Landing Page Optimization

When thinking about website design, there are three questions you need to ask: 1) how are you going to get customers to see your website, 2) how will you keep that customer on your website without bouncing, and 3) how will you get that customer to convert and buy something from you? As it turns out, landing page optimization plays a key role in answering all of these questions.

What is Landing Page Optimization?

Landing page optimization is known as the process of enhancing, testing, and improving aspects of the firm’s landing page to increase traffic and conversions.

Whether your site is ecommerce, or just a general business website, the first thing consumers are likely to see when clicking your link is your website’s landing page. Also known as the website’s homepage, this serves as the firm’s “hook” in online marketing. As such, it is important that this page be properly organized so consumers can find not only the website itself, but the content they are looking for at a quick glance.

So How Do You Do It?

Getting your website to the top of the search results is a key factor of SEO, and it is partly dependent on the content you have on your landing page. A website’s bounce rate and conversion are also correlated to the content that consumers first see upon loading the page. Let’s explore a few things you can do with your website design and content to maximize your online marketing success.

First, as a general rule, the content on your custom website should be relevant to what the customer is searching for, targeted to that customer’s needs, and be easily visible. Consumers want information as fast as possible, and any extra effort spent by a consumer trying to verify that you have what they need is an increased risk that s/he will bounce out of your site and move to the next one.

Second, this content should be formatted in a way that consumers will positively respond to. Whether it be a link, a promotion, a product, or a picture, what matters is not how YOU like to see it on your site, but how the consumer wants to see it. A good homepage/landing page optimization technique for this is A/B testing. That is, take two versions of your website, and test them with consumers to see how each site performs. Study how consumers interact with each version, what works, what doesn’t, and ultimately, which version leads to more conversions. As you gain these insights, make the updates so all consumers are getting the optimal experience.

Third, a landing page that is clean and free of clutter attracts consumer traffic. Being bombarded with content – pictures, links, unrelated advertisements, “filler” content, etc. – negatively impacts the consumer experience, reduces your credibility, and risks the loss of conversion. Not only does a tidy homepage make it easier for a consumer to find what they’re looking for, it can help reduce page loading time. Remember, consumers like instant gratification! Taking even a few extra seconds to load a page could cost you a sale.

For more information on landing page optimizaiton, or for additional tricks to help enhance your homepage/landing page, visit Optimizely or Unbounce.

– Whitney Grindberg