10 Easy Tips to Boost Your Landing Page Conversion Rates

According to web landing page eye tracking studies, you’ve got approximately 8 seconds to grab your prospect’s attention. People scan web pages quickly from left to right—so it is important that your landing pages have proper layout and easy readability.

Use these 10 easy steps to tweak your landing pages and boost conversion rates:

Tip #1 – Headlines count. One of the first places your prospect’s eyes focus on is the headline. A prospect scans the headline for particular words that grab his or her attention. Put the headline at the top of the page. Make your headline a benefit-oriented headline that integrates keywords.

Tip #2 - Use caution with images. There is nothing wrong with using images to add some interest to your pages, but use caution. Don’t just throw up an image for the sake of putting something up. Use images that are relevant because images can distract the prospect away from the message you are trying to communicate. Product shots draw attention. Stock photos usually don’t perform as well as a “real-life” photo. Images should have a real purpose; otherwise, you only distract the prospect from reading the message. Copy near an image seems to get special attention, such as captions. Take advantage of this and write captions that relay information with a purpose.

Tip #3 - Layout of landing page elements. Keep the landing page layout simple. Try to keep your landing pages to a one-column, no more than two-column style. Having more than one column increases the chance of distracting the prospect and moving them away from your primary selling message. Don’t place any other elements to the left or right of your sales copy message. This will encourage the prospect to move away from the sales message and pay more attention to the distracting elements.

According to a webinar on eye-tracking in relation to landing pages, Marketing Sherpa publisher, Anne Holland, said that her team increased conversion rates by 64% simply by tweaking elements on a product landing page. (No sales copy was changed.)

Place the following elements in this “simple” format, (one element right after the next) to improve your conversion rates:

•headline
•subhead
•image
•copy

Tip #4 - Make pages that are easy to read. Remember the average prospect only stays an average of 8 seconds. You need to keep their attention with pages that are easy on the eyes. Prospects will not stay around to try and figure out how to read a difficult page.

Follow these rules for easy readability:

Don’t use too small a font size. Use at least a 10pt font. Using a 9pt or smaller is too difficult to read.

Don’t use serif fonts (this is used for print). Use sans-serif fonts for online copy.

Use black text on a white background. Don’t use white text on a black or dark background (even though pale gray text is fashionable, it is difficult to read).

Keep your copy flush left. Don’t center the headline, subheads or the copy. This is a common practice on the web, but it makes it difficult to read. Try to keep the headline to one line, but if a headline is more than one line, keep it justified left—don’t center long headlines. Centering a headline confuses the brain.

Tip #5 - Ditch navigation from the page. The landing page should be used primarily to sell your product or service. Don’t take the precious time you have to capture the prospect’s attention and divide it with yet another distraction—a navigation bar. Remember the landing page is to try and sell the prospect.

Tip #6 - Make sure the primary search keywords are in your headline, subheads and copy. You should do keyword research to find out what keywords your prospects are using in their search for your product or service. Integrate these keywords into your headline, subheads and copy.

Tip #7 - Match the exact keywords from the originating sales page or email copy to the landing page copy. This re-emphasizes that the prospect is in the right place. Don’t just mimic the theme of the originating page, but also the keywords and copy. Conversion rates are 25% higher when the exact keywords are repeated on the landing page.

Tip #8 - Maximize your form buttons. Here are a few recommendations when using form buttons:

- Don’t use “reset” buttons. They can be clicked accidentally, clear the form information and cause frustration so that the user abandons the page.

- An “Add to cart” button is better than a “Buy Now” button. It gives the user the perception that he or she has more control over the sale. “Buy Now” seems more intimidating.

- Use action-oriented copy on your submit buttons, they outperform the plain, “Submit” button. For example: “Click here to get your Top 10 Landing Page Tips report” may get more clicks than, “Submit”. It is best to try and match the original headline copy or offer in the submit button copy.

- Test button copy. Different copy on buttons may do better on different landing page offers. One size doesn’t necessarily fit all in this case.

Tip #9 - Avoid lengthy forms. Do you enjoy filling out those long-winded forms online? Your prospects are no different. Avoid fields that are unnecessary. Every question or form field you put on a form lowers the conversion rate. Dump the fax number field. Only put form fields for data that you really need to collect; otherwise, you risk having the prospect abandon your page.

Tip #10 - Give the user a more secure feeling on landing /checkout pages. Place an extremely short “privacy” statement by the last form field or close to the submit button to give the prospect confidence that their information is secure. Don’t make a lengthy statement, this can cause panic and give the opposite impression. An example of a short privacy statement would be something like the following: (i.e. We value your privacy and don’t give any of your information to other parties.)