Creating a great landing page maximizes conversions and drives business success. So, you just can’t overestimate the impact of a good list of landing page best practices.
A well-designed landing page captures visitors’ attention and guides them toward taking the desired action, whether signing up for a newsletter, downloading a resource, or making a purchase.
In this article, we will explore the best practices for designing landing pages that convert, focusing on key elements such as compelling copy, clear calls to action, and user-friendly layouts. Implementing these best practices can enhance your landing page's effectiveness and significantly boost your conversion rates.
We've sought the advice of an internal expert to help break down the landing page tips you should follow. Before we dive into the 12 best practices for making landing pages convert, let's talk generally about successful landing pages.
What is a landing page? Why do you need it?
Landing pages are single web pages that are designed to attract a specific audience to perform a specific action. They are often the end of a marketing campaign.
Landing pages are essential for driving targeted traffic and converting visitors into leads or customers. Unlike standard web pages, landing pages are specifically designed with a clear focus and a singular purpose: to collect contact information, promote a product, or encourage sign-ups.
By optimizing landing pages for specific campaigns, businesses can enhance their marketing efforts, measure performance effectively, and improve conversion rates, making it a crucial tool in any digital marketing strategy.
What should be on a landing page?
Landing pages typically have elements like:
Engaging hero image: This is the initial image that's used to portray your product's use case to the audience or elevate the landing page design. It can be a picture of your product in use, a graphic, or simple colors.
Main heading: A strong heading lets people understand what they're getting into at a glance. Having a great heading will get people to read the rest of the landing page.
Compelling value proposition: This section tells readers why they should use your product. It highlights product features through engaging web copy.
Trust-building social proof: This section helps build trust that your business is the best option for the readers. Social proof can be testimonials, case studies, reviews, and industry badges.
Strong call-to-action (CTA): This linked button directs customers on what to do next. It can direct them to subscribe, try a demo, or purchase the product. A strong CTA helps move customers down the sales pipeline.
Unique selling point: Ensuring you communicate your unique selling point will help position your product as an ideal solution for the customer.
3 quick landing page optimization best practices
Here are three quick best practices you can use to create high-converting landing pages:
A/B testing: Create multiple formats for your landing page and launch them together to pick the one that performs best.
Strong CTA buttons: Ensure your CTA buttons speak directly to the customer's needs. Use words that will invite customers to click the button.
Engaging landing page copy: Ensure that you understand your target audience. This will help you create landing page copy that addresses their pain points and motivates them to convert.
12 landing page best practices of 2024
We’ve put together 12 non-negotiables for all landing pages that we create. These tactics have helped us greatly increase the conversion rate at Leadfeeder. Here's what it takes to create landing pages with high conversion rates in 2024:
1. Connect through a strong headline
A proper headline is important to the success of any content. It must contain content appealing to your target audience, give readers a sneak peek of the landing page content, and showcase your brand tone and voice. It should use intriguing, attention-grabbing and accurate language.
When writing the headline, the target customer is first to consider. What do they know? What's their pain point? Use this information to create a headline that speaks directly to their experience.
Most importantly, ensure that your message is clear and use easy-to-read language. Strong headlines will typically focus on one or more of the following areas:
Agitating a pain point: Your target audience typically swims in their problems. Create a headline that speaks to problems they can relate to, which will win their attention.
Promise a solution: Talk about what customers can expect from clicking the CTA button. Giving them a glimpse of your solution in the headline helps customers visualize how they'll benefit from working with your business.
Hook your readers: Attract the reader's attention with a quote, statistic, case study, or simple pun.
Use more than one of the focus points above for optimum impact if possible. Your headings don't have to be too long. Use images and graphics to support your headline's message to avoid making them a mouthful.
2. Lead with a story
Humans are wired for stories. It's no wonder that a great story will increase conversion rates.
Start your story by setting the scene for your customers. You can approach the storytelling from multiple angles. For instance, your story can talk about customers' frustrations or any problems they may be facing. These pain points can then be used as a hooking mechanism to engage the reader and inspire them to continue reading.
Inject some conflict into the story. This can be through something that the customer has experienced in the past. For instance, you can create conflict by talking about how other solutions that most customers have tried have failed them.
Ensure that you're injecting some emotion throughout the story. Make the customers feel like you're describing their situation. Help them realize that they would be better working with your business.
Most importantly, provide a solution to your customers, followed by your CTA button. Approach this portion by discussing your solution's features and unique selling points (USP).
3. Motivate and enable
Creating a website that users come back to again and again is one of the most important goals for any business. But you don't have to reinvent the wheel in order to create a habit-forming website.
Instead, use the Hook Model, developed by Stanford professor Nir Eyal. When implemented correctly, the Hook Model can soar up user engagement better than mainstream digital marketing strategies.
While Eyal's model has four distinct steps (trigger, action, reward, and investment), you'll only focus on the initial stage. What triggers your customers to look for a solution for their pain points?
The triggers can either be internal or external. External triggers can be beating the competition or even supporting their workforce. Internal triggers can be achieving a personal goal or becoming more efficient. Ensure you inject these triggers into your website copy to leave people feeling that you understand whatever is driving them to seek a solution.
4. Personalize
Your customers will have different experiences, which means the triggers that make them convert will differ. For instance, customers that get to your landing page via email marketing will have enough information about your business. They're hot/warm leads that need much less convincing than those that get to the landing page from paid ads.
Create buyer personas for your customers and segment them accordingly. You can create segments based on location, occupation, the channel used to get to the landing page, and even age.
Thanks to Leadfeeder's Connector tool, you can seamlessly import demographic and firmographic data from other platforms like Facebook and Zendesk to create personalized landing pages.
Each segment will have different triggers, so you should use different landing page copy on them. Create multiple pages that tell stories each segment will relate to for maximum conversion.
5. Optimize whenever possible
Ensure that the page is optimized for SEO. Start by including the right keywords throughout the piece. This will help your page rank well on search engines. Conduct keyword research to identify the keywords for the landing page.
Since SEO focuses on the on-page experience of web users, optimizing the page for SEO will improve user experience. For instance, ensure that you're using a simple layout to allow users to read through the content easily.
Use whitespace to make the content look less cluttered. Most importantly, break the content up into small paragraphs that are easy to read. You can include images, graphics, and charts that make the content easy to consume.
6. Keep in mind the user’s mobile experience
Ensuring your site performs well on mobile is not only great for SEO but also important for a great user experience. Google already prioritizes the mobile version of any website when ranking content, which makes having a mobile-friendly landing page essential.
Start by optimizing the site's load speed since users often feel frustrated when accessing slow-to-load websites. Ensure that both your content and images load quickly. You can always assess your landing page load speeds using PageSpeed insights.
Second, reduce distractions from your landing page. Avoid using pop-up ads unless necessary. Make sure that your CTA buttons are easy to click on mobile devices. Lastly, ensure your landing page responds well to different screen sizes and orientations.
7. Use products-specific imagery
Great product imagery will help further sell your customers into the idea of using your product. They also help break up large chunks of text and tell a more compelling story.
Imagery doesn't always have to be photographs. It can also be a graphic, a video, or a chart. Pick any imagery that helps increase the chances of converting.
It's important that you use custom imagery as stock photos might not create the authentic feeling your business should convey.
Any image you use needs to be clutter-free to avoid distracting your audience. Also, avoid using carousels or auto-play videos, as they can be quite distracting. Most importantly, ensure that there's enough contrast between the image and text to make the content easy to read.
The right image to use should complement the story you're telling. For instance, you can use a graph to create a visual aid of how much a customer improved their business after using your service.
8. Add credibility elements
Why should your customer trust you? Add elements that show that you're genuine throughout the landing page. There are multiple elements you can use, including:
Case studies: Link to customer case studies to show how you helped customers through your product. Something as simple as including a short summary of the case study and linking back to it will do the trick.
Customer testimonials: Add testimonials that are emotive. They should talk about the frustration that the customer faced and how your business helped them navigate it. You can also use this section to show how your USPs make you the undeniable choice for customers.
Awards: If you've won an industry award, be sure to include it at some point on your landing page.
Customer logos: If you're a B2B business, including customer logos helps show potential customers your list of past customers, which will help win their trust over.
Trust badges: Include trust badges like compliance certifications to show customers that you've gone the extra mile to offer them an amazing product/service.
9. Try product videos
Product videos can have a huge impact on your conversion rates. They are engaging and can communicate a message quite easily to the target audience. It all trickles down to the kind of video you offer your audience:
Video testimonials: Use these videos to make your business look more trustworthy. You'll just need to interview one or multiple customers to create the video.
Explainer videos: These are great for explaining specific concepts to your target audience. They'll be essential for businesses that have complex products or services.
Demo videos: Use demo videos to walk your target user through yourself using your product. These videos are the perfect time to pitch the effectiveness of your product.
Animation videos: These are great when looking to create something engaging to address typically boring topics. You can use animations to create product demos, explainers, or even video testimonials. Be sure to use an animation style that matches your business tone and voice.
10. What people say about you matters more than what you tell them
Your brand's reputation matters. It'll make or break your landing page conversion rates.
If you're having a poor reputation, customers will be afraid to do business with you. Address your negative reviews before they become a problem.
Respond to negative reviews positively and in a timely manner. You need to apologize for instances that your business wrongs the customer and look for a respectable remedy to the issue.
As for positive reviews, these can be great at giving your landing page the boost it needs. Post positive reviews on your landing page as they'll help convince customers to work with your business.
Pick reviews that are in line with your website copy to make it stronger. For instance, if your aim is for the landing page to make your business stand out in a crowded industry, use reviews that stress your USPs and compare your business to competitors.
11. Share competitive insights
Include a comparison of your business and the competition to prove a strong case for your business. You can use battle cards to create strong comparisons.
Battle cards are visual aids comparing your company's product, service, features, and/or pricing to one or many competitors. Battle cards should never be about belittling the competition, but taking an objective approach to de-positioning your competitors.
Create a SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat) analysis of your business and the competition. You should also assess both your customer base to understand how they differ. Once you're armed with this information, it'll be easy to create strong battle cards.
When making comparisons with the competition, ensure that you're unbiased. You can spend more time speaking on your strengths, but that doesn't mean that you'll ignore the competitor's strengths. Compare aspects like price, features, and service delivery. Your comparisons need to include aspects that the customer cares about.
12. Create (and follow) a CRO plan
Having a solid conversion rate optimization (CRO) plan will help you create a stronger landing page. You can build a strong CRO plan by assessing three aspects:
Drivers: Assess what drives customers to your page. Are they getting there through your website or social media? Are they learning about you from friends? Ensuring that you have strong brand messaging on platforms that drive customers to the landing page is essential.
Barriers: Assess everything on the landing page that bars people from converting. While some people won't convert due to poor messaging, others will leave due to poor UX. Keep evaluating both aspects of the page. For instance, increasing the load speed of your landing page can have a massive impact on UX and time on the page, increasing conversions.
Hooks: Take a look at what makes customers convert. If you can understand your business' hook, you can replicate it or strengthen it to improve conversions. For instance, your hook might be a feature that the competition doesn't have. Emphasizing this feature will get people interested in your business. Ask paying customers about what made them choose your business to identify your hook.
Landing page best practices examples
It can feel daunting to start creating your landing page from scratch. What should you include on the landing page? How should you portray your product to attract buyers? Lucky for you, we've picked a few great landing page examples to give you some inspiration.
Airbnb
Airbnb’s landing page for people interested in hosting is a great example. It features multiple credibility elements that make people comfortable working with the company.
The landing page is also simple and clutter-free. Visitors can easily navigate through it. It's also easy to spot the pink CTA button.
Hero section with high-quality imagery: Airbnb prominently features stunning images of properties in the hero section, instantly capturing visitors' attention and showcasing their unique experiences.
Simple and intuitive search functionality: The landing page includes a user-friendly search bar, allowing visitors to quickly find accommodations based on their destination, dates, and number of guests, making the user experience seamless.
Clear value proposition: Airbnb effectively communicates its unique selling points, such as "Unique stays," "Local experiences," and "Book with confidence," to highlight what sets it apart from traditional hotels.
Compelling CTAs: Clear and strategically placed CTAs like "Start your search" and "Explore nearby" guide users toward taking action and encourage them to engage with the platform.
User reviews and trust indicators: The landing page incorporates testimonials, ratings, and reviews from previous guests, helping to build trust and credibility, which can significantly influence potential customers' decisions.
Codecademy
Codecademy is the perfect example of a landing page for businesses that offer online courses. It makes the intimidating world of coding feel approachable for beginners thanks to its copy. It also includes success stories, testimonials and other forms of social proof to further sell the course. Most importantly, it makes logging in easy as you can use your socials or email to sign up for an account.
Clear and compelling headline: Codecademy uses a straightforward headline that communicates its primary value proposition, such as "Learn to Code," immediately informing visitors about what they can expect.
Engaging CTAs: The landing page features strong CTAs like "Get Started" or "Sign Up for Free," encouraging users to take immediate action and explore the platform without barriers.
Structured course offerings: Codecademy organizes its courses into clear categories and pathways, making it easy for users to navigate and find the coding skills they want to learn.
Testimonials and success stories: Including testimonials from learners who have successfully transitioned into tech careers builds trust and showcases the effectiveness of Codecademy's courses, enhancing credibility.
Visual elements and interactive features: The use of engaging visuals, including icons and graphics, combined with interactive elements like quizzes or progress trackers, keeps users engaged and enhances the overall user experience.
Paramount+
Paramount+ landing page is the perfect example of how to create a landing page that encourages people to convert with every scroll. It has an attractive design that changes slightly with each scroll to keep people engaged. It also uses engaging content and copy.
Bold visuals and branding: Paramount Plus uses high-quality images and videos from popular shows and movies prominently on the landing page, creating an immediate visual impact that draws users in.
Clear value proposition: The landing page communicates the unique benefits of subscribing, such as access to exclusive content and live sports, effectively highlighting what sets Paramount Plus apart from competitors.
Prominent CTA: With clear and direct CTAs like "Start Your Free Trial," the landing page encourages users to take immediate action and experience the service without financial commitment.
User-friendly navigation: The layout is intuitive, with easy navigation that allows users to quickly explore different content categories, ensuring they can find what they're looking for without frustration.
Social proof and ratings: Including ratings, reviews, and subscriber testimonials adds credibility, helping to reassure potential users about the quality of content and service they can expect from Paramount Plus.
Landing page metrics to track
Knowing what to track on your landing pages is essential. Tracking performance makes it easy to identify when a template, copy, or layout isn't working well. Most metrics will also point you toward what you'll need to change to improve performance.
Here are a few popular metrics to start tracking today:
Bounce rates: This is the percentage of web visitors that visit your landing page but don't interact with other pages. A high bounce rate is a poor sign. It means that there are problems with your page layout, content/copy or even user experience.
Heatmaps: These are color-coded analyses of your web page. They help show the areas that your website visitors interact with most. You can use heatmaps to identify the parts of your landing page that you're losing your customers through to optimize them.
Conversion rate: This is the percentage of page visitors that perform the desired action. The action can be buying a product or even subscribing to your emails. Having a low conversion can be a sign that you have an issue with your landing page copy or user experience.
Page load: Users expect snappy landing pages as it improves their user experience. Work with tools like PageSpeed Insights to identify what parts of your web page are slowing your landing page down to optimize them.
Scroll depth: Tracking scroll depth on a landing page is essential because it reveals how engaged visitors are with your content. By understanding how far users scroll, you can identify which sections of the page capture their attention and where they lose interest. This insight helps optimize page layout, improve content placement, and refine calls-to-action to align with user behavior, ultimately boosting conversions and overall performance.
Website visitors: High traffic is an indicator that you've done a great job leading users to your landing page. You might have been promoting the landing page on socials, search result pages, and emails. Use Leadfeeder to make sense of your website traffic. Thanks to our tracking scripts, you can use our algorithm to identify the companies that are visiting your landing page and their firmographic data like contact and location.
Landing page templates
It’s easy to find inspiration for your landing page on different landing page templates. We've scoured the Internet to help you identify some excellent landing pages to get ideas. Here are a few landing page libraries you can use for inspiration today:
Popular landing page builders
You don't have to build landing pages from scratch nowadays. With some of the most popular landing page builders, it can be as easy as choosing a few templates or dragging and dropping content. Here are three popular landing page builders you can use today:
Leadpages
Leadpages can help you get your landing pages up and running in a few minutes. The website builder will offer you support in multiple ways, from its beginner-friendly drag-and-drop builder to its hosting opportunity. You can choose from the tool's three pricing packages, which differ from each other in terms of the number of features, customer support, and number of pages you can create.
Here are the features that make Leadpages stand out:
Hosted landing pages: you can choose between using your own domain name or hosting your landing pages on Leadpages.
Multiple landing page templates: Choose between multiple free and paid templates.
Detailed analytics and A/B testing: Use the Leadpages dashboard to analyze your page performance for easier landing page optimization. You can also integrate it with other tools like Google Analytics to improve your landing page.
Supports multiple integrations: Leadpages integrates with payment gateways, email marketing platforms, and CRM tools to help streamline your work.
Leadpages pros and cons
HubSpot
HubSpot is the swiss army knife of marketing software thanks to the number of tools it offers businesses. Its landing page builder is among the many tools you can use on the platform.
It comes with a library of landing page templates alongside a drag-and-drop builder to help you customize the templates. You can easily use the tool to personalize your landing pages based on web visitors' location, device, age, and even gender. All these personalizations will be saved on its CRM platform.
HubSpot pros and cons
Unbounce
Unbounce is a great tool for turning website visitors into leads or paying customers. The tool has a range of landing page templates that can help you set your business up for success. It can also help you build pop-up and sticky bars through its drag-and-drop builder.
The tool makes it easy to analyze landing pages thanks to its analytics dashboard. You can use the dashboard to identify landing page improvements that’ll increase conversion. Lastly, it also integrates well with multiple tools, including Zapier, Campaign Monitor, Salesforce and MailChimp.
Unbounce pros and cons
Landing page best practices checklist
Here is our quick checklist of best practices for landing pages that guarantee success.
Clear value proposition: Communicate the benefits succinctly.
Compelling CTAs: Use action-oriented language and make them prominent.
Minimal distractions: Keep the design clean and focused.
Social proof: Include testimonials or case studies to build trust.
Visual appeal: Use high-quality images and graphics to engage visitors.
Boost your conversion rate with our 2024 landing page best practices
Crafting an effective landing page is crucial for boosting your conversion rates, so having a checklist of landing page best practices is the key. An impactful landing page combines compelling copy with an engaging layout to capture the attention of potential customers and spark their interest in your offerings. By implementing the landing page design best practices outlined earlier, you can significantly enhance performance and drive more conversions for your business.
Personalization is an effective approach to enhance the performance of your landing pages, and Leadfeeder can help you achieve that. Our advanced algorithm and tracking scripts can give valuable insights into the companies visiting your landing page. This information allows you to tailor the content and messaging specifically to your audience, improving engagement and conversion rates.
Start using Leadfeeder today to elevate your landing page strategy through effective personalization.
FAQs about landing page best practices
What makes the perfect landing page?
The perfect landing page combines engaging design, clear and persuasive copy, and a strong call to action to guide visitors toward a specific goal. It features a clean layout that highlights essential information without distractions, uses compelling headlines and concise content to convey value, and incorporates visual elements that enhance user experience.
The best landing pages are also optimized for mobile devices and incorporate trust signals, such as testimonials or security badges, to build credibility. A landing page can successfully convert visitors into leads or customers by focusing on all of this.
What are the elements of a landing page?
A great landing page should prominently feature a compelling headline that clearly communicates its value proposition, followed by concise and persuasive copy that outlines the benefits of the offering. It should include a visually appealing image or video that reinforces the message and engages visitors.
A strong CTA should be easily visible, guiding users toward the desired action, whether signing up, downloading, or purchasing. Trust elements such as testimonials, reviews, or security badges can also enhance credibility, while a simple and clean layout ensures that visitors can navigate without distractions.
How to create a landing page
Define your goal
Understand your audience
Craft a compelling headline
Write persuasive copy
Incorporate visuals
Create a strong CTA
Design for simplicity
Optimize for mobile
Implement tracking tools
What are some top landing page copywriting tips?
When crafting landing page copy, start with a compelling headline that highlights your offer's value and focus on benefits rather than features. Include a great CTA and social proof like testimonials to build trust while keeping the layout easy to scan with bullet points and short paragraphs.
Connect emotionally with your audience by addressing their pain points and desires. Use storytelling to engage visitors and A/B test different elements for effectiveness. Ensure your copy aligns with visuals and optimize for SEO with relevant keywords to attract potential customers.
How do I A/B test my landing page?
To A/B test your landing page, start by creating two versions of the page, labeled A and B, with one key difference between them, such as a headline, image, or call-to-action. Use a testing tool to randomly direct traffic to each version and monitor metrics like conversion rates, bounce rates, and user engagement.
After collecting sufficient data over a specific period, analyze the results to determine which version performed better, allowing you to implement the winning elements for improved conversion rates.
Now that you're here
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