When I’m hired to consult and review business websites, one of the first areas I look at are the landing pages.
Landing pages typically have the most traffic compared to the other standard pages of your website (for good reason) and can have the most impact on the growth of the business online.
Landing pages are a phenomenal tool to have in your toolkit when developing your website.
They provide an easy way to provide a ton of great value to your potential customers while helping you to grow your email list. That list is powerful because it allows you to continue to build an ongoing relationship with people who need help solving problems related to what you offer.
Getting traffic to the landing page is the easy part. The hard part is making sure your landing pages are optimized to convert.
Here are the 3 most common landing page mistakes I see, so that hopefully you can avoid them.
1. Displaying your site navigation or other links
Your landing page should present visitors with 2 options:
- Complete the desired action (opt in to an email list, download PDF, watch a video, etc)
- Leave.
That’s it. There is no 3rd option.
Here is an example of a landing page I use right here on Green Tree Media:
That’s the entire page.
There is no header. There is no footer.
By including your standard site navigation or links to other pages of your website, you’re increasing the opportunity for visitors to leave before they’ve completed our desired action.
When I build a landing page, I remove the standard header AND footer.
You can include your logo for branding purposes but remove the link back to your home page that typically accompanies logos on websites.
Also be sure to remove any other links that might be on the page, such as links to recent blog posts or articles, etc.
You’ll notice in the image above that I did include links to my privacy policy – that’s fine as it helps to build trust but make sure these links open in a new tab and NOT in the same tab as your landing page.
Remember, the traffic was sent to this page for a very specific reason. Make sure that in order to get to another page, people only have 2 options: complete the action or press the “back” button on their browser.
2. Make the action and benefit clear
Once you remove the navigation and other links on the page, make sure your CTA (Call to Action) or the desired action you want them to take very clear.
The last thing you want is for visitors to end up your landing page with no links and have no idea what you’re expecting them to do.
If you’re wanting them to opt into your email list in exchange for a free cheatsheet PDF or ebook, make it obvious.
Here is a great example from Wistia:
The put their CTA front and center. When you arrive on this page, it’s obvious what they want you to do (create an account) AND they clearly tell you the benefit of why you should do it (to put your business videos to work).
3. Make sure your button text doesn’t suck
The absolute worst thing you can write on your button is the word “submit.”
Please, please, please don’t do it. I can’t think of any words or phrases less exciting than “submit.”
You should make people excited about completing the action.
Check out this example from Impact Brand:
Not only do they lead their form with “GET MY COPY NOW!” which oozes excitement, but notice what their button text says.
GENERATE MORE CONVERSIONS!
Who doesn’t want to generate more conversion in their business?
NOTE: If you want to deep dive further into examples of great button text, check out this video I did that covers the exact topic of coming up with great button text.
This landing page also makes the value of WHY you should complete the action very clear.
The signup form, coupled with the copy text on the left makes this an awesome landing page that I’m sure does very well for them.
Conclusion + Bonus Tip
Landing pages, when set up correctly, can be a powerful tool used to drive business online. Done poorly, however, can really be a bottleneck in your growth.
That’s why it’s important to:
- Remove navigation and distracting links
- Make the CTA and value CLEAR
- Write great button text
The cool thing with websites these days is that you can test different words or phrases on your buttons to see what converts best, so don’t be afraid to experiment.
Think of words or phrases your target customer uses to describe their own problems or struggles and try to use those words. They will likely resonate much more with those words than “submit”.
I can almost guarantee it.
