When most people talk about ‘landing pages’, they’re referring to pages created to service responders from a specific promotion. However, it’s also worth remembering that every page can be considered to be a landing page (e.g. from a Google search), and the best general website pages are designed by those people who have a good grasp of what makes a promotional landing page work.
Here are some of the things which stop a landing page from working – and perhaps stop any page from working.
Slow speed: Even if you don’t do this yourself (and I’d bet you sometimes do), we’ve all seen people click a link, tut for 5 seconds at a blank screen, then click the back arrow.
Cluttered design: It’s quite simple: you want people to read a brief message (the headline) to reel them in and assure them they’re on the right page, then move on to more information. Why distract them with anything else?
Lazy copywriting: Getting 100 people to visit a page might have cost you £1000 or more. Wasn’t that worth a bit of thought – and perhaps testing – on what works?
Pointless images: A great photo or illustration can make a page. One included just because the page template offered the space can ruin it.
No call to action: I know, I know, but we still see examples.
Bad response mechanisms: Forms that look hard to fill in, phone numbers that require research, missing email addresses – the final hurdle shouldn’t be a hard one.