Landing page optimisation is one part of a broader digital marketing process called conversion optimisation, or conversion rate optimisation (CRO), with the goal of improving the percentage of visitors to a website that becomes sales leads/or customers. Let’s see how to improve your landing page performance.
There are some things to check when you want to improve the conversion rate of a particular page. In order to get the best data, we use Google Analytics and Hotjar.
I will start with Hotjar because it is faster!
With Hotjar you will understand what users want, care about and interact with on your site by visually representing their clicks, taps and scrolling behaviour. This is shown with nice videos of a user’s journey leading to conversion.
With Hotjar, you can see what confuses people, what is not clear and if for your customer point-of-view is clear on your landing page.
And now the hard and exciting part: Analyse the data collected in Google Analytics.
If you think that the home page is a landing page please read this before you go further: Website Homepage vs Landing page – what’s the difference? and this: Don’t obsess over your homepage – its importance will decrease over time!
When a visitor clicks on a Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ad, they’re taken to a landing page — a web page whose sole purpose of existence is to entice people to take an action. If done well, it could be the most effective marketing weapon in your arsenal. The correct analysis of data can save you a lot of money or even your business.
If your visitors donʼt know what to do when they land on your landing page, then you are throwing your advertising money out the window. Your call-to-action (CTA) is the primary conversion goal of a visitor to your landing page.
Next, I give you some examples of common actions that you might want a customer to do on your landing page:
- purchasing a product
- subscribing to a newsletter
- calling you on the phone
- downloading an ebook or whitepaper
- watching a demo
- requesting information
Let’s find out, step-by-step if your landing page is a winner using this checklist. Click on them to find out how to analyse and interpret data
- CTA(s) clear and unambiguous
- Do what you say and say what you do
- Don’t be like Trump. Leave the Amazing! Awesome! words elsewhere
- Less is more
- Keep it where it can be seen
- Know your clients
- Twice is better
- Design matters
- Choose what matters the most
CTA(s) clear and unambiguous
- Google Analytics report: “Landing pages” with a second dimension added to the report: “Second page”
If you are offering an app access go with “Get Started” or “Create account” and don’t say “Get your free ebook” or “go” or “submit”.
Do what you say and say what you do
- Google Analytics report: “Landing pages” with a second dimension added to the report: “Second page” analyses the bounce rate on the call-to-action link.
Donʼt promise one thing and then deliver something else or even worse nothing at all (a 404 page). To follow the same example, if you have an app and say “30 days free trial” don’t let people click ‘try for 30 days’ and on the next page provide a PayPal form to charge them for a month period.
Don’t be like Trump. Leave the Amazing! Awesome! words elsewhere
- Google Analytics report: “Pages” see how many FAQ and Terms pageview you have.
Resist the temptation to include bloated adjectives. Such claims are likely to make people think you are overselling and trying too hard.
Less is more
- Google Analytics report: “Top Events” with a second dimension added to the report: “Page” analyses the clicks on your call-to-action versus other clicks in page or scroll actions.
Make space for your call-to-action. Let them breathe visually. Using more whitespace will allow your button or statement to stand out on the page. Colour choice is important here also; create a high contrast between the call-to-action and surrounding elements to assert it’s dominance.
Keep it where it can be seen
- Google Analytics report: “Top Events” analyse the scroll tracking. See how far your visitors are scrolling down
If you have a long page, donʼt put the call-to-action below the fold. Take into consideration, the different screen sizes and adapt your landing pages for the most common. Most of the users will not scroll far down the page so be sure to put your value proposition and your call-to-action as a first-seen element in the page.
Know your clients
- Google Analytics report: “Demographics – Language”
Speak your client’s language. Provide different landing pages based on country. Advertise differently based on specific demographics. However good your product or service is, the simple truth is that no one will buy it if they don’t want it or believe they don’t need it. And you won’t persuade anyone that they want or need to buy what you’re offering unless you clearly understand what it is your customers really want.
Twice is better
- Google Analytics report: Combine “Top Events” (for scroll tracking) and “All Pages” for the propotion of sessions with FAQ/Terms pageviews
Not all customers are ready to engage right away and might need some supporting information to ease their worries or answer their questions. If you are asking someone to buy something, a sensible secondary call-to-action can be to download a product brochure. This keeps them in your realm of influence (as opposed to leaving to do research elsewhere) and builds confidence. Ensure that the safety net CTA doesnʼt compete in size and visual dominance – often a simple text link is adequate, beneath the main big action button. If you are asking someone to purchase online, offering a phone number for phone orders can make a potential customer more likely to convert if thatʼs their preferred contact method.
Design matters
- Google Analytics report: “Source/medium” shows the bounce rate for each campaign
Carry your primary call-to-action throughout the entire acquisition and conversion experience, from audience acquisition ads (PPC, email, banner, social media link) through your landing page and on to the final destination page.
Choose what represents you the most (maybe some colours or even the call-to-action itself), you should be able to look at the page and have your eye immediately drawn to the action area.
Be audience appropriate
- Google Analytics report: there is no report in Analytics for this. Just remember your experience when reading an email or a Facebook comment
Previously, I said to speak the customers’ language. Now I’m saying to take care what they can interpret. Reading a statement is different from hearing it. So don’t be too pushy, don’t use a lot of exclamation signs, don’t use a lot of caps lock wording and be a friend when they say what they feel when they see the call-to-action.
I recommend reading this blog post from January: How to improve your conversion rate optimisation and this one: Conversion friendly experiences: reducing landing page friction with psychology. These two are related and complementary to the actions you’re trying to take.
In the next couple of weeks I will go deeper in each section and show you how good and bad engagement looks like for a landing page.
Have any questions? Get in touch with our experts!
