Landing page optimization is the process of optimizing your website pages where you drive visitors to, with the goal of increasing conversions. Landing page optimization is also part of CRO, which stands for conversion rate optimization.
These landing page optimization best practices could very well be your golden ticket to a more prosperous business.
Why?
Because they can get you more conversions, sales, and less money spent on ads. Essentially, more bang for your buck!
I guess that`s what you`re looking for, otherwise, why would you be reading this?
Your time will not be wasted here, my friend.
In this post, I’ll share with you six landing page optimization best practices to help you reduce ad costs, maximize ad spend, and attract more customers.
In a nutshell, these are topics we will cover in this in-depth article:
Don`t forget that I have a checklist for you at the end, and no it doesn`t require you to sign up to get it.
Are you ready? Follow along.
What Is Conversion Rate Optimization?
Humm… “conversion rate optimization.”
What is this all about?
A lot of online marketers are still a bit distant from the subject.
Most don`t know what it is, some know it but think it`s not important, while others are doing it completely wrong.
In simple terms, conversion rate optimization or CRO is a process used to increase the percentage of website visitors who convert into offers.
For example, if you increase your website`s speed and all of a sudden you get more leads opting into your lead magnets, that`s a form of CRO, which can also be described as landing page optimization.
Conversion rate optimization is a broader topic, too wide of a subject to cover in this blog post.
So here, we are going to focus exclusively on landing page optimization. You`ll find these tips rather valuable if you`re paying to acquire customers and running a fair amount of traffic to your offers.
Consistent Advertising Creates Predictable Results
If you`re paying to acquire customers, one of the biggest factors that contribute to an increase in conversion rates is having consistent advertising.
My experience in the business world taught me that people buy consistency more than anything else.
There must be congruency between your ads or offers and the landing page you’re sending traffic to.
You can`t promise one thing in your ad and send people to a landing page telling a completely different story. The same goes for your colors, fonts, and offers.
The transition between your ad or offer and the landing page must make sense, therefore it must be seamless.
When there is a lack of congruency between these elements, people bounce off the page because they were expecting a different thing.
Always make sure your advertising is consistent, it can greatly impact your ability to convert traffic.
Landing Page Optimization Best Practices Intro
Remember this…
Especially, on platforms like Google and Facebook, a great landing page experience can hugely improve ad performance.
Now that you know the importance of optimization and how consistent advertising drives better results, you`re ready to dive deeper.
Introducing the 6 landing page optimization best practices:
1 – Increase Landing Page Speed
Many marketers are still unaware of the impact website speed has on their results. I didn`t include this best practice as number one for no reason.
Landing page speed is indeed the most important optimization you`ll ever do!
Think about this…
If you spend all this money and effort getting people to click on your ads and then they abandon the site before seeing your content, what`s the point?
A Google study from 2018 concluded that as page load time goes from 1 second to 10 seconds, the probability of a mobile site visitor bouncing increases by a staggering 123%.
This study also recommended your website should load in 3 seconds or less, if you want to avoid bounce rates.
SOLUTION: a simple fix to this could be changing your website hosting to a faster one like a VPS server. In more complex websites, you might need a webmaster to go over your elements to optimize. Use this tool, from Pingdom to check your website speed.
2 – One Clear Call To Action
I see this all the time.
Marketers putting too many different calls-to-action on their landing pages because they`re afraid people are gonna miss them, so they want as many as possible there.
The problem with this is that prospects get to the landing page and instead of clicking on the buttons, they get confused.
And what happens when people get confused? That`s right! They don`t do anything.
When we talk about driving paid traffic to a landing page, what you should have, if possible, is one single and clear call-to-action on that page.
On a landing page, you might have two buttons, one saying “sign up now” and another saying “subscribe now”.
You might have longer pages where you`ll need to add more than one button.
That`s fine, as long as the action you want them to take is the same, in this case to sign up for a newsletter.
A single call-to-action is a best practice because if people only see one button to click on the entire page, they`re more likely to click on it and move to the next step.
3 – Use Benefits Whenever It Makes Sense
Let`s first define a benefit. It is basically what your offer will help your prospects accomplish once they take it.
Some business leaders and marketers, myself included at some point, are guilty of this “landing page sin”.
I`m sure you`ve fallen as a victim of a web page with too many benefits to even matter!
Here`s the reality…
Sometimes, you don`t have to include benefits on your landing pages. The conversion rate optimization playbook says the bigger the ask, the more likely you are to include benefits on your page.
Let me give you an example.
If you`re trying to get folks to sign up for a 60-minute web class, it makes sense to add more benefits than if the offer was a cheat sheet or eBook.
A web class requires a bigger commitment from the prospect, in this case a time commitment, than the eBook. In the case of an eBook, instead of benefits, you could perfectly just add what`s in its content, in bullet points.
The same could be said if you`re selling a $29 product vs a $1,999 one. A $29 product might not need much convincing. Makes sense?
Ok! Remember, use benefits wisely. Much like humor, if overused or misused, can have the opposite effect.
4 – Just Enough Content To Convert
This landing page optimization best practice is related the previous one.
Much like you want to include benefits when it makes sense, you want to have enough content on your page to convert.
Remember what I said about humor?
Yes, too much of it can have the opposite effect. The same applies to this best practice. Too much content on your landing page can actually deter prospects from taking action.
Why? Because either they can get overwhelmed or confused!
Let`s take the previous example, from the web class vs the eBook. To convince folks to sign up to your 1-hour web class, you`ll need more content on your page than if you wanted them to download the eBook.
This is just basic human psychology at work!
Think about a time you had to ask someone for a favor. A big favor will need more explanation than a little one. Got it? There you go.
Using a war analogy, you don`t need to exhaust all your weapon magazines to win the battle, you just need to fire enough bullets to kill the enemies.
5 – The Layout Matters
Remember visiting a landing page that didn`t inspire much confidence?
When that happened, in a matter of milliseconds, your brain sent a signal that you probably shouldn`t trust the page´s content or its creator.
Why did this happen?
Because the page`s design was off. It probably looked sloppy, unprofessional, or outdated.
People make quick, subconscious judgments about the offer based on the page layout.
Even if your landing page looks modern and you follow all of the best practices described above, there still might be a reason why it`s not performing as well as it should.
The reason could be the layout.
Finding this out, comes down to split testing. Testing your page elements will give you insights into how people are interacting with those same elements.
For example, it could tell you if the call-to-action button performs better on the right vs the left, or if one of the images didn`t really need to be there.
Tools such as Google Optimize and VWO can help you with that.
6 – Leverage Social Proof
It is said that social proof is one of the most influential tools there is to convert traffic. While I believe that is true, some marketers are just not taking advantage of it.
Using social proof in your landing pages is also a matter of common sense.
For example, if you`re an author and you`ve gathered a few positive reviews (hopefully), why not use them on the landing page you`re promoting the book in?
If you`re short on testimonials, you can even take your Linkedin recommendations and put them on a free consultation offer page.
They simply work!
Remember that as we`ve discussed previously, the bigger the ask and the more expensive the product you`re selling is, the more testimonials you need to include.
Here`s a quick tip for you…
With more expensive products, using video testimonials could give you an upper edge over your competitors.
As we know, video is a great tool not just to build awareness or influence consideration but also to convert traffic.
Social proof isn`t just about testimonials, it could also be relevant authority websites where you`ve shown up.
This best practice sounds like a no-brainer but you`d be surprised to see how many marketers are still not using it properly. Don`t let that be you!
Think Mobile First Before Optimizing
Well, I think this title should really say “think mobile first even before building your website.”
According to Google, over 50% of web traffic comes from mobile. I`m not a prophet or medium, but I`d say this number will likely increase in the future.
You don`t think so? Check this out.
A study from Statista concluded that as of 2020, there are more mobile devices on planet earth than there are humans, 14.02 billion to be precise. Can you believe that? It`s crazy!
Now, the question is: are you thinking about your users` mobile experience for your landing pages?
The good news is that these days most landing page builders, such as Clickfunnels are conceptualized to please mobile users, without you worrying about coding.
With the advancements of purchasing behaviors, mainly on social platforms like Facebook and Instagram, where people can already buy products without leaving the app, one thing becomes clear:
Don`t forget mobile!
TOOL: use Google`s mobile speed test to see how your website performs on the small screens and get recommendations to improve its user experience.
Landing Page Optimization Checklist
Because I don`t want you to leave this blog post without a good dose of practical information, I`ll share with you a quick checklist.
Think of this landing page optimization checklist as your go-to guide (infographic at the end of this post).
It will serve as a reference to help you get the most out of your ad spend and page performance, every time you think about optimizing.
- Landing page loads in 3 seconds or less (critical)
- One single call to action (when possible)
- Included testimonials (when appropriate)
- Included benefits (when appropriate)
- Clear messaging (critical)
- Professionally designed elements – images, videos, buttons (essential)
- Included authority website references (when appropriate)
- Consistent colors, fonts, and branding (critical)
Remember you don`t need to use all the above. The key is common sense. Some you just want to use them whenever it`s appropriate.
Start Optimizing And Growing
I`m sure these landing page optimization best practices gave you insights into how you can increase conversions and best utilize your ad spend.
It`s one of the most important and often overlooked aspects of any paid traffic strategy.
If you can get more leads and sales out of the same or even lower advertising spend, why wouldn`t you? That`s exactly what optimization can do for you.
Now, it`s up to you to take these insights and discover how to best apply them to your company.
Which best practices will you implement first? Let us know in the comments.
