are some tips and tricks on how to optimize your landing pages:

1. Test Your Landing Pages

There is no better way of knowing what appeals to your audience the most than experimenting.

Create two identical landing pages and change details like font color, images, videos, CTA etc. This method is most commonly known as split testing or A/B testing. It will make it easier for you to track how your audience behaves and which page works better.

This is not a one-time thing since you’ll have to continuously update and optimize the pages to come-up with a good end-result.

Another thing that you should definitely test and pay attention to is the loading speed. If it’s anything more than two to three seconds, potential users will take off. Even though it’s optimal that you add imagery and videos to your landing page, you should try to make them as fast as possible. In other words, sometimes speed outranks images.

2. Implement Social Proof

Social proof is a good way to get people to trust you more. If you say that, for example, a lot of people have already used your service and have been satisfied with it, more people will come. This is pure psychology – people feel safer if they know that something has been tested before.

You can take it a step further and put a few customer reviews in there or a newspaper article about your achievements, certificates, badges etc.

All of this is to create a sense of safety for your customers and invite them into this community of happy consumers.

3. Understand Your Goals 

This is a pretty obvious one, but many companies and websites don’t quite get the hang of it completely. You see, the point of the landing page is to achieve your goal – one goal, not more. These companies include multiple offers and CTA’s and it can be quite confusing for the user.

The key is to present them with one solution in order to keep them focused and not let them get distracted.

Velaro, for instance, does a great job of talking about and presenting only one offer – the importance of live chat and how that could benefit a business. They offer a free download in turn for some information.

4. Use Images and Videos

In today’s fast-paced world, it’s hard to get someone to actually read what you have to say. People would rather skim through than pay attention and stick to a body of text. This is why you need to bring out the necessary emotions by using compelling imagery and informative videos.

When it comes to images, you should always keep them in sync. Your page header should complement the rest of the images. They should represent what you are trying to say and help you achieve your goals. You can find images on photo stocks or hire a photographer to take pictures specifically for that occasion.

Code Academy are masters at this – they use simple images with a lot of meaning. Breather, a website that finds meeting rooms for companies, is another great example as they introduce the viewer to peaceful and calming environments in their pictures.

Videos are a great way to provide information in a human way. Video content is popular and a great way to introduce your customers to an influencer who can make your business seem more trustworthy and inviting.

5. Create a Compelling Aesthetic

It’s all about your landing page looking good.

Along with videos and images, there are a few other important things that you can do:

• Create a seamless flow of text
• Make your page easy to navigate
• Use clean designs and plenty of white space
• Use complementary and contrasting colors
• Use beautiful but easy-to-read fonts

There are plenty more things that you could do to optimize the visual aspects of your landing page. You can talk to designers, other companies or marketers and figure out what will work for you. There are plenty of community blogs that offer just this – Word Stream, for example.

6. Work on Your Written Content

Quality written content is easily the key to a successful conversion. It takes a lot of work to come up with the perfect lines of concise and appealing text.

There are a few things that you need to keep in mind:

• Landing Page SEO – make sure that your landing page is SEO-friendly

“Many companies forget this entirely but it’s extremely valuable for your landing page to be SEO-friendly. There are a couple of reasons for that – it will make your page easier to find and it will help your overall SEO ranking. Don’t forget to optimize your landing page or to follow the best practices in landing page SEO just because it’s not a priority,” says Tina Jerrod, a SEO specialist from BestAustralianWriters.com.

• Proofread!

Spelling and grammar mistakes are easy to avoid and a text without them is nothing special. But just think about how people would react to a content full of mistakes. This could ruin your reputation in front of your customers. If you are not much of a proofreader yourself, use tools.

• Keep your content informative but concise

A landing page is not a good spot for you to go on and on about your offer. It’s perfectly fine to implement a short text packed with information and add, for example, a FAQ option that will answer any additional question. You can find this on Lyft’s landing page and it provides an invaluable clarity for the readers.

• Learn how to properly format your text.

A wall of text will never do Use bold font for everything important, emphasize certain parts with italic, use subheadings and bullet points to keep everything readable and good-looking.

7. Include CTAs

Calls to action can often seem like they are only a button, but that is the best way to push users into action. The conversion rate of visitors converting on a landing page is affected by the CTA. Everything about them should be impeccable.

Use bold color, readable font and a message that encompasses everything that you are trying to achieve. The size of the button matters as well – don’t go overboard with a huge button that will scare them away. Make sure that it’s visible and easy to click on – both on the computer and on a mobile device.

For more information about marketing strategies for calls to action, visit marketing sites like Marketing Land.

Also, take a look at some of the popular websites and see how they handle CTA’s. Neil Patel, for instance, represents everything that a CTA should be on his homepage.

8. Optimize Landing Page Form Fields

People don’t like filling out form fields, plain and simple. However, if you make that experience seamless and entertaining, you are on your way to landing page greatness. Create a fun concept, or segment your form fields where users can track their progress.

There are companies that handle this really well.

Unbounce, for example, doesn’t even have a traditional form field but they get information from their users through a chat window. Bills.com uses multiform to attract customers by asking them how much of debt they have and then move on to gathering information from them. Landbot does a similar thing to Unbounce but enhances it by providing emoji and gif options in their chat information-gathering window.

9. Develop Trust and Consistency

This one isn’t easy. It takes time and patience. However, there are some things that you can do immediately to improve the trust users have in your company or website.

1. Display your contact info – phone number, email address, physical address, etc. MyHouse.com does this and it definitely improves their business results and conversion rates. Being straightforward and easy to reach gives you credibility.
2. Don’t oversell. This is a sure way to disappoint your users. Be honest about what you offer and then, if you have a way, surprise your users with something extra. This will be unexpected and it will make your users happy. It’s always better to underpromise and overdeliver, than the other way around.
3. Keep your campaign consistent. This is essential. Make sure that all the messages you are sending out through various funnels are identical. Being inconsistent is what makes your customers doubt you.
4. Show a face. People like to see a human behind the brand. Show a picture of you with your team or someone from your organization. A smiling face is even better, it promotes trust from the get-go.

10. Create an Offer

To be perfectly honest, even if you do all of the things above, you still might not see a difference. People are sometimes just not that keen on giving their information if they can’t see what’s in it for them immediately.

Make them an offer that will pay off as soon as they subscribe. This could be a book, a helpful guide, a discount or something for free. People love those things and will gladly subscribe if you offer them instant gratification in some way.

Conclusion

Creating a perfect landing page is not an easy feat. It requires thoughtfulness and a lot of strategizing. However, it’s a good way to gather information and garner a faithful audience. Following these tips is just a beginning to what will be a struggle of optimizing and updating as technologies and preferences change. Being on top of things is a good idea.

For now, though, implement a few of these landing page tips – or all of them – and watch your numbers grow.