SEO is important since you need people to find you on search engines aside from any visitors you bring in with paid ad campaigns or from among your email subscribers, social media followers, etc. To use industry jargon, SEO brings in organic traffic. However, no amount of SEO can overcome a cluttered or drab web page. Bad design is the all-powerful bane that will sink a website regardless of the quality of its content. It is ironic that the opposite is equally valid. A great design encumbered by poor optimisation will almost never get any hits. There are no two ways about this – you need to make sure that your website has a pleasing and functional design. At the same time, you will need to get it optimised or hire an SEO services firm.
We have discussed digital marketing techniques, including SEO, at some length in other posts. A website’s design is intricately linked with its content, much like the way clothes are designed with the fabric in mind. Unlike traditional design, web design is more open to interpretation, perhaps (and simply) because it is exposed to a wider audience. Yet, most experts agree that a website’s landing page is the most crucial part of the website. This is the proverbial “First Impression” – and you may not get a second chance. Visitors are known to close their browser tabs in seconds when they see something they do not like. You would naturally want to avoid that. No secret template exists – you won’t find references to colour codes, layouts, ratios, etc. Thankfully, there are some fundamentals that can have a major impact on the design, and consequently, the look and feel of a landing page. These 5 tips are just what you need to help you perfect your landing page.
Provide Targeted Content to the Visitors
When a visitor comes to your landing page, it is essential to capture his attention with your content instantly. If you are selling one or more products and services, the landing page must have targeted content that the visitor expects to see on the page. This content must be directly related to what the visitor saw in the search results that made them click on your link in the first place. Avoid unrelated content on the page since it could drive away the customer, wasting your SEO efforts. Instead, the information must be presented clearly with the help of both textual and visual elements. You must do the same with your social media content. Ensure that the social media management firm you are working with matches the content on your website and your social media profiles. No matter where your visitor come from, they must get what is expected, starting right from your landing page and uniformity and familiarity helps.
Remove All Distractions
Competent digital marketing firms understand the importance of minimalism and will stress on the need for clean and functional design. To quote an overused cliché – “Less is More.” If you give too many options to a visitor on your landing page, you could overwhelm them. This defeats the purpose of a landing page. Your landing page should ideally have just a handful of options for the visitor – the primary and most visible element is the product itself. In some cases, removing the sidebar is also advisable. When you provide relevant information on your landing page and place “Call to Action” buttons or links appropriately, the visitor is more likely to oblige. With a sidebar full of colourful images or ads, the visitor might get carried away and even leave the landing page itself. What a waste!
Define Your “Call-to-Action” Clearly
Whether you want your visitor to sign up for your newsletter, purchase your product(s), or give you feedback, you need to have a way for them to do it easily. Upfront action requests on the landing page tend to get the best response. The primary motive of the landing page should be evident at a glance, even to the most unassuming visitors. Any surprises or confusion here only frustrate the customer and drive them away. Make the law of repetition work in your favour by repeating your message and hence the “Call to Action” at the beginning, the middle, and at the end of the landing page. The customer should not have to scroll up or down to locate the “Call to Action” buttons or links. At the same time, ensure that your landing page is optimised. An SEO services firm will (most likely) take care of this on its own but a reminder can get you both on the same page, no pun intended.
Focus on Customer Experience
If you can get a focus group to take a look at your landing page, you would get the perspective of a new visitor. You can even ask a few friends or employees who are unfamiliar with the website to do this for you. Their feedback can be crucial, letting you detect and address any problems and make improvements to the user experience. Some of the important things to look out for are what a visitor notices on the page, if the call to action is visible at a glance, and if they follow your intended navigation pathway. When creating a new website or revamping an old one, it is often better to create a few landing page designs and test them before you choose the best. Even when you are trying to sell a product, add value to the customer experience by providing additional information, tips, or even fun facts about your company or product. This is a substantial part of the customer experience, so much so that anything of interest to the visitor may be worthwhile rather than foregoing it entirely. If you have trouble creating relevant content, a good place to start is asking why the visitor has actually come to your landing page.
Specify the Final Course of Action
Once a visitor has taken the action you intended, there must be no ambiguity about the next step. Use a specified course of action, ideally defined within the page design to either take the visitor to an acknowledgement screen that later leads to the homepage or bring them to the homepage directly. For some rare cases, you may have to bypass these steps to take them to a page with appropriate product details or pricing information. In any case, the design must be intuitive and clearly defined to ensure visitors have a smooth transition. This is an important part of customer experience that can convert a visitor into a customer or better yet, a repeat customer.
It is important to discuss all your goals with your digital marketing firm. Better input for your landing page and how it should look is a discussion that must be held early on to reap the maximum benefits. Harmony in your content, social media profiles, search engine listing, etc. will help you build your brand and grow your business. Your website’s visitors will be more willing to trust you and tell others about you if their own experience is pleasing and productive. Give this matter the attention it deserves and the rewards will follow.
This post originally appeared on our earlier website: ihusresearch.com