Landing page optimization is nothing but a testing process to learn what works best on a page. Please understand that landing page optimization is different than landing page design.
A good landing page design should have some elements which have already been proved good through testing, while landing page optimization is the process of testing to know what elements of the page are actually faring better to get the best return on investment.
I have written an article on landing page design. Please read the article and return to this page.
NOTE: If you are using pay per click search engines to get visitors to your site, its a must that you optimize the landing page to get the best out of it, as you are spending money to get visitors.
One of the best things with PPC is that you can keep experimenting with the landing page without bothering about the SEO aspects (of course if the page is NOT ranked well for key terms), but if it is, my advise is to test a different page for testing purposes.
In such a case make a new landing page for PPC only. DO NOT link this page from any other page from your site. To be safe you can also insert a NOINDEX in the meta robot tag of the page.
You can do it this way:
<head>
<meta name=”robots” content=”noindex” />
</head>
The NOINDEX meta tag tells the search engine bots NOT to index a Web page. This way the search engines will not be able to get this page and index, leaving you free to experiment with the page.
Its time to start landing page optimization.
1) Test the Headline: Webpage Headline is one of the most important elements of a page. As soon as the visitor lands on the page they read the headline. A very important decision is taken here, that is, whether to read further or to exit.
Remember to use some words like How, Why, What, Learn, Get etc. These words have been tested time and again and have proved to be working well in headlines. Read my article on why these words work.
2) Test Copy: Page copy is important because its marketing-going-on. You have no idea where your visitors are, what they do, their economic status etc. but still you have to say the same thing to all of your site’s visitors. I hope you get the situation. The copy has to appeal to everyone reading it. Test your copy – Long Vs Short, Benefit Oriented Vs Feature Oriented, Bullets Vs Non-Bulleted copy, etc. Test whatever you think should be tested in the copy.
3) Price: A very much deciding factor before a purchase. And online its even more important because your visitors have no room for bargain. If they are comfortable paying they pay, else close the browser window.
There are many online business owners who keep testing their price until they get the one that gives them the best return on investment. Most of them test only the price. There is no formula here. Some of my clients see their sales increase phenomenally once they increase the price, but some see a decrease in sales. Vice-versa is also true.
A piece of advice: I have personally experienced that prices ending with 5, 7 and 9 work well. 9 is clearly the winner. This is one of the reason that you see so many websites selling stuff at *9 dollars. For example if you have a product that you feel comfortable selling at $100, try testing with $95, $97 and $99.
4) Urgency: What is urgency? Suppose you go to shop to buy a shirt and the shopkeeper says that only for today they are offering a 50% discount. What will happen? You will definitely have an urge to buy. This is urgency.
Give your visitors a discount (a true discount) for a limited time period. Test this against a no-discount offer and see which one wins. Point to note here is that the discount has to be a real one. For example if you say “Buy in the next 24 hrs or this discount will not be offered”, then the discount should actually vanish after 24 hours. This is important because it adds credibility to your business.
Also note that it is easier said than done. You may need a programmer to test this for you.
Urgency works well in most cases.
5) Testimonials: Testimonials may not have a very deep impact on conversions, but it qualifies as an element to test. Interestingly we have had clients where keeping testimonials decreased conversions. Test these things: no-testimonial, 1 testimonial, 5 testimonials and 10 testimonials. Also test testimonials with and without photograph of satisfied customers.
6) Video and/or Audio Message: This is YouTube Generation. Who wants to read when they can see and listen? Putting a video sometimes prove to be very effective. You can test with no video and audio, video and audio and only audio.
7) Free Offer: Have you seen ads like “Buy 1 Get 1 Free”? You must have. These offers tempt one to buy. See what you can offer for free to your customers. No hidden cost – free should be free. Consider giving an eBook free if they purchase. Downloadable eBooks don’t cost a dime except bandwidth. There can be other offers too like free shipping.
8) Credibility: Organizations such as Better Business Bureau (BBB) offer a credibility trust logo that can be used in a website. You can apply to get a credibility logo from BBB here. See if a BBB trust logo improves conversions.
9) Single offer Vs Multiple offers: If you are selling multiple products on your landing page, try selling just one product, or if you are selling just one product try selling multiple products. See which one gives you the most revenue.
10) Call-To-Action Text: Call-to-action text should be tested. Call-to-action is the element that takes the visitor to the order page. Its good to test call-to-action text. Try testing these: Buy Now, Try Now, Order Now, Click Here, Click Here to Buy, Click Here to Order etc.
You can also try to make them images and test. Instead of plain text, try writing these on images and test.
Testing brings some amazing results. Without testing you will never know what will work best for your landing page. Mind it, guessing can be dangerous. Just because something has worked for someone does not mean that it will work for you. You need to test to get the best landing page optimization.
With AB split test you can test just one element of you page, but with multivariate test you can test many elements of your page simultaneously. Therefore I recommend multivariate testing as it reduces time taken to test.
You will need a software to test your landing page. I recommend Google Website Optimizer as it’s free and offered by one of the best companies online. Do I need to tell more about Google?
Here is the link to Google Website Optimizer:
http://www.Google.com/WebSiteOptimizer
Also you must have strong website analytics tool in place to track every result from testing. I recommend Google Analytics:
http://www.Google.com/Analytics/
Again, it’s free and will track most of the things required for testing.
If you test right elements I am sure you will get the right results.
Remember that landing page optimization is a never ending process. What will work today may not work after 6 months or a year. You may need to test again.
One last thing, landing page optimization requires lot of thinking, time and effort. But results can be sweet. I have seen people improve their conversion rates by 25% or even more.
Please help me improve this blog. Please leave your comments.
maybe give Page Alizer a try. they give you improvement suggestions based on your blog statistics.
Good list… Landing pages are notiorusly difficult to master. these suggestions are simple and straight forward.
Cheers
Andy
What a facinating blog. I’ve bookmarked it and added your feed to my RSS Reader
its excellent to see somone discussing this problem occasionally it’s so hard to uncover a honest opinion and i appreciate your honesty on this issue i just wish you had a newsletter i could subscribe to as i would be really interested in readind your posts and debating on futher issues you might desire to discuss, stay blessed.