What is a Landing Page on a Website?

It is common to hear the term “landing page” when looking into digital marketing. So what exactly is a “landing page on a website,” and how is it different from your current website? A landing page is any page that visitors can land on or arrive at in its purest meaning. It is a separate web page created for one purpose.

Your landing page should not have global navigation that ties it to your main website. This is done to limit your visitors’ options and help you guide them towards your conversion goal.

Although landing pages can look very similar to regular homepages, significant differences will make them useful in your digital marketing campaign.

Landing pages have different goals, purposes, and traffic sources than homepages. Therefore, it is crucial to ensure that both are optimized for their intended purpose. Understanding the differences between them in four areas is key to understanding how you can optimize each.

1. Audience

Your audience is the first thing that distinguishes your landing pages from your home page. Landing pages look the same as they sound. It is a page that a user “lands on” after clicking one of your ads.

You can target specific demographics with digital ads. They are more likely than others to convert.

Your landing page must be tailored for this audience. They are less likely to be just browsing your site as organic traffic, so your landing pages should focus on the content and information that will help them convert.

While you want to avoid making your visitors feel overwhelmed, landing pages can be a lot easier than your homepage.

2. Links

The aim of landing pages is to convert traffic, while homepages can do many things.

You will see a navigation bar near the top of a typical homepage. Your footer may also contain links to other sites or social media. To help your visitors navigate to your site or allow them to interact with it in the best way possible, you will need all these links.

However, you shouldn’t include these links on your landing pages. Your main goal is to keep viewers on your landing pages until they convert. You should therefore try to avoid any distractions.

You must find ways to communicate the information you need to your audience without taking them from the page. You can display your social media following count on the page or a scroll bar to take them to the appropriate area of your landing page.

If you require visitors to link to another page, use a light box function or open the link in a new tab or window. Limiting the options on landing pages will increase the chances of your page converting.

3. Content

You might reuse some of the information from your homepage, but a landing page should contain only the content relevant to the product you are trying to promote.

Your visitors come to your landing pages via search terms or ads. Therefore, you should tailor your landing page to the search terms and ads.

Let’s say, for example, that you own a company that sells all kinds of creative writing services. A user searches for “content writing” and clicks your advertisement. Instead of redirecting them to your home page, where you showcase the variety of content writing services you offer, point these ads to a landing page devoted to content writing.

Ideal landing pages should be set up so that anyone clicking on your ad arrives on the page and says, “Yes:” this is what I was looking for!”

4. Call-to-Action

The most significant difference between a website’s homepage and a landing page is that the landing page must be action-oriented. A landing page should include a Call-to-Action that encourages visitors to convert.

CTAs could be anything from filling out a form, calling a telephone number, or simply buying your product. Whatever your CTA, however, it must be straightforward. CTAs can be as simple as “Get Your Free Evaluation!” or “Call Us Now!”

It is often that a CTA offers a specific discount. This can help increase conversions. You can try something different than “Call Us Today”: “Call Today to Get 30% off”. This will make your audience feel valued and motivate them to act immediately.

Your homepage may not have a strong, prominent CTA. This is because it is mainly used as an information resource. But landing pages need to be different. They should visually and verbally drive your visitors to convert.

Different Types of Landing Pages

There are two ways to categorize landing pages: Click Through and Lead Generation, also known as Lead Capture or Lead Gen pages.

Click-through Landing Pages

The purpose of click-through landing pages is to reassure visitors to click through to other pages. They are often used in eCommerce funnels to provide enough detail to help visitors purchase a product.

Lead Generation Landing Pages

Lead generation landing pages can collect user data such as email addresses and names. The page’s sole purpose is to gather the information that you can use to market to the prospect and connect with them later. A lead capture page will include a form and a description of the benefits you will receive in return for your data.

Conclusion for What is a Landing Page on a Website?

Perhaps you can say that focus is the key to success. Your homepage is full of information. It has many sources, many links, and lots of data. A company site serves to provide potential customers with lots of information.

A landing page has a particular message and contains relevant content. Its purpose, however, is to convert. A landing page, in other words, is a simplified and shorter version of a homepage with a specific calling-to-action.

While homepages serve many essential purposes, the landing page capitalizes on the audience targeting options and conversion tracking opportunities available through paid searches. This makes them an integral part of pay-per-click (or other digital advertising methods).

If you are interested in creating a landing page for your website or having someone create high-converting landing pages for your company, then take action and start converting.

Now it’s your turn. What can landing pages do to improve your online presence and visibility? Do they work well for your website?

Mark

CEO and Founder of The Retired Affiliates