How do you create a high converting landing page that drives maximum conversion rates in Google?

What’s a landing page?

A landing page is what your customers view after clicking through Google’s search engine.

These web pages are designed for one purpose: to convert a visitor.

Whether that conversion goal is to get people to either buy a product, or to book an appointment, it can be done by strategically arranging elements on your landing page.

What’s the difference between a landing page and all the other pages on my website?

Most businesses have an “About us” page, a variation of a “What we offer” or “Services” page, and a web page dedicated to your customers. These pages, help make your website — the purpose of which is to teach your customers more about you’re business.

Landing pages work different. They’re designed specifically to convert visitors into leads, which means they need to be persuasive than any of the other pages on your website.

The people who land on these pages don’t want to learn your vision, or meet your team. They’re there because they’ve been enticed by your promotion and want to see what you’re offering.

So how do we go about creating a landing page layout that will boost the chances your visitors convert?

The best landing page layout, above the fold:

If you want to make a good impression, place your important elements above the fold. They will help you quickly convey the benefit of your offer, and show prospects what they need to do to claim it.

Your logo

If you don’t include your logo somewhere on the top of your landing page, your’e visitors may wonder who are you. It’s important to practice consistent branding, so that customers know they haven’t been redirected to some spammy site.

Like most sites, this company has placed their logo in the upper-left corner

You need to do the same, because the upper left corner is where most of your customers will look to find you.

No navigation

A landing page is a little bit like a well-designed trap. Your customers should be able to get in, but not leave, unless they buy.

That means no navigation menu across the top for visitors to escape with. The only three ways they should be able to get off your landing page is:

• By buying
• Or by hitting the “x” in the corner of their screen to exit the browser window
• Or by clicking the back button

A strong call to action

Your call to action should be the first thing your customers read when your page loads. Use big, bold text to draw attention, and communicate your unique selling proposition in a way that explains how it will benefit them.

Here’s is a great example from Five Four Club:

Their unique selling proposition is that they deliver your clothing to your doorstep. So how does that benefit the customer?

They don’t have to go actually go shopping.

When thinking of your headline, think about the problem your customers face, and communicate how your business is going to solve it for them.

Without a great call-to-action, your landing page is could fail.

Remember, the entire purpose of a landing page is to get your customers to take action, and this is how it happens. Your visitors have to click a button to convert.

If you have a contact form, position your Call To Action button just below.

Engaging media

More and more these days we process the world visually through gestures and facial expressions. We’ve evolved to prefer images to text when processing information.

The quickest and most efficient way to get information across is to show it.

A Hero shot helps your customers imagine their lives after they have bought your product; infographics like charts and graphs help them better conceptualise the information; videos and case studies help them understand your product in a easy way.

A detailed form

You may or may not require your customrers to hand over information about themselves in exchange for what you’re business is offering.

If so, you will need a lead capture form, like the one below from Salesforce:

These contain a combination of fields, allowing customers to submit more information about themselves, but forces them to at least give you the bare minimum you need.

Include a lot of required fields and you’ll get more information from your customers who may convert. More information allows you to deliver marketing messages, on top of giving you a greater insight to your target audience.

But, sometimes the more you ask, the likely your customers are to fill out the form properly. They may not have the time to finish a form that is too long.

On the flip side, the less you ask, the more likely it is your customers may finish filling out the form, which means the more leads you may generate. But, they won’t be as much as the leads you generate from a longer form.

Benefit-oriented copy

“What’s in it for me?” That’s what your customers want to know when they land on your page. Don’t waste time getting to the point by fluffing around. The more direct, the better.

Something else to keep in mind when writing your landing page copy is that people don’t like to read block text. Big text blocks were the last thing people want to look at.

Make it simple and small.

Minimal footer

There should only be a couple of ways off your landing page: the back button, the little “x” in the corner of the browser window, and your call to action button.

When it comes to creating a footer, it shouldn’t include a sitemap, or links to your social media sites. The only thing you should have in your footer is:

• Terms & conditions
• Privacy information
• Copyright information

Here’s an example of a footer.

Remember that any link that isn’t your CTA button simply acts as another way for your customers to escape your page without buying.

Contact information

If your landing page has done the job, your customers will be able to decide whether or not to buy your offer.

But it’s not always easy to anticipate all your customers questions. Sometimes they want to talk to a person, and a contact information lets them do it.

Add yours to your footer, or even to your header.