It’s a jungle out there when it comes to looking for landing page best practices.
But underneath all the tactics on the internet, there’s a core bunch of tried and tested practices that will help to boost conversions on your landing pages.
In this ultimate guide, we will be diving into the following categories:
- Mobile Landing Page Best Practices
- B2B Landing Page Best Practices
- PPC Landing Page Best Practices
- SEO Landing Page Best Practices
- eCommerce Landing Page Best Practices
Let’s get converting
Mobile Landing Page Best Practices
Only 50% of landing pages are optimized for mobile. That means, 50% of businesses are missing out on the fastest-growing market of internet users in the world.
Don’t be that 50%. Here are some ways to optimize your pages for mobile users:
1. Make your forms simple
Forms aren’t a one-size-fits-all kind of lead magnet—you shouldn’t be using the same forms for mobile landing pages as you do for desktops.
Why? Forms are tedious to fill out, especially on a mobile device. Moosend makes it super easy for you to create an optimized landing page for your mobile users.
All you have to do is switch from desktop to mobile view with the push of a button and adjust your elements accordingly.
If your forms have a lot of dropdown boxes and extra fields, you might find that it’s turning leads off of your landing page.
Less is more when it comes to mobile forms. You want to reduce the amount of resistance a prospect will show an opt-in form, and that means making it as simple as possible for them to opt in to your conversion.
You can do this by cutting back on the “extra” fields you might have on your desktop landing page forms.
Look at your current opt-in form, and delete anything that can be followed up by a member of your sales team later. You should be left with a skeleton form on your mobile landing page, and that’s perfect.
Instapage has the bare minimum of the required information on its landing page form.
Pro Tip: If you can, customize each field to link with your prospects’ keyboard so it makes it even easier for them to fill out.
Are you asking for a phone number?
Have your form input field automatically switch them to the numerical keyboard when they click the field.
Asking for an email? Switch them to their alphabetical keyboard.
We know… smart, right?
2. Have a scrolling CTA
Everyone is obsessed with having a call-to-action (CTA) above the fold. While it’s important on a desktop landing page, it becomes a different story on a mobile device.
Sure, you should always have a CTA somewhere in the users’ view for when they first land on your page.
That way, your conversion goal is always at the front of their thought process. But instead of just having it above the fold, try having a scrolling CTA on your landing page as well.
How it works: When your prospect scrolls down your mobile landing page to read the page copy, your CTA will be pinned to the top of their screen.
This is a great way of capturing goal-orientated mobile users. And it’ll save them from scrolling back up to find your opt-in form, too.
3. Contrast your CTA button
Do not. We repeat…DO NOT have your CTA button the same color as your landing page.
Having a CTA button in a contrasting color will help your mobile landing page visitors follow whatever conversion goal you’ve got planned for them.
It’s also easier to link important copy and your CTA together if they’re given a contrasting color.
Remember, mobile users are on the prowl. Don’t mess around with amateur blunders like this, otherwise, they’ll bounce.
Take note of the dull landing page on the left. Yawn-worthy!
Pro Tip: Make sure your CTA is the right size. A full-width button should measure at least 44 pixels.
4. Use the “Arm’s Length” rule
How many times have you arrived on a landing page that clearly hadn’t been optimized for mobile?
It’s probably one of the biggest turn-offs for prospects. It gives off the vibe that the company didn’t bother making an effort for mobile devices.
And that’s a massive way to turn customers away from ever converting. Like this:
Which one is easier for the customer to navigate? The mobile landing page on the left that isn’t optimized, and has tiny text?
Probably not.
It’s not mobile-friendly and could be a massive turnoff to anyone who is looking to become a customer.
To avoid this happening, you need to use the “arm’s length” rule on any mobile landing page before it goes live.
Simple steps:
- Load your landing page on your mobile device
- Hold your arm out straight
- Does everything still look like it should from that distance?
- If it doesn’t, change up whatever doesn’t look 100% clear
- Get a second opinion; have someone else in your team do the arm’s length test as well
Pro Tip: Keep any font on your mobile landing page at least 16 pixels in size to make it readable. This will ensure the copy is easy to read on mobile devices.
5. Wrap your CTA in copy
If you’re trying to convert users on a mobile device, chances are you’ve dramatically reduced the copy on the landing page, too.
Less copy means you need to be smarter about the psychology of your conversion.
This is where you can use your CTA to increase conversions by wrapping it in the copy.
Make your CTA pop by putting a supporting statement underneath it. Tell the user exactly what they’re going to get by clicking on the CTA:
Doing this will help in two ways.
Firstly, it’ll break up your copy into a double whammy: a conversion goal paired with a supporting statement.
Secondly, it’ll help to communicate what you want your landing page visitor to actually do, without breaking up the design of the page
B2B Landing Page Best Practices
Landing pages continue to be one of the top 5 challenges for B2B marketers.
Here are five ways you can overcome the challenge and boost your conversions:
6. Use specific copy
If a customer is looking at your landing page, they aren’t just beginning their buyer journey… they’re in the middle of it. So don’t include copy on your landing page that talks about stuff you would normally have at the beginning of the buyer journey. Chances are, they already know.
That’s how they ended up on your landing page and why they aren’t on your homepage.
Not having a specific copy to compliment a landing page is one of the biggest mistakes B2B companies make.
You’re genuinely wasting your own conversion efforts if you’re duplicating your copy from your homepage to your landing page.
Instead, use landing page copy to push your prospect in the direction you want them to go.
7. Use only one CTA
The main reason landing pages are so damn efficient is because they have a single focus.
It might be that a visitor has landed there to download a free eBook. Or sign up for a trial. Or subscribe to a product with a limited time offer.
Whatever it is, the landing pages that work the best are the ones that follow the 1:1 ratio: one landing page for one conversion goal.
So if you’ve got a landing page that’s telling leads to do more than one thing, there’s a big chance a lot of them aren’t going to do either. Instead, you’ll confuse them.
Like this landing page from Chase:
If a visitor was led to that landing page on the promise of a new checking account deal, what do you think their reaction was when they were faced with this beast?
There are two main CTAs and an ungodly amount of other links and choices for the user.
All of the links are in the same color too, so you’re given no direction on what to click.
It’s overwhelming and most of all… it distracts the user from fulfilling your conversion goal.
8. Create a landing page for every campaign message
This is alarming. Kissmetrics says a whopping 52% of B2B ads point to the companies homepage, instead of a dedicated landing page.
This is the cardinal sin of landing page optimization. Because someone who’s just clicked on your ad for a free trial of a specific product has just landed on your homepage. Where you’re offering everything.
Instead of pointing everyone to your homepage, you need to be funneling users to dedicated landing pages that give them access to the product they clicked on.
That means for every unique ad you’ve got running, you need a dedicated landing page if you want to boost your conversions. Otherwise, you’re just throwing your money away.
Pro Tip: Make sure you have done everything possible to boost the conversion rate and to give your customers an easy way to get in touch with you.
How? Install a callback widget that analyzes the behavior of your website visitors and prompts an immediate call when the visitor is most likely to convert.
9. Testimonials and social proof: Front and center
If you don’t have any stellar testimonials from current customers, go and get some. Right now.
Social proof is one of the easiest ways you can boost conversions on your landing page.
By showing customers that other businesses are willing to rave about your product, you’ll be able to build trust and credibility in your brand.
And the bigger the brand name in the testimonial, the better.
The founder of Consulting.com, Sam Ovens, for example, has been successful in using social proof to improve his landing page conversions by showcasing real numbers.
Almost all of his landing pages boast phenomenal figures including more than 3000 positive reviews from his actual students some of which are well-known entrepreneurs.
Pro Tip: If you’ve got a client who you know loves your product, ask them for a testimonial as well as a headshot you can use. People connect more with a testimonial if they’re able to put a face to a name. Bonus points if you can get it from a company’s key decision-maker.
10. Push the customer through your funnel
With B2B landing pages, you have a unique opportunity to push customers through your funnel at a faster pace.
If you optimize your landing page to its full potential, you can lead your prospect through several stages of the customer journey using a single page.
Case in point: PIM on Clouds.
Okay, so they’re treading the line with our “one call to action only” rule by offering “choose plan” or “ask for pricing” CTAs.
But what they do manage to do is build interest in their service and guide their prospects through a list of features and benefits.
Talk about building the hype before getting to the CTAs
PPC Landing Page Best Practices
Let’s cut to the chase. 97% of PPC ads get clicked and end up with no conversion to show for it.
Here are five landing page best practices to stop you from wasting your PPC budget and start landing some conversions.
11. Make sure your message matches the ad
This is easily the biggest killer of landing page conversions when it comes to PPC.
If a prospect is clicking on an ad, they expect whatever offer or product they’ve clicked on to be waiting for them when they get to your landing page.
And if it isn’t, they’ll leave. Immediately.
You need to instantly show your prospects that your landing page is relevant to the ad they’ve clicked on. They should immediately be able to tell that they’ve landed on the right page to find whatever product, deal, or offer they clicked on.
This means a strong headline or CTA to get rid of any confusion.
12. Remove navigation or links
Do you have social media links on your landing page? How about links to your home page or another product?
If you do, get rid of them. It’s the PPC equivalent to having holes in a leaking boat.
Whoever has clicked on your ad has a goal in mind. They aren’t browsing the web, they’re looking for something. So give it to them.
A classic Hubspot landing page: not a link on sight.
Make sure your page doesn’t distract them from that goal.
Unless, of course, you want them to visit your Facebook page. In that case, enjoy your expensive, leaking boat!
13. Not writing enough ads
Are you currently running ads with 10 different variants, rather than 10 separate, targeted ads?
If you are, then your ads will be generic. And it means your landing pages won’t be anywhere near as targeted as they need to be.
Let’s search for “PPC managers” and see what comes up:
What do you get from these ads? They’re all the same. None of them are original. And none of them are inspiring clicks.
In fact, one of the ads led us to a generic homepage:
Just a hint everyone…don’t follow this practice!
14. Retargeting is essential
If you’re going to pay to get people to your landing page…you better be making the most out of your spending.
And you can do that by retargeting visitors who visit specific landing pages.
The reason why retargeting is a gamechanger when it comes to conversions is due to how specific you can get.
You’ve got the inside knowledge of the very product or service the user was looking for because they landed on a specific landing page.
Retarget them until your heart’s content through social media and other avenues to make your PPC campaign worthwhile.
Pro Tip: Make sure you exclude people who follow through with your conversion goal. On Facebook, you can do this in a few clicks in your Ads Manager:
SEO Landing Page Best Practices
Search engines like things their way. They crawl, look, and select landing pages that play by the rules.
Let’s dig into the best ways you can get your landing page noticed.
15. Page headlines
Your headline is the first thing a search engine will crawl through, so if you get it wrong… you’ll never be shown in results.
A perfect headline will be clear, concise, and lay out your positioning. But it should also hook your user in enough that they want to click on it.
Pro Tip: If you’re struggling to find the right way to write a killer headline, use a tool.
A free tool like CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer can tell you how good your headline is, and how to improve it:
16. Make your keywords count
Putting your keywords in the right place on your landing page is one of the main ways to optimize it for SEO.
Where possible, the main keywords on your landing page should be placed in:
- Your body text
- Your headers
- In your page title, URL, and meta description
By placing your target keywords in the places Google is looking, you’re more likely to make them count.
17. Tell Google what your pictures are
Did you know…Google is blind?
Yep. It doesn’t understand images. So if you don’t add text descriptions to your images, search engines will have a hard time understanding what they are.
If you’re lazy, at the very least you should be giving the images on your landing page the same name as the page they’re being placed on.
If you want to get the most out of them, try to incorporate keywords into your text descriptions.
This will boost your chances of the page being selected by Google. But, don’t keyword stuff. Try to accurately describe what the image is about, as simply as possible.
Pro Tip: If you’re unsure about whether or not your landing page images have text descriptions, check quickly by right-clicking the images and selecting “inspect”. If the image has an “alt” attribute, you’re in business!
18. Nail your metadata
Metadata is nerd language for the title of the page, URL, and description.
It’s these three elements that will ultimately decide if someone will click on your landing page in the first place:
The reason your metadata matters is because it’s a preview of what the user is going to find on your landing page. It’s your one opportunity to entice people to visit you.
Use it or lose it. Provide as much value as you can, and let the searcher know you’re a better choice than your competitors.
Oh, and do it in under 160 characters.
19. Does your content match the query?
Do not bait people to click through to your landing page if you aren’t going to follow through with what they expect to see.
If users are clicking through to your landing page from their search query, they need to be able to answer the “who, what, or why” as soon as they arrive.
Test this out yourself. Search for something that will prompt a particular landing page on your site right now.
Then ask yourself:
- Is it obvious what the page is for?
- Is it obvious what your brand is and what you’re all about?
- Are you providing visitors a clear reason to convert?
- Are you tempted to stick around?
If you hesitated on any of these—you’ve got some work to do.
20. Have a hero image
Your hero shot is your header image.
If your main goal is to get your prospect to download an eBook, for example, this is where you should showcase it:
Make it enticing, and show your prospect the best image of the offer to maximize your conversion chances.
Pro Tip: Make sure your hero shot is at the right size to meet optimization requirements. And give it a text description with keywords to beef up your chances in search engine results
E-commerce Landing Page Best Practices
Don’t be alarmed by this, but 96% of visitors aren’t ready to buy when they visit a product page.
The good news? They’re less likely to bounce if they’re taken to a landing page instead.
Let’s get converting.
21. Make converting easy
A lot of e-commerce stores do all the right things. They make their ads enticing, their copy is on point.
But then they fall at the final hurdle. They don’t make the checkout process easy for their customers, and it results in an abandoned cart.
If your checkout process isn’t built with speed and simplicity in mind, it may be one of the main reasons your customers aren’t buying.
Here’s how to do it right on your landing page:
It’s simple:
- The customer can choose their color and extras on the same page.
- The shipping is displayed.
- The CTA to move forward with their purchase is in a contrasting color.
22. Don’t hide your shipping costs
If you’ve got a bunch of carts that were abandoned at the checkout, your shipping costs could be a contributor:
If you’ve spent a lot of time and effort optimizing your product landing pages but you’ve neglected to mention shipping costs, it’s a sure bet you’re throwing money down the drain.
Although a customer might be ready to purchase, they’re also estimating the cost of their cart as they shop.
So if they get to the checkout and you slap on a $10 shipping charge that they didn’t account for, they’re likely to leave your store.
Show your shipping costs on your landing page no matter what. This is only fair to the customer: they can then decide whether they are happy to continue with the purchase.
23. Have a social login option
The secret sauce to e-commerce success is making it as easy as possible for customers to give you their money.
That means if you can take the pain away from having the customer create an account for your shop—do it.
And this is best done by giving the customer an option to log in with a social account:
E-commerce giant Asos users three different social options at the checkout
Not only will customers be able to log in and start buying with a single click, you’ll also provide the user an option to share their purchase with friends.
Free promotions and a quicker checkout for your customers? Yes, please.
24. Give your product a zoom
One of the biggest challenges of an e-commerce store is convincing people to buy a product…when they’ve never even touched it.
Make it your mission to bridge every gap you can. By giving your customers the option to zoom in on your products, you’re giving yourself a head start.
Product zoom will give your customers a chance to see your products in as much detail as possible:
Pro Tip: Make sure your zoom is set to HD so your customer can see as much detail as possible.
25. Have a wish list option
Make sure each product on every landing page has an option to add to a wish list.
This can serve as a reminder to a customer that they loved a product that they never ended up buying. Or entice them to come back to your store when they can afford the purchase.
Some e-commerce stores, like Shopify, have a similar “want” button, that shares an item to a customer’s Facebook feed. This gives your store some free promo as well.
Some simple A/B testing of different buttons can uncover what works best for your own landing pages.
Landing Page Best Practices = Boosted Conversions
The proof is in this guide. Following best practices to boost your conversions isn’t a difficult task.
Each industry has its own unique way of improving conversions, but they all follow the same key rule: making the customer journey as easy as possible will boost your business’s bottom line.
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