retaingain
New Member
Does anyone have some good tips for optimizing landing pages? Any tools that you have used that work well?
Landing page optimization
- Thread starter retaingain
- Start date
D Bnonn Tennant
New Member
Hey retaingain, well, there's the obvious stuff:
Headline
Make sure it uses key phrases that match whatever link prospects clicked to get to the landing page. It has to continue the thought that got them there. If it doesn't, they'll leave. That's why ads with headlines like "SEX" and body copy like, "Now that we've got your attention" don't work. At all.
The headline also has to convey value very clearly. People decide whether to read the copy based on what the headline says. Only about 20% of them do, as a general rule. So the headline is the first thing you'd want to split-test on a landing page if your analytics are showing a high bounce rate (assuming they're defining a bounce as spending less than 10 seconds on the site, or whatever).
You need to make your headline SHINE: it should be specific, helpful, have immediacy, be newsworthy, and imply entertainment value in the copy.
Copy
Long copy usually converts better. The more your prospect has to invest, and the less he knows about the item, the longer the copy needs to be. If you just have a squeeze page for getting an opt-in, though, you'd want the copy to be short enough to show the call to action button above the fold.
Calls to action
On longer pages, repeat the call to action about three times. Once early on (even above the fold if possible), once in the middle, and once at the end. You could also test having the button always visible (position:fixed
. I think this is an elegant solution to increasing the button visibility but still letting people read as much as they want, and I use it at www.attentionthievery.info/full/
Calls to action aren't just buttons. They should be a separate element, including a button, but also with copy that reiterates the benefit of clicking. (A squeeze page is basically just a call to action with a headline.) Sticking a dashed border around a CTA element typically improves conversions. Using an orange button typically improves conversions. Starting your button copy with "Click here" typically improves conversions (but other verbs work well too).
Navigation
Lose it. The only links should be ones that let the prospect fulfill the objective of the page. A landing page almost invariably has only one objective.
Typography
Use a 16px font size or above. Less than that will reduce your readership. This is a fact, and there's no point arguing that you don't like how big 16px looks. If you want to optimize the page, the first thing you have to make sure is that everyone can read it. If many of your prospects are over 40, then smaller font sizes are hard for them to read, because their eyes only let in 50% of the light that they did when they were 20. For 60 year olds, only 25% of the light gets in.
Use book colors. Dark gray (#333 or #444) works best, on white (or near-white). Reversed type (light on dark) reduces readership by up to 50%. If half the people who would read your copy don't, you'll make the half the sales you would otherwise.
Keep your measure and line-height reasonable. 130-150% line-height is ideal; and your measure should be no more than 75 characters and no less than 40, otherwise the eye gets fatigued following the lines. min-width:40ex; max-width:75ex; fixes this.
Use a drop cap too. It increases readership by up to 15%.
Images
Avoid them unless they are conveying value more forcibly than the copy could. Which is fairly rare. Product shots, graphs or charts showing trends...these are good. Don't break the left margin with them though. Also, a hero shot showing the author of the page increases readership and trust, which increases conversions.
That's the major stuff that comes to mind. Oh, a signature at the end will have a similar effect to the hero shot. But I'm sure there's heaps I've missed. I've got a lot of free resources at:
Headline
Make sure it uses key phrases that match whatever link prospects clicked to get to the landing page. It has to continue the thought that got them there. If it doesn't, they'll leave. That's why ads with headlines like "SEX" and body copy like, "Now that we've got your attention" don't work. At all.
The headline also has to convey value very clearly. People decide whether to read the copy based on what the headline says. Only about 20% of them do, as a general rule. So the headline is the first thing you'd want to split-test on a landing page if your analytics are showing a high bounce rate (assuming they're defining a bounce as spending less than 10 seconds on the site, or whatever).
You need to make your headline SHINE: it should be specific, helpful, have immediacy, be newsworthy, and imply entertainment value in the copy.
Copy
Long copy usually converts better. The more your prospect has to invest, and the less he knows about the item, the longer the copy needs to be. If you just have a squeeze page for getting an opt-in, though, you'd want the copy to be short enough to show the call to action button above the fold.
Calls to action
On longer pages, repeat the call to action about three times. Once early on (even above the fold if possible), once in the middle, and once at the end. You could also test having the button always visible (position:fixed
. I think this is an elegant solution to increasing the button visibility but still letting people read as much as they want, and I use it at www.attentionthievery.info/full/Calls to action aren't just buttons. They should be a separate element, including a button, but also with copy that reiterates the benefit of clicking. (A squeeze page is basically just a call to action with a headline.) Sticking a dashed border around a CTA element typically improves conversions. Using an orange button typically improves conversions. Starting your button copy with "Click here" typically improves conversions (but other verbs work well too).
Navigation
Lose it. The only links should be ones that let the prospect fulfill the objective of the page. A landing page almost invariably has only one objective.
Typography
Use a 16px font size or above. Less than that will reduce your readership. This is a fact, and there's no point arguing that you don't like how big 16px looks. If you want to optimize the page, the first thing you have to make sure is that everyone can read it. If many of your prospects are over 40, then smaller font sizes are hard for them to read, because their eyes only let in 50% of the light that they did when they were 20. For 60 year olds, only 25% of the light gets in.
Use book colors. Dark gray (#333 or #444) works best, on white (or near-white). Reversed type (light on dark) reduces readership by up to 50%. If half the people who would read your copy don't, you'll make the half the sales you would otherwise.
Keep your measure and line-height reasonable. 130-150% line-height is ideal; and your measure should be no more than 75 characters and no less than 40, otherwise the eye gets fatigued following the lines. min-width:40ex; max-width:75ex; fixes this.
Use a drop cap too. It increases readership by up to 15%.
Images
Avoid them unless they are conveying value more forcibly than the copy could. Which is fairly rare. Product shots, graphs or charts showing trends...these are good. Don't break the left margin with them though. Also, a hero shot showing the author of the page increases readership and trust, which increases conversions.
That's the major stuff that comes to mind. Oh, a signature at the end will have a similar effect to the hero shot. But I'm sure there's heaps I've missed. I've got a lot of free resources at:
Last edited by a moderator:
LouTheDesigner
New Member
Do you mind providing a link to the landing page so that we know if it deserves to exist? Some are remarkably annoying and unnecessary. When I saw the title of this post I thought I'd go back to 1998.
-Lou
-Lou
Hey retaingain, well, there's the obvious stuff:
Headline
Make sure it uses key phrases that match whatever link prospects clicked to get to the landing page. It has to continue the thought that got them there. If it doesn't, they'll leave. That's why ads with headlines like "SEX" and body copy like, "Now that we've got your attention" don't work. At all.
The headline also has to convey value very clearly. People decide whether to read the copy based on what the headline says. Only about 20% of them do, as a general rule. So the headline is the first thing you'd want to split-test on a landing page if your analytics are showing a high bounce rate (assuming they're defining a bounce as spending less than 10 seconds on the site, or whatever).
You need to make your headline SHINE: it should be specific, helpful, have immediacy, be newsworthy, and imply entertainment value in the copy.
Copy
Long copy usually converts better. The more your prospect has to invest, and the less he knows about the item, the longer the copy needs to be. If you just have a squeeze page for getting an opt-in, though, you'd want the copy to be short enough to show the call to action button above the fold.
Calls to action
On longer pages, repeat the call to action about three times. Once early on (even above the fold if possible), once in the middle, and once at the end. You could also test having the button always visible (position:fixed
Calls to action aren't just buttons. They should be a separate element, including a button, but also with copy that reiterates the benefit of clicking. (A squeeze page is basically just a call to action with a headline.) Sticking a dashed border around a CTA element typically improves conversions. Using an orange button typically improves conversions. Starting your button copy with "Click here" typically improves conversions (but other verbs work well too).
Navigation
Lose it. The only links should be ones that let the prospect fulfill the objective of the page. A landing page almost invariably has only one objective.
Typography
Use a 16px font size or above. Less than that will reduce your readership. This is a fact, and there's no point arguing that you don't like how big 16px looks. If you want to optimize the page, the first thing you have to make sure is that everyone can read it. If many of your prospects are over 40, then smaller font sizes are hard for them to read, because their eyes only let in 50% of the light that they did when they were 20. For 60 year olds, only 25% of the light gets in.
Use book colors. Dark gray (#333 or #444) works best, on white (or near-white). Reversed type (light on dark) reduces readership by up to 50%. If half the people who would read your copy don't, you'll make the half the sales you would otherwise.
Keep your measure and line-height reasonable. 130-150% line-height is ideal; and your measure should be no more than 75 characters and no less than 40, otherwise the eye gets fatigued following the lines. min-width:40ex; max-width:75ex; fixes this.
Use a drop cap too. It increases readership by up to 15%.
Images
Avoid them unless they are conveying value more forcibly than the copy could. Which is fairly rare. Product shots, graphs or charts showing trends...these are good. Don't break the left margin with them though. Also, a hero shot showing the author of the page increases readership and trust, which increases conversions.
That's the major stuff that comes to mind. Oh, a signature at the end will have a similar effect to the hero shot. But I'm sure there's heaps I've missed. I've got a lot of free resources at:
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Great tips that basically sun the all "art" up
Last edited by a moderator:
Hi Sophina,
I lately discovered Pagewiz.com
It is a self service for creating and optimizing landing pages.
They have A/B testing tool that optimize landing pages automatically. I can create few landing pages and it shows me which is better.
I had to use it once since one of my client worked with them. I was used to wordpress in the beginning but later on I did few more landing pages with Pagewiz since I didn't have to deal with hosting (and programmers)
Besides them, you can check this site too: Abtests.com they have lots of tips for optimization
I lately discovered Pagewiz.com
It is a self service for creating and optimizing landing pages.
They have A/B testing tool that optimize landing pages automatically. I can create few landing pages and it shows me which is better.
I had to use it once since one of my client worked with them. I was used to wordpress in the beginning but later on I did few more landing pages with Pagewiz since I didn't have to deal with hosting (and programmers)
Besides them, you can check this site too: Abtests.com they have lots of tips for optimization
jumpingspider
New Member
Sticking to the fundamentals can take you from having a terrible landing page to having one that people find hard to poke holes in.
CaldwellYSR
Member
Come on 2011...
CaldwellYSR
Member
HAHAHA love it.
btw by 2011 I meant the fact that before yesterday the last post in this thread was from 2011.... someone bumped a 5 month old thread