What is a landing page? What to know + examples

A high-performing touchdown web page is the results of some deliberate decisions, not luck. 

On this information, we’ll cowl what makes a touchdown web page completely different from different webpages, the different sorts, and 7 greatest practices for creating touchdown pages that drive outcomes. 

We’ll additionally stroll by way of an actual Semrush touchdown web page to point out these rules in motion.

What’s a touchdown web page?

A touchdown web page is a webpage designed to drive one motion, like a sign-up, obtain, or buy.

Touchdown pages are generally linked to from paid advertisements, e mail promotions, and different campaigns. When your touchdown web page displays what your marketing campaign promised, guests really feel assured they’re in the correct place — which is why touchdown pages are likely to have strong conversion rates. 

Plus, advertisements on platforms like Google, Fb, and Microsoft usually have higher placements and a decrease price per click on (CPC) when the touchdown web page is related to the advert.

Touchdown web page vs. webpage vs. web site

A touchdown web page is a single web page constructed for one particular viewers, a webpage is any particular person web page on a web site, and an internet site is the total assortment of pages beneath one area. 

For instance, a homepage isn’t a touchdown web page as a result of it often serves a number of audiences. A homepage greets anybody who may land there from a search, a model point out, or direct visitors. And it may have a number of objectives (e.g., introduce a enterprise to customers, construct belief, and level guests to different pages).

When do you have to create a touchdown web page?

Create a touchdown web page when a particular viewers, supply, or marketing campaign wants a devoted web page that current webpages cannot ship on with out shedding focus. 

Examples of situations once you would desire a touchdown web page embrace once you’re:

• Operating a paid marketing campaign and want the web page to match the advert and its call to action (CTA)
• Focusing on a particular viewers (resembling an business, firm measurement, or purchaser persona) with messaging that would not resonate together with your broader viewers
• Selling a particular supply — resembling a product, free trial, demo, or lead magnet — that wants its personal centered web page

For instance, Meraki makes use of a touchdown web page to advertise their espresso machine by way of paid advertisements. The web page’s objective is to get the consumer to purchase the machine, so your entire web page is highly-focused on parts that can nudge the customer towards shopping for: product comparisons, testimonials, photographs, movies, and listed options.

What are the completely different touchdown web page varieties?

Totally different touchdown web page varieties allow you to align with particular marketing campaign goals and embrace:

• Lead technology pages
• Click on-through pages
• Squeeze pages
• Gross sales pages

Lead technology pages

Lead technology pages are designed to gather guests’ emails.

The objective is often to supply a service or priceless piece of content material in trade for consumer particulars, which is helpful if you wish to develop an e mail listing.

For instance, Mailchimp gives a free useful resource on ecommerce insights in trade for a enterprise e mail and some different particulars.

Click on-through pages

Click on-through pages are designed to teach and persuade guests earlier than sending them to a conversion web page to finish an motion.

A click-through web page is helpful when guests want extra info earlier than changing.

Whereas click-through pages do not embrace types, they do present product/service advantages, social proof, and a transparent name to motion that results in the following web page the place the consumer can full a conversion like filling out a type or shopping for a product.

Ecommerce companies usually use click-through pages earlier than checkout, whereas software program firms use them earlier than a free trial or demo registration.

For instance, customers who click on “Get Began” on Monday.com’s click-through touchdown web page are directed to a sign-up circulation.

Squeeze pages

Squeeze pages are minimalist touchdown pages designed to seize e mail addresses with little or no friction.

These pages often function a single type discipline and little or no copy — simply sufficient to speak the worth of the supply. Like this one from Morning Brew:

Squeeze pages are generally used for publication sign-ups, webinar registrations, and early-access lists.

Gross sales pages

Gross sales pages are long-form touchdown pages designed to transform guests for higher-commitment actions, resembling costly purchases, long-term subscriptions, or contracts.

Good gross sales pages embrace detailed product/service explanations, testimonials, pricing info, and FAQ sections to deal with objections and construct confidence.

B2B firms promoting enterprise software program and creators promoting on-line programs usually use gross sales pages when consumers want extra info and reassurance earlier than committing. For instance, Marie Forloe’s B-Faculty course.

Eight touchdown web page greatest practices [with examples]

Comply with these touchdown web page greatest practices to drive extra conversions:

1. Optimize above-the-fold content material by writing a fascinating headline, together with supporting visuals, and designing robust CTAs
2. Leverage social proof like evaluations, case research, and brand bars
3. Decrease navigational parts, so customers don’t get sidetracked
4. Run A/B assessments to see how parts have an effect on conversions
5. Optimize for search to enhance your touchdown pages’s visibility in search engines like google and AI programs
6. Guarantee your touchdown web page is mobile-friendly
7. Optimize type designs to make sure folks can simply convert
8. Monitor touchdown web page efficiency to identify areas that want enchancment 

1. Optimize above the fold

Optimizing above the fold (the a part of the display customers see earlier than scrolling) helps you instantly talk worth, so guests both take motion or preserve scrolling to be taught extra. 

Simplest touchdown pages embrace these above-the-fold parts:

• An attractive headline that conveys the providing and piques curiosity
• A subheading that builds off the headline by describing the advantage of the supply or digging into the ache level 
• A supporting visible
• A CTA button encouraging guests to take the following step

Write a fascinating headline

Write a fascinating headline that resonates with customers and entices them to be taught extra about your supply.

Your headline angle will rely in your viewers. Totally different angles can embrace:

• An issue-based headline (e.g., “Uninterested in waking up exhausted?”)
• An aspirational headline (e.g., “Think about waking up filled with vitality each single day”)
• A price-based headline (e.g., “The greens powder that reinforces your vitality in a single each day scoop”)
• An identity-focused headline (e.g., “For individuals who refuse to run on empty”)

Take into account testing completely different headline angles to see which one ends in larger engagement on your web page. Then, strengthen headlines through the use of confirmed psychological triggers, resembling urgency, curiosity, and specificity. 

For greatest outcomes, align your headline intently with the advert copy or e mail that introduced guests to your touchdown web page. Matching the message reassures customers they’re in the correct place and reduces bounce charges.

For deeper steering, see our landing page copywriting tips.

Use a benefit-driven subheading

A subheading helps the headline by clarifying the first advantage of the supply and including context with out overwhelming the customer.

Efficient subheadings clarify how the supply delivers worth or what the customer will get after changing, serving to customers rapidly determine whether or not the web page is related to them.

Embrace a supporting visible

Together with a supporting visible above the fold reinforces the headline and subheading, and it helps guests perceive the supply at a look.

Efficient hero visuals might embrace product screenshots, quick movies, or social proof that present/show the result or worth of the supply. The objective is to rapidly verify relevance and assist the first CTA — to not embellish the web page.

Keep away from forcing a visible if it doesn’t make sense on your touchdown web page. Touchdown pages can nonetheless achieve success with out visuals above the fold. 

Design robust calls to motion

Sturdy calls to motion make it apparent what guests ought to do subsequent. 

Listed below are some CTA suggestions:

• Use action-oriented button copy: Substitute generic labels like “Submit” or “Click on right here” with benefit-focused language. First-person phrasing (for instance, “Begin my free trial”) usually performs higher as a result of it’s particular and creates a way of possession. 
• Make the CTA visually distinct: Use a button coloration that contrasts clearly with the web page background, give it sufficient measurement and whitespace for simple interplay, and apply refined visible cues to attract consideration
• Place CTAs strategically: rule of thumb is to position CTAs the place intent is excessive, which generally consists of placement above the fold and at pure stopping factors on longer pages. That approach, customers can convert as quickly as they’re prepared. 

2. Leverage social proof

Leveraging social proof means exhibiting guests that others belief and use your services or products, which builds confidence and reduces hesitation.

Add social proof to a touchdown web page by together with:

• Buyer or shopper logos
• Testimonials or quick quotes
• Use or adoption metrics
• Evaluate or scores widgets from trusted platforms
• Awards

For instance, Semrush makes use of a belief bar with recognizable shopper logos:

3. Decrease navigational parts

Minimizing navigational parts retains guests centered on the first motion as an alternative of clicking away out of your touchdown web page.

Many manufacturers use touchdown pages that do not have full-site navigation and restrict hyperlinks to solely what’s important.

For instance, The Globe and Mail subscription touchdown web page excludes the primary navigation menu, leaving customers with a transparent supply and name to motion.

Notice that minimizing navigation doesn’t suggest eradicating it totally. Touchdown pages ought to nonetheless present entry to vital hyperlinks — like privateness insurance policies, phrases, and restricted model navigation — to keep away from irritating customers or blocking various conversions.

Navigation high quality may also have an effect on paid search efficiency. Google has stated that touchdown pages with poor navigation can scale back advert visibility and enhance prices. 

4. Run A/B assessments

Operating A/B tests in your touchdown web page allows you to examine two variations of a component — like a headline or CTA — on a touchdown web page to see which one performs higher. 

In a typical take a look at, customers are cut up equally between a management (authentic model) and a variant (modified model). Like this A/B take a look at that compares having a static picture versus a video. 

The profitable model can then grow to be the primary web page.

You possibly can A/B take a look at parts resembling headlines, physique copy, visuals, layouts, CTAs, and type design. Simply stick to testing one ingredient at a time, so which change impacted efficiency.

5. Optimize for search

Making use of search greatest practices on touchdown pages makes it potential for them to seem in search engine outcomes and AI-generated solutions.

Plus, techniques which might be good for search additionally are typically good for conversions.

Key search-focused concerns for touchdown pages embrace:

• Crawling and indexing: Be certain that touchdown pages aren’t by accident blocked by robots.txt, “noindex” tags, or crawl guidelines — for search engine bots and AI crawlers alike. An exception could also be time-sensitive marketing campaign pages that will not be reused or redirected after the promotion ends. 
• Duplicate content: Touchdown pages that intently resemble different pages can dilute a web page’s authority, which may impression search rankings. Use canonical tags to point the popular model and keep away from competing URLs.
• Page speed: Sooner load occasions enhance search rankings, usability, and engagement
• Internal links: Use inside hyperlinks to assist discovery, however keep away from including pointless hyperlinks that distract guests from the first conversion objective
• Accessibility and safety: Pages needs to be accessible to all customers and served securely, which incorporates utilizing correct distinction, readable textual content, and HTTPS
• Thin content: Even conversion-focused pages want sufficient significant content material to fulfill customers and search programs. Every part ought to clearly clarify the worth of the supply, present context or proof, and assist the first conversion objective — with out padding or irrelevant element.
• Content clarity for extraction: Construction content material so every part can stand by itself, with clear headings, quick paragraphs, and a single focus. Lead with the first profit, layer in supporting particulars as customers scroll, and use progressive disclosure to introduce complexity with out overwhelming readers. 

Use Web site Audit to evaluation touchdown web page technical well being

Use Semrush’s Site Audit to evaluation your touchdown pages for points associated to go looking engine and AI visibility that it’s best to handle.

Begin by configuring the Site Audit tool. Embrace your touchdown pages within the crawl by specifying the folders, URLs, or subdomains the place touchdown pages stay.

After you’ve run your crawl, click on into the “Points” tab to establish issues resembling blocked pages, duplicate content material, sluggish load occasions, or cell usability points which will impression each rankings and conversions. 

Click on into every concern you see in Web site Audit for a listing of affected pages. And click on “How you can repair” for tricks to appropriate every one.

Repair points by order of significance (begin with errors, then warnings, then notices).

6. Guarantee mobile-friendly design

Making certain mobile-friendly design offers each customer a very good expertise in your touchdown web page, regardless of which machine they’re utilizing.

To optimize touchdown pages for cell customers:

• Use responsive design: Make sure the web page routinely adjusts to completely different display sizes, so the content material, photographs, and CTAs stay readable and usable
• Make parts touch-friendly: Buttons and hyperlinks needs to be massive sufficient to faucet comfortably, with enough spacing to forestall misclicks
• Prioritize readable textual content: Use font sizes and spacing that preserve content material legible on small screens with out requiring pinch-zooming
• Simplify format and navigation: Cell touchdown pages ought to stack content material vertically to keep up focus
• Optimize types for cell enter: Use applicable discipline varieties, resembling e mail keyboards for e mail fields and numeric keypads for telephone numbers
• Optimize web page pace: Cell customers usually have slower connections, so decrease massive property and pointless scripts to maintain load occasions quick

Take a look at touchdown pages on actual cell gadgets to substantiate that layouts, types, and CTAs behave as anticipated. And use instruments like Lighthouse inside Chrome’s DevTools to establish cell usability points.

7. Optimize type design

Optimize type designs (in case your touchdown pages embrace types) by making them as unintrusive as potential.

Customers are unlikely to fill out types that ask for irrelevant info. Decrease overwhelming customers by:

• Asking for important info solely: If a telephone quantity or firm measurement is not required instantly, do not request these particulars
• Utilizing progressive profiling: Gather primary particulars first, then collect extra info throughout onboarding or follow-up
• Take into account multi-step types: Breaking lengthy types into two or three steps can enhance completion by decreasing perceived effort

You may also make types really feel simpler to finish through the use of:

• Clear error messages: “Please enter a legitimate e mail handle” is extra useful than “Error in discipline 2”
• Privateness reassurances: Add microcopy close to delicate fields, like “We’ll by no means share your e mail with third events”

8. Monitor touchdown web page efficiency

Monitoring your touchdown web page’s efficiency repeatedly allows you to discover areas that want enchancment.

Periodically evaluation the next:

• Touchdown web page metrics like engagement price, time on web page, and conversion price
• Heatmaps (a visible that exhibits fashionable and unpopular areas of your web page) and recordings to see how folks work together together with your touchdown web page

Examine touchdown pages with poor metrics and consumer conduct that differs from what you’d count on. For instance, heatmaps for a low-converting web page may present that many customers aren’t seeing your CTA. You may then A/B take a look at a brand new CTA placement. 

Case research: Semrush touchdown web page

This case research examines a Semrush landing page designed to advertise the Web site Audit device and encourage free trial sign-ups.

Reasonably than specializing in a particular marketing campaign, this instance highlights how Semrush applies touchdown web page greatest practices — resembling clear worth messaging, centered format, and belief alerts — to information guests towards a single motion.

The hero

The hero is the above-the-fold part of the touchdown web page, and is designed to right away talk worth and information guests towards a single motion.

On the present Semrush Web site Audit touchdown web page, the hero consists of:

1. Minimalist header: A simplified header with the Semrush brand, protecting distractions to a minimal
2. Profit-driven headline: A transparent headline that communicates the first worth of the device
3. Supporting subheadline: Further context that clarifies what the consumer will get with out including friction
4. Interactive product preview: A visible ingredient that lets guests discover the device’s performance
5. Main CTA button: A transparent name to motion that directs customers to start out a free 7-day trial

Mariana Clavel, the Content material Strategist at Semrush who labored on this touchdown web page, says:

“The linked brand is there for model recognition and to offer customers a well-recognized strategy to discover extra of the positioning in the event that they need to.

The headline is daring and benefit-driven, so guests immediately know what they will get.

Lastly, the product demo provides credibility and makes the web page extra partaking.”

The social proof

Beneath the hero part, the touchdown web page includes a part displaying logos of well-known Semrush prospects.

These recognizable manufacturers assist set up credibility early, particularly for guests unfamiliar with the product.

“When somebody lands on the web page from an advert, they may be unfamiliar with the Semrush model,” Mariana says. “Displaying recognizable firm logos helps us construct belief and present that different respected companies are utilizing the product.”

The web page leverages social proof once more close to the underside by displaying Semrush awards and accolades.

“This additional dose of social proof is helpful for hesitant customers who want one final little bit of validation earlier than clicking the CTA. Consider it as a confidence enhance proper earlier than the end line.”

The answer

The center part of the touchdown web page expands on the core worth proposition by highlighting the options and advantages of Web site Audit. 

Right here, the touchdown web page makes use of quick, scannable copy paired with supporting visuals to make the data straightforward to soak up. 

Listed below are some side-by-side cell screenshots:

“This a part of the web page explores the advantages in additional element, so virtually minded customers could make an knowledgeable resolution earlier than taking motion,” Mariana says.

A/B testing insights

The staff makes use of A/B testing to guage how small modifications to parts on key touchdown pages have an effect on outcomes that may be scaled throughout different pages.

Right here are some things Mariana’s staff discovered from working A/B assessments on the Web site Audit-focused touchdown web page:

• CTA: “Attempt free for 7 days” drove extra trial sign-ups than different variants
• Visible above the fold: The interactive product demo drove extra trial sign-ups and funds in comparison with static visuals and GIFs
• Social proof: Incorporating trust-focused messaging drove extra sign-ups

Create touchdown pages that convert

Anybody can create touchdown pages that convert by following the most effective practices listed above.

And since touchdown pages are sometimes high-traffic, high-intent entry factors, small technical points can have an outsized impression on conversions.

That is the place Web site Audit is available in. 

Operating common audits in your touchdown pages helps you catch these points earlier than they impression search visibility or harm consumer expertise.