When audiences click your link in a search engine, email, or social media post, you’re one step closer to meeting your conversion goals. Now it’s up to your landing page to build on their curiosity and inspire them to act. After all, you’ve spent time and effort to get traffic to your website — if visitors aren’t converting, you’re losing leads and revenue.
In this post, I’ll explain how to fine-tune the structure, design, copy, and technical elements of your page to help prospects move seamlessly through your conversion funnel. By implementing these landing page optimization best practices, you can improve the efficiency of your marketing strategies, generate more sales, and lift your ROI.
7 Landing Page Optimization Tips To Implement Today
Whether you want users to download an ebook, sign up for a free trial, or make a purchase, you have a small window to make your pitch. Your landing page needs to educate audiences and persuade them to take action before they abandon your site. That’s a lot of responsibility for a web page, but by anticipating their needs and eliminating friction from the process, you can improve your conversion rate.
1. Optimize for Speed and Performance
One of the easiest ways to optimize landing pages is to ensure visitors aren’t waiting for information to display on their screens. Research shows that as load time drags on from one to five seconds, users are 90% more likely to bounce.
Leverage Content Delivery Networks (CDNs)
Page loading time can depend on a user’s physical distance from the server. You can reduce latency by using content delivery networks (CDNs) and storing content on servers in multiple locations. Users get information faster as they’re accessing the servers closest to them.
CDNs are especially useful for enterprises with global audiences, as they reduce demand on a single server. A platform such as Cloudflare, for example, can remove bottlenecks and deliver fast web experiences by leveraging an extensive network of data centers around the world.
Advanced Caching Methods
Another way to optimize landing page performance is to cache content and cut down on server retrieval times. You can store frequent or complex database queries and large objects such as images. You can also cache static parts of a page and load dynamic or personalized content separately to reduce delays.
File Optimization
While high-resolution images enhance the visual appeal of landing pages, they can affect speed. Use a compression tool to reduce image file size while maintaining quality. Minifying JavaScript, CSS, and HTML files and removing unnecessary plugins can also improve performance.
If your landing page is rich with media, consider lazy loading to prioritize content that users see first. Visitors can start interacting with the page immediately instead of waiting for all of the files to load.
Monitoring Performance
Keep tabs on your site’s technical performance with a tool such as PageSpeed Insights. This platform measures the loading times of individual URLs based on industry benchmarks and recommends ways to improve the scores. Use this free tool to diagnose technical issues and check for improvements after implementing changes.
2. Craft Headlines That Drive Enterprise Conversions
Short, persuasive headlines that fuel audience interest are a key part of optimized landing pages. You’ll typically see a main headline that conveys the benefits of a product or service and a one or two-sentence subheading elaborating on key points. Take a look at the headline on Pipedrive’s landing page as an example. It takes just a few words to explain what the product is and why customers need it. I also like the use of a statistic to demonstrate the product’s impact.
Align Headline With User Intent
Audiences will only engage with your content if it’s relevant, so craft your headline with their search intent in mind. Ideally, you’ve already optimized your landing page for SEO (search engine optimization) to improve its visibility. Now, your content needs to deliver. What keywords did audiences use to find your brand, and what pain points do they want to solve? If your headline doesn’t hint at an appropriate solution, they likely won’t read on, no matter how well-written your copy is.
Your landing page can be a destination for audiences from multiple channels if the campaign messaging is consistent. For example, if your headline is about a product’s AI capabilities, but your ads are sending audiences interested in affordability, there’s a mismatch between the page and user intent.
Evaluating the Effectiveness of Your Headline
Tools such as Hotjar or Crazy Egg are valuable for landing page optimization, providing insight into how users interact with your content. Heatmaps show you how far users scroll, what they click, and where their interest drops off. If visitors aren’t venturing beyond your headline, try to make it more concise or compelling, or better address your user’s pain points.
You might find the LIFT model for conversion rate optimization useful for analyzing your landing page and how well you communicate the relevance and unique selling point of your brand.
3. Design Scalable CTAs
Your landing page should have a persuasive call-to-action (CTA) to coax users to a desired outcome. Use a verb and clear, direct prompt, such as “Start 7-Day Trial” or “Schedule a Demo.” A single CTA keeps users focused on your goal, but a secondary CTA can capture those who aren’t ready to convert yet. Just make sure audiences aren’t distracted from your primary offer. Zendesk does a nice job of incorporating a secondary CTA (“view demo”) on this landing page.
If your enterprise has a presence in multiple countries or regions, create a template for scalability and use variations of the CTA tailored to your audience. Translated CTAs should reflect local nuances, as word-for-word translations may miss the mark.
Use a contrasting color for CTA buttons and display them strategically throughout the page. It’s helpful to run tests to find the most effective landing page design and placement. CTAs should be accessible at key points. Here are a few examples:
- Give users the option to act as soon as they land on the page. An above-the-fold CTA converts customers who have researched your product and are ready to proceed.
- Include CTAs at intervals throughout a page, depending on page length. A CTA button at the end of a section, for example, makes it easy for audiences to take the next step without returning to the top of the page.
- Place a CTA at the end of the page to capture users who read through your content before making a final decision.
- Consider a sticky CTA that remains in view as users scroll. This can keep your call to action accessible on long pages.
- Include an exit CTA that pops up when users are about to leave the page. A backup CTA, such as subscribing to a newsletter, can encourage audiences to continue engaging with your brand even if they’re not ready to commit right away.
4. Enhance User Experience Through Visual Hierarchy
Audiences need to understand what a product can do for them before making a commitment, but an information-dense page can be daunting. Optimizing landing pages with typography, color, and whitespace improves the visual appeal of a page and helps guide users effortlessly through the content.
Create a Visual Hierarchy
Present your content in neatly organized sections and create a visual hierarchy to highlight the most important pieces of content. Use headers to draw attention to new topics and help users identify the content that’s most relevant to them. You can establish a visual hierarchy using:
- Typography. Assign different type sizes to your main heading, subheadings, and body text.
- Color. Differentiate sections of your landing page or accentuate details using color.
- Symbols. Use visual icons to draw attention to information. For example, Bamboo HR’s landing page combines color and checkmark symbols to make items in a list more noticeable.
- Whitespace. Provide ample whitespace around headlines, CTAs, and other landing page elements to help them stand out. Whitespace also gives a clean, uncluttered feel to a page — audiences appreciate a break from content so they’re not overloaded by information.
5. Leverage Trust Signals Effectively
Building trust is a big part of conversion rate optimization for landing pages. Visitors who are unfamiliar with your enterprise need confidence in your brand, product, or service before engaging further with your business.
Display Trust Symbols
Demonstrate your stellar reputation by showcasing awards, certifications, affiliations, and customer and partner logos. I like how this Hotjar landing page builds trust. It showcases recent accolades high up on the page, positioned strategically underneath CTA buttons to help reduce friction. Midway down the page is a glowing review that’s set apart with the use of color and typography. Logos of businesses that use the software are placed at the bottom of the page next to a contact form to give audiences a final bit of assurance before they act.
Data-Backed Evidence
Use statistics from your own research or customer case studies to emphasize the value of your brand or product. These specific, measurable outcomes help quantify the benefits of your product and improve user confidence. Take a look at this landing page optimization example from Unbounce. After scrolling past the initial CTA, you can see statistics demonstrating how their software has helped customers improve lead generation and conversions.
6. Implement Smart Forms for High-Conversion Rates
If all goes according to plan, you’ll nail your landing page conversion optimization and visitors will be ready to take the critical next step. Typically, you’ll need to collect information in a form. However, even this final step can cause friction if it’s too much work for your audience — 22% of users abandon a checkout process due to its complexity, according to Baymard.
Interestingly, users aren’t thrown off by the number of steps required (e.g., contact information, billing information) but by the number of fields they must complete. Optimized landing pages help users complete this final step with minimal effort.
Here are some tips to make a form as convenient as possible for users:
- Ask only for essential information.
- Hide fields that don’t apply to everyone — not all users have a billing address that differs from a shipping address.
- Use predictive input to help users complete fields faster.
- Prefill values where possible.
You can also use progressive profiling to streamline forms for returning users. Information that you’ve already captured doesn’t need to be repeated, saving users from entering it again.
7. Align Content With Intent Across Segments
And that brings me to the last of our landing page optimization tips. To effectively convert audiences, your page should complement where a user is in their journey. Someone who’s just starting to explore solutions has different needs than someone who’s about to make a purchase.
Map out your user journey and create appropriate content for each stage. Your messaging should flow consistently from the initial ad, search snippet, or marketing email through to the landing page content and CTA. The more your messaging resonates with audience needs, the more likely they’ll convert.
Here are a couple of landing page optimization examples from Brevo that align content with a specific stage of the buyer journey.
- This landing page targets top-of-the-funnel customers, providing general information about Brevo’s email marketing software. It helps users understand what they can do with the software and answers common FAQs.
- Audiences further in the buyer journey require more detailed information. This landing page compares Brevo to Mailchimp, featuring comparison charts and reviews from users who have tried both platforms.
Remember that enterprise audiences are diverse. In addition to targeting audiences based on the stage of their buyer journey, you may have different personas based on demographics, job role, industry, company size, and geography. Be sure to target each audience segment on the appropriate channel and shape messaging to address their needs.
Improve Conversions and ROI With Victorious
Optimized landing pages are the difference between users moving into your conversion funnel or abandoning your site for a competitor. Partner with Victorious and improve your ROI with a data-driven approach that include conversion rate optimization. Using metric-based tactics, we craft strategies based on customer needs, interests, and behaviors, including those in multiple regions or countries. Schedule a free consultation and learn how to guide audiences toward desired actions, laying the foundation for your enterprise’s long-term revenue and growth.