What is a landing page? The answer to this question is quite simple, to be honest, but one that requires a little bit of understanding. With most websites on the internet, you’ll find more than a dozen type of web pages. A landing page, is just one of them.
Types of Web Pages
1. Home Page
This one’s as basic as it can get. We’re all very familiar with this because every website has a starting point that gives us an idea of what the website is about and what it has to offer. They’re also called an index page. It has a search bar that lets you find the information you’re looking for and also helps you navigate around the important sections.
2. Menu Page
Not a lot of websites use a dedicated menu page as they mostly incorporate it into the layout of the website itself. Nonetheless, it can serve as a distraction-free area for the visitor to look at the important sections of the website that the web designers want them to see.
3. About Page
This section contains all the important information about the business/person/entity behind the website. It can serve as a great branding tool for the business as it can inform the visitor about the relevant information that can help them in making a purchase decision.
4. Blog Page
If a website has a separate blog page, it can contain an extended amount of information that can serve as a way to keep bringing back your visitors. The more time people spend on your website, the higher are the chances of your landing page conversion rates. This is one of the ways you can reduce your bounce rate.
5. Portfolio Page
A lot of companies or artists and freelancers use websites as a way to showcase and display their services and work. This can allow them to attract new customers or relevant industry folk in order to gain more work or recognition and authenticity.
6. Services Page
This one can be an extension of the abovementioned category as well. They’re both similar but the one major difference is the fact that a portfolio page is just a display of work whereas a services page encompasses what services can be provided.
7. 404 Page
We’ve all seen this error pop up on our screens at least once while browsing the internet, right? It is an error message in HTTP response code. If you’re successfully connected with the server of a website but the content requested isn’t there anymore (deleted or removed), a 404 page is what users are redirected to in order to inform them about the unavailability of the content requested.
8. Cart Page
We’re living in the age of e-commerce or internet shopping. Naturally, we’ve all seen the cart page, right before the check out. It shows you the items you’ve selected and the amount that you have to pay.
9. Contact Page
Almost every good website has a ‘Contact us’ page. It shows how you can connect with the people behind the website so that they can cater to your query.
10. Landing Page
Finally, a landing page is an attention-grabbing type of web page; very unique from the others. It can be a part of a website or be its own independent thing. It comprises a clear and focused goal that allows the users to get to the information they searched for, directly. No distractions or clutter.
How Does a Landing Page Work?
You spend so much money on your social media marketing campaigns for your product/service, but how do you assess if that money is yielding you more sales because of it? Sure, social media awareness and hype are great, but what good are they if the people liking, sharing, or commenting on your post don’t buy your product.
Now look, nobody can force a customer to buy something they don’t want. However, if they’re engaging with your posts about your products, it means that they’re already interested. Therefore, if you lead them directly towards the place where they can make a purchase right away, they might be more inclined towards making a purchase decision.
That is exactly how conversions work.
You have to convert your visitors into customers. If you lead them directly towards the web page where they can click on a few buttons here and there and be done with their purchase, your job is done. This is where proper landing page advertising can help you.
Types of Landing Pages
There are mainly two types of landing pages that serve two different purposes: Lead Generation Landing Pages and Click Through Landing Pages.
1. Lead Generation Landing Pages
A lead generation landing page’s main job is to collect the personal information of your potential customers which is then used to build your clientele list. This will allow you to turn your visitors into potential leads which can then be converted into sales. This is the result of good landing page advertising as a sales cycle starts at the generation of a lead and ends at the closing of the sale.
They usually contain a short and simple form that can be filled by the visitors. It can include information like: name, email, phone number, job titles, budget, product, etc. You can add or remove categories according to the industry or business you’re in and the product that you’re selling.
2. Clickthrough Landing Pages
A clickthrough landing page is fairly straightforward – it allows for visitors to go straight to the sales or subscriptions packages of the company where there are simple, visible call-to-action buttons that allow for them to go straight to the checkout in order to complete the transaction.
Ways to Send Traffic to Landing Pages
There are multiple types of methods that you can use to infuse traffic into your landing pages:
1. Organic Search Traffic
Organic traffic refers to the traffic that is generated from unpaid methods. People who look for a service and want to find something like it for their use. This is done through search engines, whether it’s Google, Bing, or Yahoo, etc. In order to be visible to in their search results, you need to rank highly for related keywords.
You can do that by making sure that your website is up-to-date with relevant landing page SEO optimization and has appropriate, unique content that will help it rank higher.
2. Paid Search Traffic
Paid search traffic is different from organic search traffic. Not many companies or individuals have the time or patience to build their way up to ranking higher on search engine results through just proper landing page SEO optimization practices. Therefore, they either go strictly for paid search traffic or combine it with SEO practices for organic search results.
Search engines like Google make their major amount of revenue through these methods. These are pay-per-click ads that will lead potential customers to your landing page.
3. Paid Social Media Traffic
Paid social media traffic has the same DNA as paid search traffic. Websites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Snapchat make their money through advertisements. With these platforms, you can run targeted ads and social media campaigns that will reach your target audience and lead them towards your landing pages.
4. Email/Newsletter Campaign Traffic
Emails are well-known for being the most effective marketing source out there. One of landing page’s best advertising methods. It’s inexpensive and much more efficient at influencing the reader. The right email with the perfect landing page is a deadly combination that is sure to capture the attention of your customers – both, old and new – and turn them into conversions.
Newsletters are a new spin on this that allows you to reach out to a lot more people with the same material and with a little bit of influence, which can help you accomplish a lot more in terms of sales.
Why Should You Use Landing Pages for Lead Generation?
A landing page is an incredibly useful tool to improve your SEO and search engine ranking. Moreover, it can also immensely improve your brand presence. Landing page SEO optimization can be a game-changer for you. There’s a reason why landing pages are so effective – they actually make a difference in your sales numbers.
You can easily hire a digital marketing agency to help you with all of this if you don’t want to or know how to do this on your own.
They lead your customers directly to the product being advertised and give them an easy and effective call-to-action button that just lets them complete their purchase seamlessly.
Moreover, their use as a lead generation tool can also do wonders for you. Just a simple form with relevant information can make all the difference in the world. They can help you understand your customer segment, analyze their buying trends, enable you to zero in on your most and least popular product, and allow you to use all this data in order to have better successful landing page conversion rates.
Also, there’s no limit to the amount of landing pages you can have. According to Hubspot, companies have seen an increase of 55% in leads from increasing their landing pages to 15 from 10.
A landing page should be at the top of your checklist when marketing your product or services.
