Seven Deadly Sins of Landing Page Design

If your business is running an online marketing campaign with Google or any other company, than you know the importance of well thought out and designed landing pages.

A landing page, which is sometimes known as a lead capture page, is a page that appears when a potential customer clicks on an advertisement or a search-engine result link.  The page will usually display content that is a logical extension of the advertisement or link, and that is optimized to feature specific keywords or phrases for indexing by search engines.

Now without further adieu, I present you with the 7 Deadly Sins of Landing Page Design.  If you avoid these common mistakes, you should expect see an increase in qualified leads coming in through your website:

  1. Unclear call to action:  It is important that you draw the eye of the visitor to the call to action on the landing page, which is usually an online form or a phone number.  The call to action should be “above the fold” (should not have to scroll to see it)  and there should not be any competing information such as links to other pages or other forms.
  2. Too many choices: If you offer too many choices on your landing page, it tends to cause paralysis and the visitor will get confused.  This will often times lead to the visitor hitting the back button and leaving your site altogether, which you definitely want to avoid!
  3. Asking for too much information: When you have an online form on your landing page, you want to make sure that you’re not asking for extraneous information.  Keep your forms short and sweet and only require the fields that you really need to contact the visitor.  Get rid of any unnecessary fields that may prevent the visitor from completing the form.
  4. Too much text: Do you really expect your visitors to read all of this?  Let’s be realistic.  Most web browsers make up their mind within milliseconds as to whether or not the page they land on is what they need.  Many businesses feel as though they need to gloat about their products and services on their landing pages, which can be a good thing, but know that your visitors do NOT want to read a novel here.  Keeping the text focused and concise is key here.
  5. Not keeping your promises: Make sure that what you offer in your ad corresponds to the content on your landing page.  No one likes to click an ad for video games, only to be taken to a landing page for board games.  This frustrates the visitor, so make sure there is no disconnect between the ad and the landing page.
  6. Visual distractions: Leave out any unnecessary visual distractions such as scrolling text marquees, fading photo montages, flash modules, blinking text, pretty much anything that moves.  We humans are wired to respond to movement.  These enhancements can be useful website tools when implemented properly, but they do not belong on landing pages.  Be sure to add specific and relevant images on the landing page to drive the point home.
  7. Lack of trust: The final deadly sin is not giving your visitors a reason to trust you once they’re on your site.  Make sure that you utilize borrowed logos from security companies and other accredited firms to convey a sense of security and remove anxiety.

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