You write compelling copy, research keywords, perform A/B testing, invest in paid campaigns, tweak page design, offer free materials and special discounts – all in the hope of transforming your website visitors into qualified leads.
However, about 70% to 90% of the time, visitors don’t appreciate your efforts, as that is the average landing page bounce rate, i.e., the percentage of visitors who loaded a page but didn’t click on anything.
To minimize your website’s landing page bounce rate and maximize leads, you’ll need to resort to landing page optimization.
What is Landing Page Optimization?
Optimizing a landing page means tweaking elements of a web page (design, copy, CTA and more) to create an overall better page performance and user experience and thus engage and inform visitors well enough to encourage them to perform the desired action.
Besides ensuring the maximum possible conversions from visitors who arrive on these pages, landing page optimization is also essential behind the scenes.
If you run a paid campaign via Google Ads or social platforms, optimizing your landing page will improve its quality and relevance and thus lower your ad’s price per click.
In case you aim to improve your organic traffic, optimizing your landing page for faster loading and targeted keywords will boost its search results rankings.
Now that we’ve covered its benefits, we’ve talked with the optimization experts from a custom web design company to share their steps for successful and effective landing page optimization.
1. Focus Your Landing Page on a Single Action
Both website visitors and Google’s ranking algorithm appreciate landing on a page that unambiguously expresses its intention.
Conversely, a landing page that presents a product, offers its free trial, calls for newsletter subscription, and invites you to apply for a webinar is so all over the place that it’s bound to fail.
On such a disorganized landing page, users won’t know what they’re expected to do, and Google won’t understand what keywords the page tries to rank for.
To optimize your landing page for conversion, opt for a single target action and create content, visuals and CTAs that reinforce the key message.
Within the landing page copy, try to use bullet points to hone in on key aspects of your offer and make information easier to digest.
2. Improve Page Speed
Recent research suggests two seconds as the new threshold for an online shopper’s expectation for a page to load. Moreover, nearly half of the questioned users won’t wait more than three seconds before abandoning a website.
Besides customer expectations, page load time is a major Google ranking factor. Good page speed benefits your organic rankings, as well as your site’s quality for paid campaigns.
3. Straightforward Contact Forms
Think of your website’s contact forms as an extra step in your lead generation funnel. Prospects that take the time to contact you are genuinely interested in your offer and thus more likely to convert.
Lengthy, inquisitive contact forms may dishearten potential customers, so make sure to ask only for the minimum information you require to establish effective communication with prospects.
Nudge your website visitors further into contacting you by enabling the autofill feature that auto-populates the contact form with users’ personal info.
4. Optimize Your CTAs
Tell your users what you wish them to do by using unambiguous CTAs.
Make the buttons stand out from the rest of the page using contrasting colors to those used on the website. Be concise, clear, and straightforward, and avoid fancy or complex words in the button text. Optimizing your call to actions is an essential step in improving the quality of your leads, and it’s no wonder all creative digital agencies recommend this as one of the major things that you need to focus on.
5. Provide Social Proof
A study conducted in 2021 suggests that over 50% of consumers read online reviews before purchasing a product. Your potential leads will be looking for social proof of your brand, so why not provide it yourself?
Adding testimonials or reviews to your landing page can help establish trust with new potential customers. Of course, publishing genuine reviews from real previous customers goes without saying. If this step sounds too complicated, you can always find a top branding agency that can help you out.
6. Offer a Free Trial
With abundant options out there, it’s only natural your prospects will have a hard time deciding whom to put their trust in. Asking potential customers to marry into your family will prove challenging if you don’t take them out on a date.
Allow your prospects to experience your brand by providing them with a free software trial, demo product version, or any other short-term, mutually beneficial agreement.
7. Perform Regular A/B Testing
Understanding what works and what doesn’t is the key to landing page optimization.
For successful A/B testing, remember to alter a single page element at a time to determine what actually delivers better results. Test headlines, CTA buttons, page copy, etc., and integrate the best-performing ones into your landing page design.
