A landing page (sometimes called a post-click landing page, static page, squeeze page, or lead capture page) is an individual web page that is intended to capture marketing or sales leads. Landing pages are typically used in marketing promotions through channels such as search engines, email, social media, and native advertising.
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The purpose of a landing page
A landing page is intended to convert someone who visits the page into a lead, depending on their stage in the purchasing decision. Prospective customers who are curious about the product or service will most likely become marketing leads and will receive future marketing promotions. On the other hand, those who are seriously considering the item the landing page is promoting will most likely become sales leads and begin their journey through the sales funnel.
Marketing and sales professionals use web analytics tools like Google Analytics to measure the success of a landing page by looking at the page’s click-through rate and conversion rate. A low click-through rate will indicate room for improvement with how the landing page is being promoted, whereas a low conversion rate usually indicates room for improvement with the content of the landing page itself.
Homepage vs landing page
Although the two terms are sometimes used interchangeably, there is an important distinction between a site’s homepage and a landing page.
A homepage provides general information and directs visitors to other parts of the site. It also serves as a “home base” for the site’s navigation and is the page that loads without any uniform resource identifiers (URIs) at the end of the URL. Therefore, all fully-functional websites have a homepage by necessity.
A landing page, on the other hand, is specific to one piece of information or call to action, usually for sales or marketing purposes. Landing pages can be created as part of a larger site or hosted as a standalone page.
As mentioned above, landing pages serve as the destination for strategic search engine marketing, social media, email marketing, and display advertising efforts. In contrast, a homepage is meant to be as general as possible to fit the widest range of needs.
Compared to other parts of a website that may be used to capture leads, a landing page’s narrow use case makes it much easier to measure direct conversion rates and return on investment. Unless a web developer specifies that a landing page should not be displayed in search results, the narrow focus of the landing page’s content also means it is much more likely to populate in a search engine results page (SERP) than a homepage.
Elements of a landing page
A landing page should have a few essential elements to serve the ultimate goal of driving conversions. These elements include:
- A headline that grabs the visitor’s attention
- A subheadline that clearly summarizes the product or service
- Relevant sales information, including:
- A unique value proposition
- A list of key benefits of the product or service
- Graphics and/or video elements that illustrate how the product or service works
- Customer testimonials or reviews
- A reinforcement statement
- A call to action (submit a form, subscribe to a newsletter, etc.)
Depending on what type of device a visitor is using to access the landing page, the exact placement of each element may look different. In any case, a web developer must be strategic in placing as much valuable content “above the fold” as possible. This means the most important information will load first and be visible to the visitor without scrolling. This is equally true of desktop and mobile site designs.
The image below outlines the elements of TechnologyAdvice’s Content Solutions landing page on a desktop web browser:
How to create a landing page
Web developers can use a variety of tools to create a landing page. As mentioned above, landing pages can be baked into a broader website or hosted independently. In either case, a developer will need a content management system (CMS) like WordPress, Wix, or Squarespace to design the landing page layout and content. Some customer relationship management (CRM) tools like Salesforce and Hubspot include content management tools, so users can build a landing page that connects directly to their sales funnel and customer database.
