The Most Common Landing Page Mistakes
In digital marketing, landing pages are specific web pages created for the purpose of branding or advertising. A user lands on this page when they click on a link from ads or emails. Instead of encouraging exploration, these landing pages are designed to focus on calls to action. For many businesses, these landing pages are the best option for increasing conversions.
Despite all the design guidelines available today, mistakes are quite common when creating landing pages. These mistakes could hurt the conversion rate of businesses and result in a waste of time and money.
Here are some of the mistakes that lead to poor results.
Not enough landing pages
Studies show that having more landing pages promises better results. Businesses create landing pages with the aim of catering to specific buyer needs. They try to appeal to that set of audiences, so having only one landing page will set up for failure. To avoid this, brands should make sure to create enough landing pages for different conversion objectives. They focus on each stage of the consumer journey and understand the pain points of target audiences to create an impactful landing page.
Message
Each landing page should carry a specific message at its core. Most importantly, businesses should communicate this message in a compelling manner. Customers will make up their minds in less than 50 milliseconds. This means that messages without any focus may fail to convince users about a product or service. One way to avoid this is by focusing on the core value proposition of a brand. They should tell that they can solve the problem and explain the benefits. Especially for landing pages, the core message should match the headlines. Moreover, each landing page should have a unique and relevant message to convince the audience.
Distractions
After creating a compelling message, the last thing businesses want to do is impose distractions. There are different types of distractions that take the user’s attention from the core message or benefit. Choice fatigue is the most common danger of creating distractions, as the user will fail to take the required actions to complete their conversions. This mistake can be prevented by removing any unwanted elements from the landing pages. It is essential to keep the users focused on the primary message and make the actions to be taken clear. This helps customers to complete the desired action without any distractions.
Friction
A distraction-free landing page still may suffer in conversions because of frictions. These are barriers that minimize engagement between audiences and a business. As a result, they may quit the session without any conversions. Similar to distractions, there are different types of frictions. To avoid this, evaluate the web page from the viewpoint of customers. Take note of things that may deter them from completing a conversion. Some obvious friction-creating elements are pop-ups and hijacked scrolls. Brands should pay attention to their CTAs and heedfully craft the steps that will help visitors to convert.
Unoptimized forms
The most important friction point in landing pages is formed. Even though they help to share information, forms not designed for conversions will affect the session. A form may have problem areas that create friction. Most importantly, such design issues may affect even existing customers from completing conversions. First, businesses should address the design flaws in the forms and make necessary improvements. Instead of traditional design formats, businesses can opt for multi-step forms. This new trend generates incredible conversion rates without even giving the impression of completing a form. It also significantly improves the overall user experience.
Loading times
The cardinal sin of all landing page design mistakes is slow loading times. Generally, users are sure to quit pages that load slowly. Reports show that many businesses lose more than 50% of their visitors due to slow loading pages. This mistake will also affect the search engine rankings of a website. Hence, businesses should keep an eye on the loading times of their landing pages. They can use a fast hosting provider or minify website files. Minimizing server requests will also optimize the webpage for better speed as well as image optimization. As cited before, page speed is a crucial ranking factor in Google’s Search Algorithm.
Final thoughts
Landing pages drive customers to a business. They may inquire about a product or make a purchase instantly. Either way, optimizing landing pages is proving to be a worthy investment that yields many long-term benefits. Ideally, it communicates highly specific marketing messages without sounding salesy.
