Coming in for a Landing: Designing for Conversions

What’s the best way to measure your success online? Rising search ranks are one way, and one of the most popular and pervasive, but being the number one search result for your chosen search terms won’t help your business make a single red cent if you can’t use that rank to increase conversions. According to Entrepreneur.com, even the biggest SEO budget driving the traffic of the highest volume and quality to your site is a complete waste of time, effort and money if you scrimp on the landing pages designed to turn visitors into leads, and leads into sales.

As with any web marketing method, there are a few common stumbling blocks to building an effective landing page, and some best practices to make sure your landing page helps your business to succeed. When it comes to landing pages, the first and most important aspect is design—landing pages are a visual media, and if the content isn’t presented in such a way that appeals to your target audience’s aesthetic, you’re going to miss out.

Make sure that your landing pages always feature these key design elements:

1. One offer, presented clearly. If you’re gunning for top rankings in a given keyword, your landing page should relate exclusively to that keyword; don’t include a half-dozen products when visitors are just looking for one.
2. A clear and obvious call to action. This doesn’t mean putting a huge popup in your visitors’ faces, but it does mean encouraging these visitors to make a purchase, start shopping, contact your customer service line or any number of other possible options. There should be a main CTA at the top of the page, and at least one more “below the fold,” at least 600 pixels down.
3. An appealing headline. This can be the lead-in to your CTA, or a CTA in and of itself, the point is that it needs to grab and hold a visitor’s attention from first glance. While the choice of copy in this field is extremely important, the visual element is just as integral to success; make sure that your headline is bold and distinct, copacetic with your corporate colors and image, and above all not obnoxious. Avoid blinking text, animations and popups.
4. Good composition and contrast. Not stark black and white, of course, but carefully balancing your color palette to result in crisp imagery with your clean copy makes a world of difference. Business2Community reminds marketers and entrepreneurs alike that the overall design of a landing page makes no small impact in achieving conversions, so don’t forget that even the simplest aspects of the design matter.

The better your landing pages present your product, service or offer, the more likely your visitors are to become satisfied customers. While content is important, it’s nothing without the right presentation. Make sure that your landing pages are all as attractive to look at as the content is appealing to prospective customers, and get ready for an increase in those much-needed conversions.

About 4 Step Studio

4 Step Studio is an online marketing agency that specializes in website design and redesign, SEO, social media and more. Our team of experts focuses on helping small business get found online, while educating them on what will make them successful in the digital world. To learn more about what we can do for you, visit our website at www.4StepStudio.com