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The definition of a landing page is simply “the first page that visitors hit on your site”, so it is not strictly a certain page but any page that a user “lands” on. All websites have landing pages, whether they like it or not, even if it was not specifically designed as such. Understanding this is a key part of good website marketing.

anding pages can have a substantial impact on your e-commerce website. A poorly-developed one can hasten its breakdown just as an effective landing page can drive traffic to your site,  respond to calls to action and make your business website a success.

One vital measure of the effectiveness of your ecommerce website is the “bounce rate”, or the percentage of visitors who immediately leave your site without making any other click. The bounce rate is inversely proportional to the effectiveness of the landing page. Basically, this means that a high bounce rate indicates that your landing page isn’t compelling enough for the visitor to pursue his interest or take some other action.

Most users prefer to skip information which is irrelevant to their needs. They want to get directly to their search, hence the need for a landing page that delivers just that. They are spared the time and hassle of having to navigate through layers of data when they already have an idea of what they want. The bounce rate is a key measurement for determining the effectiveness of landing pages.

Another measure for landing pages is the success of a “next action”. It might be purchasing the product, requesting more information, signing up for a free trial, etc. A concept that is intrinsic in creating effective landing pages is “alignment”. This is the connection between your source (where the visitor came from) and your landing page. The more connected they are, the higher the success of conversion.

A good example is a banner ad for a specific product from a beauty products company. Clicking on the banner ad and being directed to a landing page showing the exact same product yields a higher conversion rate. Conversely, if the alignment is absent, there will be a significant drop in conversion rates.

In general, a landing page must stir these positive emotions in a visitor for it to be effective:

• Credibility
  Your page must be able to capture the visitor’s trust by presenting a credible appearance. Get rid of red flags, such as lack of contact information, typo errors and wrong grammar, use of incorrect jargon, low-resolution graphics, and excessive use of Times Roman font.
• Recognition
  Your page must provide your visitor a “This is what I’m looking for!” moment upon landing.
• Persuasiveness
  Your page must be able to convince visitors that your product or service can help them achieve their goal. Keep in mind what attracted the visitor to your product in the first place so you will understand what he is looking for.
• Action
  You must highlight an action for the visitor to take while he is in your landing page.

Techniques to Use with Landing Pages

Having these website marketing features in your landing page, here are some major principles to guide you in the process of developing an effective landing page:

• Make the visitor feel an instant affinity with your page.
  The top half of the first screen should be effective in making the visitor feel that he has come to the right place. The use of the right taglines, images and a position statement (usually about 12 to 15 words) can help to establish your declaration and inform your visitor what the site is about.
• Use specific headlines and sub-headings.
  Create a particular page headline and sub-headings throughout the page to give your visitor instant information on what a paragraph or section is all about. This helps him decide whether he will read the text or which section he is interested in. the longer the page, the more you should be using sub-headings.

  The headline should be aligned as closely as possible with the banner ad or whatever the visitor clicked on to arrive on your landing page.

• Focus on a primary goal for your website marketing strategy.
  A landing page can achieve only one primary goal. Examples of these goals are a lead capture mechanism, such as a free demo or product trial, or to lure the visitor to go further and view your main site. Focusing on your goal will give you the best results.

  However, a secondary goal is possible in a landing page. For example, if your primary goal is to make the visitor purchase your product, your secondary goal would be to entice them to sign up for newsletters or emails to receive special offers.

• Use multiple calls to action.
  Using multiple calls to the same action supports the one primary goal principle. This holds true on a long landing page. A page that doesn’t go below the fold may need only one call to action. Overall, one call to action above the fold and another at the bottom of the page are good.
• Pay attention to your layout and graphic design.
  
  • To make them easy-to-read, keep text columns narrow- about 80 characters or so wide- and left-aligned, not centered.
  • Place an image of the product (commonly called the “hero shot”) and make sure the quality and clarity are good.
  • Images are attention-getting, so put your key text, such as your offer, below the product image or other appealing graphics.
  • If your offer requires the visitor to fill out a form, it will be more effective if placed on the landing page rather than needing a click-through to another page.

Layouts and graphic designs depend on the products and their market and can be very diverse. In spite of the variety, however, they can all use the same design principles to help them be effective in achieving their goal

Driving traffic to your site will require an investment on your part, so it is only sensible to maximize the impact of that traffic for a quicker ROI. Increasing website conversions is also an important consideration.

Developing effective landing pages for your business website needs only simple implementation of changes yet their impact is significant to the success of your business and the user experience of your website.

Guest Author -Marina, She is a user experience (UX) manager at eBay.