More Traffic With Landing Pages, How So?

News Alert: Your home page may not be the most viewed page on your website.

The content on your homepage is very important, but it's only the first step. If you want to bring traffic to your site, "landing pages" is the answer.

A landing page is the first destination a visitor "lands" after clicking on a link or advertisement. This is a tested and proven internet marketing strategy. The main goal of a landing page is to produce a "conversion," whether it is a sign-up, sale or lead. By optimizing your landing pages and sending traffic to the right landing pages, you can significantly impact your site's revenue.

Depending on their search criteria, potential customers may bypass your home page entirely. Therefore, you should tailor each page toward one of your products or services. By tracking the traffic of these pages, you get feedback on how to hone in on the messages and offers that are most effective without having to constantly tinker with the rest of your website.

When you are ready to build a landing page or optimize existing ones-here are a few tips to keep in mind.

* Define your conversion. Before you design your landing page, define that page's conversion activity. Ensure each step in the conversion process either states or supports your website's proposition. For example: With a newsletter landing page, the conversion activity is entering an email address into a form and clicking accept.

* Give the visitor what they are searching for. Most people are looking for quick answers to their questions or solutions to their problems. This is not your homepage. The information that you provide should be compelling and relevant to the search terms that brought the visitor there. If a visitor is searching for information about "weight loss," the landing page should talk about weight loss and how your website addresses it.

* Keep the form simple. The fewer fields, the more likely someone will fill them out. Landing pages should provide solutions, not inundate visitors with more to think about. Make the input cursor jump to the next field, and allow users to tab around fields. Auto-populate any fields you can. Don't ask for city, state or province if you ask for a ZIP or postal code.

* Stay focused. Avoid promoting or linking to other areas of your site. The point of the landing page is to prevent your visitor from wandering.

* Keep focus above the 'fold.' Pay attention to the virtual fold (the bottom of the screen before scrolling). Place enough content above the fold to allow your visitor to make a decision about continuing on the site. If a visitor has to click or scroll to figure out what your website offers, the only thing they'll click is the "back" button.

* Improve readability. Make your landing site simple to figure out how to convert. Place the important information (whether it's your copy or image) close to the middle. Never distract the user from that focal point. Customers tend to interpret "dead" space or too many graphics as the end of the information. Also, try to reduce the number of columns for easy readability. Make your links blue and underlined. Use black type on white background in a 12-point font or larger. Make buttons stand out through size and color. Use action text on buttons such as, "Click here to receive your free ebook."

* Provide multiple response methods. You should determine what your website's single goal is before designing a landing page. Then, develop your landing page for that purpose. If you would like to give visitors the ability to respond in ways beyond the form- such as: emailing you or calling you (some give out Skype numbers, etc.) then make the contact information and calls-to-action prominent.

* Test and test again. The only reliable way to improve your landing page performance is to test it. Test the entire user experience and ask yourself these questions:

1. Is there a focus on the whole page?
2. Does the message match the advertisement?
3. Did you eliminate all distractions?
4. Are there enough conversion exits?
5. Does the landing page enhance your website's image?

Carefully design your landing page as described above while keeping it simple and to the point. With your appropriately targeted landing page, your website visitors will convert into customers. An effective landing page will be one of your best draws for the traffic you so desire.