Jul 09
21
The 7 Deadly Sins of Landing Page Design
In this video, Tim Ash, author of “Landing Page Optimization,” presents a webinar on the “7 Deadly Sins” of landing page design … and how to correct them. The video is over 1 hour and 15 min and presents a good amount of valuable content. Here is an overview of the webinar:
1) Unclear Call-to-Action
You want to make it as easy as possible for visitors to take the intended action. If the intent of the landing page is for visitors to buy a product, call a phone number, or sign up for a free download, make sure that action is the easiest for a visitor to see, understand and execute.
Be sure to have very clear call-to-actions (CTA) and have your CTA above the fold.
De-emphasize secondary or competing CTAs.
2) Visual Distractions
There may be lots of information you want visitors to know about your company, product or service, but a cluttered page with too many things to look at, will distract a visitor from the purpose of the landing page, and is a sure way to inspire the visitor to go away.
Don’t have too many choices on your landing page.
3) Too Much Text
Too much text can appear imposing to a visitor. Keep sentences short and simple, use plenty of white space and short paragraphs. Also, use clear titles, headings and bullet points to convey your message.
In the later questions and answers period, Tim noted that long sales letters do work for some consumer categories, for lower price points, for some naive users.
4) Lack of Upstream Continuity
Your landing page should provide a logical or appropriate continuity for the visitor, whose expectations would have been established by an ad, or any other traffic source, an instant earlier before arriving to your landing page.
If the ad, or traffic source says “Click here for a free report” and the user clicks to find a paid report, then the user’s expectation is not met.
Or, if the ad says “Click here for a review of ABC product,” and the user clicks to find a review of XYZ product, there is a disconnect between the visitor’s expectation and your landing page.
5) Long Registration Forms
For registration forms, ask only for vital information. (Stated another way, ask as little as possible). Although marketers would prefer to have a lot of information about their visitors, visitors prefer not to give any. Hence, asking for less upfront is best, and then gather additional info at at later visits. The longer the registration form, the lower the conversion rate.
6) Invisible Risk Reducers
Make credible trust signals, like major brands for your industry, readily apparent and not hidden away. Keep them above the fold.
7) Lack of Trust Indicators
Include client logos and/or testimonials to raise the trust level of visitors who do not know you.
Additional Points:
Make a mostly graphically oriented user experience at the top of the page and place your SEO text further down at the bottom of the page. SiteTuner.com is an example of this.
Use 350-450 words of thematic text with the right anchor links for SEO purposes.
Tim recommends designing for 1024 width, as well as making smaller headers to make better use of the top 2/3 of the page.
He also recommends placing navigation on the left instead of across the top to optimally take advantage of the primary space (top) for conveying your message.
Take advantage of Google’s free Website Optimizer for testing site content. Of course testing, testing and testing was emphasized throughout the presentation.