Updated January 13, 2023
Reading Time: 4 minutes
Pretty & Powerful
Congratulations! You’ve got visitors to your website. Your SEO is working! But what if they aren’t converting? This post will share our best ideas to improve landing page conversion. By the way, you can apply these techniques to organic as well as paid search.
You Got The Click
If your website is getting traffic organically, the good news is that you’re probably getting impressions on the SERP (Search Engine Results Page). You’ve beat out other companies in the list. In organic search, that means you’ve attained at least some level of credibility with Google or Bing. In paid search, it means you’ve won the bid for a specific keyword or search phrase.
Why is this important? If you’re getting the click, that means your title tags and meta descriptions are doing their job. They are written well enough to entice a human searcher to click on your link. Otherwise, you’d see lots of impressions and no clicks. Not sure? Go to Webmaster Tools for this invaluable information.
Landing Page Conversion Recommendations
There are many ways to improve a webpage’s performance. Here are our top 10:
1. Fast Load Speed.
Quick loading pages are now expected. If it takes too long, you’ve got a bounce. As a side note, website speed is an SEO signal for Google. It’s one of the few items they have publicly shared… along with an analytic tool.
2. Compelling Graphics.
There’s a saying in the culinary world “you feast with your eyes first.” If a page is visually appealing, your visitor is more likely to stick around to find out how you can help them. Humans tend to notice pictures first. Use that to your advantage.
3. White Space.
When a page if crammed full of stuff, it’s simply overwhelming. As a result your landing page conversion will suffer. Write great content and let it breathe with enough white space to accentuate it.
4. Headlines & Scannable Text.
Now that you’ve grabbed your prospect’s attention, you want to hold onto it. Strategic use of headlines, subheads and scannable text let’s your reader quickly confirm they are in the right place. Make it easy for them to digest and reward them with good stuff.
5. Benefits First, Then Features.
A human visitor has arrived to your landing page because they want to solve a problem. Lead with benefits and then with feature details. Remember how they arrived to your page in the first place. They asked Google or Bing a question. Your page is the answer.
6. Above the Fold.
The challenge now is to try to do as much as you can to grab and keep your audience’s attention by avoiding a scroll-intensive page. That isn’t to say that some won’t read everything on your webpage. Just make sure that what appears above the fold provides compelling reasons to continue reading.
7. Call to Action in Contrasting Color.
Landing page conversion 101 is to make it super easy for your visitor to go to the next step. Whatever that is, make it really clear. The most successful call-to-action buttons are in contrasting colors. For example, the predominant color for our website is blue; orange is a natural contrasting color that shows energy and draws the eye. Work with your designer to figure out your color scheme with this in mind. Each landing page should have a clear goal you can measure. More on that later.
8. Testimonials.
A great way to “sell” is by having your happy clients do it for you. Use of references and testimonials at key points in your copy can help put the cherry on top of your content sundae.
9. Visual Scent.
Does your landing page match the rest of the website? If not, you’re breaking the visual scent. Unconsciously your visitor will notice. At the very least, it’s distracting. At worst, it can negatively affect your landing page conversion rates.
10. Analyze.
There are many tools you can use to measure landing page conversion. Hopefully you’re using some kind of Web Analytics. For example, we use Google Analytics and heat maps via software applications like ClickTale. It takes out the guess-work of what your visitors are actually doing on the page. We use session recordings to see mouse movements and other telltale signs an audience is engaged (or not) with the content.
Have another landing page conversion technique you’ve used successfully? Please share!
How can we help?
Launching a website and need help with content creation? Or, are you tweaking your landing pages to improve sales conversion?
We are the spectrum group online, and we offer strategic and tactical consulting so you can monetize your online presence. Call us for a complimentary 30-minute consultation to discuss your website’s user experience and translate that into sales.
photo credit – top: Serge Melki
photo credit – body: 401(K) 2012
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