How to design a landing page that converts

First impressions matter.

Your landing page is likely to be where most of your website visitors will meet your company for the first time. It’s crucial that it’s designed in a way that will hook your visitors and guide them further down the conversion funnel.

If not, you could risk visitors leaving the site too soon and losing out on those all important conversions — whether that’s sales, subscriptions, sign-ups, etc.

So, how do you optimise a landing page to achieve maximum conversions?

In this article, we’ll tell you exactly what a landing page is, give you a good benchmark for landing page conversions, explain the benefits of having an effective landing page and share tips on designing a landing page that converts.

We’ve got a lot to cover! So let’s get started, shall we?

What is a landing page?

A landing page is where visitors ‘land’ on your website. They may have arrived by clicking on a link in an email, on social media, or through search engine results.

The objective of a landing page is to guide visitors along a marketing funnel, to eventually convert.

There is no ‘one size fits all’ approach to building landing pages, as it will differ between businesses depending on their conversion goal — e.g. more customers, users, subscribers, members, leads, etc.

What is a good landing page conversion rate?

According to research, the average landing page conversion rate across all industries is 2.35%. But if you want to grow a successful business, you’re going to want to beat that.

The top 25% of companies have a landing page conversion of 5.31% — more than double the average.

If we take a look at the top 10% of companies — which is probably where you aspire to be — then the average conversion rate increases to an impressive 11.45%.

Who knows, if you use this guide effectively, that could be your landing page before you know it!

Here are some examples of how landing page conversion rates can differ across industries:

What are the benefits of optimised landing pages?

We’re glad you asked. There are several benefits of optimising your landing pages for conversion.

1. Increased conversion rates

As we’ve mentioned, optimised landing pages drive more conversions. They’ll immediately hook the website visitor and persuade them to convert.

After all, isn’t more conversions a priority for all businesses?

2. Better user experience

When you optimise your landing page, you’re naturally improving the user experience.

Whether it’s copy that’s easier to read, images that draw the eye, or quicker loading speeds, you’re delivering a better overall experience for your visitors.

When customers have a positive experience, they’re more likely to return to make repeat purchases, becoming engaged and loyal customers.

3. Improved SEO

One of the things that search engines look out for is a landing page that engages visitors. If your website visitors are bouncing too quickly, then Google will penalise you for it, pushing you further down search results.

If Google or other search engines notice that visitors spend more time on your landing page and convert, they’ll reward your website and bump you up in search results – leading to even more website visitors and even more conversions!

4. Increased brand awareness

Think about the landing page of a brand that you admire. It’s probably quite sleek, powerful and memorable, right?

An optimised, engaging landing page enhances your brand’s credibility and authority, leading to a better reputation and increased trust from your customers.

5. Make better data-driven decisions

As you optimise your landing page, you’ll start to collect more customer or user behaviour data.

Using the right behavioural analytics tool, you can transform this data into valuable insights. When implemented into your overall business strategy, these insights can help you to make better data-driven decisions, helping you to continually improve and scale your business.

Now that you’re all caught up on the benefits of optimising your landing page, let’s start optimising!

15 tips for building a highly converting landing page

Follow the steps below to optimise your landing page for maximum conversions.

1. Use a single call to action (CTA)

If you’re telling your website visitors to do too many things, they could become overwhelmed and leave.

It’s important to determine your conversion priorities to ensure that you’re presenting visitors with one clear CTA. This way, you can optimise the whole website towards driving more of this specific conversion.

When you’ve settled on your CTA, it’s critical that you use clear, action-oriented language. Tell them exactly what you want them to do in as few words as possible. E.g. “Book a demo today” or “Signup to our newsletter now!”

2. Make your CTA stand out

Once you’ve defined your single CTA, you’ll want to make sure that it stands out.

Bold, contrasting colours are key!

Keep it at the top of the page. That way, it’s easier to find and quicker for visitors to convert.

3. Keep the design simple

When it comes to landing pages, less is more.

Similarly to how you want to keep your CTA clear and simple, you’ll want to do the same with the overall design.

Too much clutter, information, or images can be distracting and confusing.

Instead, it should be easy to navigate and visually appealing.

4. Provide an incentive

It’s not always easy to convince customers to convert, so it’s a good idea to have some sort of incentive to get them over the line.

Some great examples of conversion-driving incentives include:

• Access to an informative e-book
• A discount code
• A free trial

5. Speak directly to your target customer’s needs

As a business, you’ll probably have done a fair amount of research into your target customer, including their problems, pain points or challenges.

Now is the time to use that research.

Speak directly to your target customer’s needs and make it clear that you have the solution to their problems.

If they truly feel like you have the answer, they’ll easily convert.

6. Nail your headings

Your headings, or your titles, need to grab the attention of anyone reading through your landing page.

Use headings and subheadings to communicate the benefits or value of your services or products, rather than the features.

Then you can use the body of your text to go into greater detail…

7. Use persuasive, compelling copy

Copywriting is a fine art. You’ll want it to communicate as much detail as possible, while remaining clear and concise.

You don’t want to confuse any potential customers with long-winded sentences or too much jargon.

Have you noticed a theme running throughout these points? Clear and concise are your words of the day!

Avoid any spelling mistakes or grammatical errors. This can negatively impact brand trust and authority, putting off potential customers.

8. Use visuals to reinforce your messaging

When used correctly, photos and videos can help to communicate your products or services immediately to website visitors.

After all, a picture says a thousand words.

However, it’s important that any visuals used are carefully selected. Don’t use images just for the sake of it, make sure that they’re supporting the copy. You’ll also want to ensure that they’re high resolution, as blurry imagery could be a detriment to your business credibility.

9. Display your contact information

Even if you’ve built the perfect landing page, some website visitors may have some questions to ask before they’re ready to convert.

If your contact information isn’t readily available for them to get in touch, they may give up entirely.

10. Include testimonials

Displaying testimonials on your landing page is a must. In fact, landing pages with testimonials receive 45% more traffic than those without them.

Not only do they attract more visitors, but they drive more conversions, with 63% of consumers indicating that they’re more likely to purchase from a website that features product ratings and reviews.

As if that wasn’t enough of a reason to use reviews, they’ve also been shown to generate 62% more revenue per visitor.

11. Optimise for mobile

Businesses can no longer ignore the need for mobile optimisation of their landing pages.

In 2022, 60.66% of website traffic came from mobile phones, with desktops and tablets making up the remaining 39.34%.

Your landing page will need a responsive design that can adapt to various screen sizes, plus be easy to navigate on mobile devices.

12. Keep forms short

If you’re generating leads or capturing information on your landing page, then you’re probably using some sort of form.

At the very beginning, ask for as little data as possible.

People don’t want to spend a long time filling out forms and they could be put off if you’re asking for too much too soon. You can always ask for more information further down the line.

13. Align design elements

Each of your design elements needs to be aligned to look tidy and seamless.

When you’re looking at the design of your page, you can use the rule of 3. Imagine that the page is divided into 3 equal sized columns and work from there. You could combine two columns for a 2-1 or a 1-2 alignment, or stick with 1-1-1.

Don’t be afraid to use white (negative) space. It helps to keep website visitors focused on your landing page content.

14. Test and iterate

Even once you’ve launched your landing page and it’s live to the public, you’ll need to continue to refine the content and design.

Chances are, you probably won’t get the perfect landing page the first time around. Using A/B testing, you can make small improvements and interactions that will work to continually increase conversions.

Some examples of elements that you can A/B test include:

• Colours
• CTA copy and design
• Placements of elements
• Length of forms
• Headline copy

15. Pay attention to user behaviour insights and analytics

Designing a highly-converting landing page needs to be based on concrete data, rather than assumptions.

Having access to insights for how visitors and customers are interacting with your landing page is crucial to knowing what’s working, or what changes need to be made to drive conversions.

See how visitors are interacting with your landing page

Flowpoint helps businesses to increase their conversion rate with its innovative AI technology.

With their user behaviour analytics tools, you can discover why certain users aren’t converting, to make the necessary improvements to your landing page — and entire website.

Discover unique user insights, understand your most effective funnels, and fix any technical errors that your users may encounter.

Get started with Flowpoint today.