What immediately comes to mind when someone says “landing page”? For those of you who don’t know, a landing page is a page within a web site that drives traffic for a specific PURPOSE.  So what could be the PURPOSE?

Perhaps we drive traffic to showcase our products, to obtain data (generally name, address, email) or to SELL a specific product or idea to a specific market.  The purpose could be whatever we desire, but what makes a “page” different from a “landing page” is that you will be driving traffic to this page with a specific goal in mind. The goal is typically to convert leads to customers.

Now the question may be, "can any page be considered a 'landing page'”?  Due to the nature of the Internet, a user can enter your website from any page to which you allow public access; any page on your website can be considered a “landing page”, but is it optimize as a landing page? Does it have a specific PURPOSE?  Are you driving traffic to it? If no, then it’s just a simple page and not a LANDING PAGE.  To be considered a landing page, you must have a PURPOSE and you must be driving TRAFFIC to the page.

Now, it may come with no surprise, that landing pages have many styles. Below are a few:

Home page: Yes, the home page of your website is a landing page - probably the most important one. Your home page’s job is to tell the user where to go and what to do; if you’re trying to sell a product, that product should be the first thing that user sees. If you’re trying to offer a newsletter, the form for requesting the newsletter should be the most prominent feature. Engage the user; give him or her a reason for exploring beyond your home page.

Example: http://www.rochsmarket.com/. Note that there are only three major sections on this page, and two of them lead to advertising (and the third grabs the user’s information).

E-commerce Page: Similar in principal to a rapid conversion page, but with the added back-end code required to make a financial transaction. These pages are best used on “impulse buy” items (though the same technique works perfectly well with information – many companies sell their tips through PDFs this way).

Example: http://www.greenfriendlysports.com. This site’s page lets the user identify the company’s “impulse buy” items quickly and easily.

Topic pages: A topic page is (surprise) a page containing information about a specific topic (or a category of topics). A topic page can be simple (an article or list of articles) or elaborate (a list of articles and all resources on the website on the topic). As with an index page, the idea is to plant conversion material somewhere on the page - either advertising or a link to a rapid conversion page.

Example: http://www.bjwa.org/index.php. Subtle, but it’s there; each article has a link at the bottom leading to a subscription form if you want the whole magazine sent to your doorstep.

Niche market landing pages: Any of the above pages could be a niche page, focusing on a specific target audience. In the real world, niche marketing prices can be prohibitive; on the internet, the relative costs are so low that niche marketing becomes viable to almost anyone.

Example: http://military.messagethroughtime.com. A classic landing page targeted directly at military families. Clear, easy to read copy, enticing images, and a single button.

I hope this article provided some useful information. If you think your website needs some landing page help (or if you just need a website), feel free to give us a call! The first consultation is always free. Call (401) 709-4342 or send an email to support@xzito.com.