Lesson 4. How to Increase Effectiveness of a Landing Page

*This article is a part of the Landing Page Building Course by TemplateMonster.

We are at the finish line! You already know a lot about landing page websites. In seconds you’ll learn what to do to increase the activity on a landing you’ve created.

Let’s begin!

1. Part I
2. What is the Effectiveness of a Landing?
3. Step #1 - The Prior Landing Customization
4. Step #2 - Stats Analysis
5. Step #3 - Sales Funnel
6. Part II
7. Step #4 - Test It All
8. Part III
9. 10 Best HTML Landing Page Templates

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Part I

What is the Effectiveness of a Landing?

The Effectiveness of a website is determined by the achievement of set goals. When it comes to landing pages, there is always one goal—the main task that should be achieved.

The goal of your landing page is to make its visitors click on “Buy”. Unfortunately, not all potential clients (or leads) become buyers. This ratio of profitable and “empty” visits is called conversion.

A Checklist for a Better Conversion Rate

Clear Call-to-Action
An Offer
Narrow Focus on the Main Goal
Micro Goals
Powerful Headline
Visuals
Social Proof
Performance Optimization

NB! Conversion is a major indicator of the effectiveness of a landing page website, and it’s always a percentage. There is no optimal value to say if a landing has a high or low conversion. Conversion depends on many factors.

If the conversion is mostly zero, the landing page site is not effective. Something is wrong in its workflow, which prevents visitors from reaching the main goal. The problems need to be detected and then fixed.

You can rely on the widely accepted characteristic of the landing effectiveness. First, people spend lots of time scrolling and probably reading. Second, they click on buttons, images, follow links and watch videos.

Furthermore, every website has its own particularities that form micro-goals. It’s possible to speak in favor of high or low conversion. For example, owners of an online store are interested to make visitors look at most of their products, read comments, follow links to socials, and so on. Passing all these steps a person becomes closer to achieving the main goal of a landing. That’s why micro-goals are necessary.

What can you do? Make a list of key indicators of your landing effectiveness. Think of what leads need to do to become your active clients. Maybe they would like to see all the details of your product on beautiful images and then watch a video of the product. These components can ensure that everything is ok and it’s time to click on “Buy”.

And now, let’s explore the process of conversion increasement piecemeal!

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Step #1 - The Prior Landing Customization

Before you start increasing the effectiveness of your landing, there are a few things that need to be done:

• Landing Page Analytics
• Search Engine Optimization
• Speed Optimization

Landing Page Analytics

To enhance your landing page website, you need to know who uses and it how they use it. Today, varied analytics tools provide website owners with comprehensive information about their visitors. By using one of them you’ll easily see the main sources of traffic, the time people spend on your page, and surely you’ll define things that prevent users from buying your product, subscribing to your service, or filling in your forms. All this helps to adjust your website to the highest level of effectiveness.

Just imagine that you discover that most of your clients come from Instagram. This fact stimulates you to concentrate on this customer acquisition channel. In such a way, it’s reasonable to develop your product account on Instagram and creating purposed posts, stories and even streaming.

Or, you realize that most of your competitors’ profit is made from traffic on Facebook where you are not active. This means you should work hard in this field on your own or with the help of SMM specialists.

One of the most popular web analytics tools is Google Analytics. With it, you can:

• Observe the activity of your visitors.
• Count conversion.
• Track important business events.
• Conduct A/B testing.
• Analyze varied advertising channels.
• Watch all the processes on a site in real-time.

So, if you haven’t done it already, rush to sign in to Google or use your current address!

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Search Engine Optimization

When searching for the right product a person uses appropriate words or phrases known as keywords. The better a landing is optimized with keywords, the higher its chances to be at the first position in Google search.

In the previous article, you read how to write optimized for browser texts. Now we can recommend that you install purposed SEO plugins. This will ease your workload. Another tip for those who want to create a landing from scratch is to use an SEO-friendly template.

H1 and Meta

You can try different variants and even ask for the help of SEO agencies; just don’t forget the basics of search engine optimization for landing page websites. Look for relevant keywords, use the keywords in your H1, H2, and texts and include the keywords in a meta description (and alt text for images).

NB! A meta description provides a summary of a website. Keep it tidy, precise, and no longer than 155 symbols. As for the major header, only the first 77 symbols are displayed in Google.

A landing page header and meta description form the first impression of your landing page in browsers. They depict the main idea of your site and are written up to the related Google requests (contain all the focus words!).

The problem is, on pages in a browser there are numbers of websites that want target visitors. The solution is to show the uniqueness of your offer and its benefits.

So, a working header and meta are based on a clear, advantageous, unique selling proposition and keywords.

Social Networks

Nowadays, social networks are influential customer acquisition channels. Entrepreneurs use social media to promote products and services, and users use social media to share links of what they like.

If you want your landing to be on top, provide it with a strong social presence. Luckily, modern web templates are already social-integrated, like Lintense. By using Lintense, you won’t need to write special codes or create a separate interface for mobile devices. Lintense is fully responsive and secure. It’s compatible with all the modern plugins and boasts of very high speed. For visitors, it’s crucial that your landing page performs in any browser they prefer and on any gadget they use. That’s all about Lintense.

Advertisement of your landing page website may look different on Facebook, Instagram, etc. So, you’ll need to stock up on several alternatives.

NB! For socials, choose bright catchy images. Work on your texts, especially the header. When writing, remember to use keywords, and keep in mind the uniqueness of your offer and benefits. NO, you can’t just copy the previous descriptions! Imagine that you follow a cool ad on Facebook that brings you to the same web page you read seconds before. Would you stay longer to discover the site?

On socials, promo texts can be informal. Very often, provocative content slays competitors.

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Speed Optimization

Let’s be honest, we all like spending time on things that bring a positive and useful experience. It’s no surprise that we often (crossed) lose our temper while waiting. Moreover, lots of us have got used to consider time-consuming gadgets or programs outmoded.

So, if you don’t want your landing to smell of mothballs, take good care of its loading speed.

There is a term Time To First Byte (TTFB). This means time until the first byte of the web page is received after sending the request from the client. The lower this indicator, the faster the browser starts loading the page.

According to Google, the TTFB should not exceed 200 ms, and ideally, it should be no more than 50 ms. If the response time is longer, determine the cause and fix it.

To check TTFB, using Google Chrome or Firefox, press a combo “Ctrl+Shift+I”. Next, choose the Network” tab, reload the page and filter the resources by type of HTML (Doc). Next, you need to click on the currently loaded page. In the “Timing” tab in the line “Waiting” the response time of the server will be indicated.

As well, it’s easy to define TTFB with Google Analytics. Go along the path "Behavior" "Speed of loading the site" "Overview". In the block "Average server response time" TTFB for the selected period will be indicated.

Server response time is badly affected by:

• Slow work with the database.
• Lack of resources (weak processor or insufficient RAM).
• Incorrect server configuration.
• Lack of caching.

To determine the exact cause, ask for the help of an experienced web developer. Or, you can rely on our all-in-one templates, like Lintense, which is already search engine and speed optimized, responsive, cross browser compatible, and far more.

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Step #2 - Stats Analysis

Due to modern analytics tools, you can check the behavior of your website visitors. The most important indicators are traffic, its origin and time. It allows defining if your landing page attracts the target audience, if it’s effective enough to keep the attention of visitors, and far more.

Google Analytics Landing Reports

Real-Time Statistics

This option enables you to immediately see whether the main goal of a site is fulfilled. This significantly saves setup time and eliminates developer errors for purposes such as “javascript event”. You can also see in real-time how many users are on your site, on which pages they are, where they have come from, etc.

Commenting

In the history of Google Analytics, you can denote events, like replacing of a page, launching an A/B test, connecting a new type of traffic, etc. So, you will always remember what has changed on a certain date and how it could affect traffic and landing conversions. There’s no need to remember anything else or write in a document—all is at hand. Also, with this function, it’s really easy to create “before and after” reports.

Event Map

This is a unique report that allows you to analyze the connection between events and users’ actions on a landing. Moreover, an event can not only be a click on a button (for example, after filling out the application form on the site) but also interaction with any element of a site (following links, watching videos, etc.). The number of such events sent to Analytics is unlimited.

NB! To use this map confidently, think over the logic of grouping events (by categories and actions) in advance. As a minus, you will need the help of a web developer to change source code and configure events.

In practice:

If you know for sure what your audience is interested most, write a cool article on this topic. As such content is too large for landings, save the article in PDF format. Then, get your visitors to download it in exchange for their contacts. So they will get info and you will get their emails.

Multichannel Sequences

Users’ conversion may involve multiple channels. They can come for the first time having followed contextual ads, the search or social networks. At last, your potential clients can make a direct visit to your landing and reach the goal you set.

If you look at standard reports of Google Analytics, the default conversion source will be social networks. But this is not so, because visitors interact with websites through different channels. So, it’s impossible, at first glance, to assess who plays the most significant part in the conversion.

A report on multichannel sequences helps to identify the chains of channels that often lead to conversion, as well as the value of each channel along the way. This allows you to predict how investments in each channel will affect the overall conversion of the landing page. This report also tells which channels are not worthy to invest in.

Experiments

This is a free built-in tool for conducting A/B tests. It’s very helpful when you want to determine which variant of your landing page website is better. So, be assured that you have alternative versions to compare, and Google Analytics will do the rest (distribute traffic by options, collect statistics and notify you of the winning version of the page.

Google AdWords Reports

This option provides the most detailed report on all launched campaigns. It’s very useful when you need to see stats on site links. The percentage of inaccuracy is minimal, as Google reads all the data according to uniform rules.

SEO Traffic Reports

Only in the Google Analytics search console will you see which keywords bring visitors to your landing from Google search, and which pages are more popular.

NB! It’s not surprising that website owners want visitors to stay as long as possible. Still, there are too many facts we cannot neglect. People spend a lot of time on pages that are complicated for target actions. For example, they struggle with quests—go there, find a magic flower, put it here, and bla-bla. On the other hand, such website mistakes prove the value of your offer. But this doesn’t mean you can abuse the trust of your target audience. Go and enhance your landing page website!

So, check if your web forms are inviting and clear to fill in quickly. Or, look closer at your call-to-action buttons (how are they designed, placed, etc).

Or, you’ve launched new ads and got additional traffic. Instead, the time of visits on your landing has reduced. This means that you’ve chosen the wrong channel. There is no target audience, but people are uninterested in your product. As you see, analytics helps to concentrate on those traffic platforms that are worthy of your time and investments.

Also, pick up on the links and buttons on your landing that are not used by its visitors. Maybe they are misplaced and interfere with decision making.

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Step #3 - Sales Funnel

On a landing page, a sales funnel is a step-by-step direction of your lead to the target goal. It’s the whole process of involving and convincing a visitor. If everything works right a person clicks on “Buy”. So, let’s look at how it should be. We believe that you must omit mistakes.

A sales funnel of a landing consists of:

• Visitors Engagement - Attract from the First Block
• Their Way on Your Landing - Lead Your Visitors
• Making a Purchase - Make Shopping Comfortable
• Coming Back to Your Site - Make Visitors Come Back

Attract from the First Block

A cover of your landing page is everything. It settles the rules of a game. Looking at it, a visitor decides whether to stay discovering your offer. The task of a good cover is to invite for scrolling, clicking on, opening, following and, of course, BUYING. Your task is to design it correctly. Hopefully, you know how to manage the cover due to the previous lesson about the power of function blocks.

If you’ve joined us recently and are interested in boosting your landing, check if your landing page:

• Explains clearly the value of your offer.
• Allures with benefits.
• Shows why a person needs it.

NB! In a word, don’t start building a landing even with the best ready-made template before you make target audience analysis. Since you’ve got the answers to your customers' avatars or focus group members, you can create a landing page that responds to their answers and leads to the main goal!

So, a first cover-block is a perfectly-formulated offer (unique selling proposition) and contains stunning visuals.

By the way, there are lots of pixel-perfect stock images you can get in ONE Membership! Subscribe!

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Lead Your Visitors

Even though the cover blocks have borne the brunt, your visitors still have questions. They are in doubt, especially the most reasonable of them. If you don’t know how to make a clear structure of a page and write influential texts, look at previous lessons.

Check if with every step on your landing a person gets new vital answers.

NB! Generally, attention to a landing is distributed like this: most of the time people spend at the beginning, and then their concentration weakens. Even on a very good site, people spend less time near the end of a page. In such a way, the most important arguments need to be put up. As the user is still fresh to the site, their attention is not wasted.

In the middle, it’s recommended to place the most useful info. Be sure to leave your contacts at the end. Also, don’t forget to add a button or form. It often happens that out of habit, people immediately scroll down to buy goods without delay.

Make Shopping Comfortable

As you already know, buttons on a landing page should not only be attractive but also noticeable. As a rule, they can be placed at the beginning, next to the offer, and at the end.

Use trendy contrasting colors for button designs. Do not forget the text. Write what you expect from the visitor. For example, “Buy!”, “Subscribe”, “Join Us!”, “See More”, “Download Free”, etc.

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Make Visitors Come Back

You’ve done your best and worked hard to find people, make them visit your page, and, at last, turn them into buyers. It’s not cool to lose them! So, what happens after a person has clicked on “Buy”?

Usually, after the target action, a user comes to a thank you page. As a bonus to generally accepted politeness, you can also offer them something useful. For example, an additional product or consultation. A subscription to a social network is also a good option.

NB! Just remember that whatever you offer, this should be consistent with what your client has already purchased. For example, suggest downloading instructions for your product, some tips of its uphold or a newsletter subscription to your super informative, THEMATIC blog. The last works well if your product is a workshop, webinar, etc. Few people will give up an additional resource of knowledge at the cost of one email address.

Don’t be afraid to create and lure the client with something else! So, as your business expands, you can easily add such perks with advertising. The main thing is that it shouldn’t be intrusive if you don’t want your ads to get lost in spams.

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Part II

Step #4 - Test It All

When your landing is optimized and you confidently use analytics tools, it’s time for the most important work on its conversion. It’s A/B testing (split testing)—a trusted way to measure page effectiveness by comparison.

Why now? Previously you’ve observed the behavior of leads on your landing and defined what is most difficult for them. It’s natural to have different approaches and variants to the current problems now. Due to A/B testing, you’ll find out for sure in what a way to enhance your landing website.

The main principle of A/B testing is a random demonstration of various landing page options to the visitors. If page A is the original version, then page B is a test one. It’s different from page A in one parameter. A user to whom is shown page B will never see page A (unless they visit it from another device). When the number of shows reaches a predetermined mark (for example, 10,000), the conversion rates obtained between the two pages can be compared. The one that is more effective wins.

Don’t compare pages that have more than one, unlike parameter. When A and B mock-ups completely differ, it’s hard to say what influences the conversion.

Moreover, anything can be tested:

• Title (content, layout, appearance).
• Subheadings and texts.
• Call to action text.
• Buttons and shapes (colors, layout, text).
• Images (content, size).

You can conduct A/B testing in Google Analytics. This won’t cause you trouble, as you must have already used this tool.

Read how to make A/B testing in Google Analytics below! This process is divided in some logical parts:

• Think of a Topic of the Experiment
• Make Testing

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Think of a Topic of the Experiment

As a rule, topics for A/B testing depend on the behavior of visitors. The only thing that must be tested is your offer.

Things you can test on your landing:

• Offer. The same product can be presented as the most inexpensive or as the most useful. Try different arguments and refer to different motivations.
• Structure. Try to place function blocks differently. Remove those that get no attention from leads.
• Images. Ways to show products are uncountable. Search on the Web, be attentive to images that are popular on Pinterest, Shutterstock or Adobe. Decide if it’s necessary to use a model for the presentation of your offer. For example, it’s always wrong to advertise clothes on a hanger. Only a few people may buy it, as it’s unconvincing.
• Buttons. Insert buttons in different blocks of your landing—right to an offer, in the end, or close to the best argument.

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Make Testing

Step #1

In this guide, we use Google Optimize. Hopefully, you’ll also find it very handy. Plus, it’s fully free. This service works as a member of the big Google family. That suits users of Google Analytics very well.

So, go to optimize.google.com and click on “Create Account”.

Step #2

Then create a container. There your experiments will be stored. To make it easy for you to find the right one, make different containers for different sites.

See? Nothing difficult. Now, you can start your experiments.

Step #3

In Google Optimize, experiments are called projects. To make your first one, click on the Start button.

Fill in the fields:

• Name of the experiment.
• The address of the page that will be compared with others (A/B testing).
• Type of project (choose Redirect Experiment).

Click on “Create”!

Step #4

Be the general terms of A/B testing, and create page A and page B. Remember that they should be different only in one tested feature.

Step #5

In Google Optimize, click on “Add Option” and fill out the next fields for each new page:

• Name
• Result of redirection
• Final URL
• Original URL

Step #6

The next step is to link your Google Analytics and Google Optimize accounts. To do this, choose “Link to Google Analytics> Link to Property” from the container or project menu.

Step #7

Now you can click on “All Website Data” in the drop-down list. Or, pick another option if you use additional analytics tools.

Step #8

The service will offer you to install code. Copy it and add to the source code of the control page. Insert the code after the <head> tag.

As well, you can add the code through the Site Settings. It’s helpful if you want it to be seen on all pages. In such a way, it’s easier to compare variants of several pages. Yet, be careful, as this approach may slow down your landing page.

Step #9

Now, choose the main goal of the current experiment. Google Optimize offers several standard goals: counting page views, session duration, and bounce rate. You can also create your own one.

Step #10

As soon as you’ve set the goal, click on the link “Run Diagnostics”. You may also need the Google Optimize extension, which will be proposed automatically.

If you installed the code correctly and published all the necessary pages, the system will report about it.

Step #11

After the successful check, a message will appear on top that the project is ready to start. Click on the “OK” button. Now, all traffic will be redirected to page options as a percentage.

Step #12

Going to the test page, your visitors can see its original version before redirecting—this effect is called flicker. This happens because the page loads at the same time the Google Optimize code starts working.

If you want to avoid this, there is a code by Google Optimize. Copy it

<style>.async-hide { opacity: 0 !important} </style>

<script>(function(a,s,y,n,c,h,i,d,e){s.className+=' '+y;h.start=1*new Date;

h.end=i=function(){s.className=s.className.replace(RegExp(' ?'+y),'')};

(a[n]=a[n]||[]).hide=h;setTimeout(function(){i();h.end=null},c);h.timeout=c;

})(window,document.documentElement,'async-hide','dataLayer',4000,

{'GTM-XXXXXX':true});</script>

The only thing to be done is to replace GTM-XXXXXX with the optimization container identifier in the code mentioned previously.

Then add the modified code to Page Settings Advanced Insert Code in Head. Save and publish again the page.

That’s all!

The first test results you’ll see in a few days after the start of the experiment. To monitor them, go to the Reports tab (for main info) or Google Analytics (for more details).

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Part III

10 Best Landing Page Templates

From the moment when you’ve seen a website template, it gives you a maximum of how your future landing will look. That decreases multiple difficulties and reduce the costs for development in the future. Choosing a ready-made solution, you’ll also hasten the whole process of site-building and customization.

Here, there are to your consideration the top 10 HTML templates. Enjoy!

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So, what do you think of our landing pages building course? Was it useful? Please, share your mind in the comments below. And, of course, share it with your friends! 🙂

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*This article is a part of Landing Page Building Course by TemplateMonster.

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