Optimize Landing Page: Tips For Higher Conversion Rates

A landing page is a page that has been specifically optimized for a specific user group. The optimization and adaptation in turn mean that users can “land” on it and find exactly what they are looking for or expect. They are specifically redirected or encouraged to buy.

But landing pages are fine art. Beginners in particular often have the arrogant belief that they can understand their target group exactly and know them very well. In reality, however, your landing page often fails because it doesn’t. Because it is actually very difficult to call up a specific action from the user, not just from one, but in the best case from a particularly large number or even all.

It is therefore not a big deal for agencies and service providers who do nothing else than optimize landing pages. You know what is important, which elements work, and how customers can be guided even more straightforwardly to their goal. Through years of experience and because they understand how statistics and data have to be analyzed and interpreted. Because that’s not as easy as many people initially think.

In this article, I’ll tell you how you can optimize

landing pages and what is important. Here I have collected a few practical tips for you that are guaranteed to help and that each of you can easily implement.

10 Practical tips to optimize a landing page

Today I don’t want to deal so much with the preliminary skirmish and forego extravagant explanations that clarify the topic for beginners.

I think it’s clear what a landing page is about and what the article is supposed to be about. So let’s not worry too much about the details and get started right away.

Here I have 10 practical tips for you that you can quickly and easily use on your own landing page.

1. Look at statistics

The first tip concerns the statistics. Depending on which tool you use, you will receive different information. It is important to use the information obtained in the best possible way. It starts with the device on which visitors drop in. Should the landing page be optimized for desktop or mobile and does it even make sense to provide a version only for tablets?

Sure, if you have a large budget, you can serve all device classes, but in practice, this is usually much too expensive. But it is guaranteed to be important because the visitor guidance on the smartphone is fundamentally different than on the desktop. Which page the visitors come from, which links they click and much more can be viewed in the statistics and used for optimization. You just have to be able to read and interpret the data correctly. So be sure to get used to the statistics and try to understand everything as possible.

2. Use heat maps

Speaking of statistics, the subject of heat maps immediately comes to mind. Heatmaps analyze the points on a website that are particularly hot, i.e. that are in the focus of users. For example, by exposing areas where the mouse lingers or where most of the clicks take place.

Heatmaps are therefore wonderfully suited to put Call To Action (CTA) in the right position or to guide users specifically to certain sub-items. The series of articles by Peer explains how heatmaps work and what to look out for.

A quick note: Much has changed in the course of the GDPR and a separate note may have to be made if you use heatmaps on your landing page. Please pay attention to it and inform yourself accordingly in advance so that there is no trouble afterward.

3. Direct wording on the landing page

Buttons, links, and all other CTAs usually work best when their wording appears active, direct, and perhaps even a little challenging. Instead of simply placing a »click here«, rather write a »click now and order« on the button.

Is it clear what is meant? Formulate your texts on buttons calmly and use strong anchor texts. In general, this usually increases the click rates significantly, as you will then see in your statistics.

4. Optimize advertising material

If a landing page isn’t working, it doesn’t necessarily have to do with the page itself. The landing page is usually part of an advertising campaign that refers to the landing page. But if the ads are not properly selected, the landing page will not work properly either.

Optimizing your own advertising material can therefore work wonders to improve the functionality of the landing page. After all, if you click on an ad for ice cream, you don’t expect bread. The clearer the ad’s goal, the more appropriate the users who click the ad, and the better the landing page will perform in the end.

5. Perform A / B tests

Personally, I’m a big fan of A / B testing. Basically, that means nothing other than letting two different versions compete against each other. In order for an A / B test to work and actually bring something, a large number of visitors must access it. If the number of hits is too low, the results are not meaningful enough.

Basically, you can subject everything to an A / B test. Headings, button labels, different images or even a completely different layout. Everything can be tested for its efficiency. What works is then adopted accordingly in the end.

Here, too, however, the following applies: Pay attention to data protection and always take as much time as possible to interpret the results. Statistics, numbers and metrics – there is just a lot of potential to misinterpret or draw the wrong conclusions from such things.

6. Facilitate navigation on the landing page

Sometimes it helps to make general navigation easier. In this way, visitors can quickly go to the sub-item that interests them or directly to the prices in order to send an order. The navigation of a landing page has a great influence on its functionality and conversion rate. A table of contents can therefore work wonders, just like a well-thought-out arrangement or a chic and sensibly designed menu.

However, it is sometimes also important to guide visitors through texts from top to bottom. A table of contents can make sense, but it can also cause users to jump too much, omit passages and then no longer be able to be controlled in a targeted manner. To say in general that a table of contents is always useful is therefore wrong. However, it can make a big difference in individual cases.

7. Use trust signals

Not always, but more and more often, trust signals from well-known platforms help increase conversion rates. This can then be, for example, online reviews. Many are familiar with such badges from online shops. The Buyer Protection from Trusted Shops is often noted there, including all current ratings.

There are many such seals. Starting with CO2-neutral hosting, buyer protection symbols, customer ratings. In fact, such markings create trust and illustrate the operator’s efforts.

8. Set in shortages

Anyone who sells something on their landing page can use artificial scarcity and time-sensitive promotions. Offers that expire after a short period of time or products that are only available in very small numbers increase the visitor’s pressure to hit immediately ( FOMO ).

However, caution is advised here. Not everything that is used in online marketing is automatically legal. Big dealers like Zalando also feel this over and over again, as was the case most recently with the announcement that only three copies are in stock, although apparently more were available. Such things are legally thin black ice, so inform yourself in advance very precisely what is allowed in your case and what is not.

9. Place customer opinions on the landing page

So-called testimonials, i.e. customer opinions, are always welcome and generally work quite well. Although everyone initially thinks that they will not give anything, at the latest when leading figures or well-known names appear as testimonials, this is somehow perceived as positive, perhaps even as a vote of confidence.

On the landing page for the niche page building eBook from Peer, there are also various testimonials below. I myself have also placed customer opinions on my website that report on working with me as a copywriter. Whether it is necessary or not, publishing customer opinions and recommendations is basically never wrong. It shows that there are already satisfied customers who have no problem making recommendations for others.

10. Improve performance

Improving the performance of a website always helps to retain users. There have already been many articles about this, also here on the blog.

Suffice it to say: the faster the website, the more visitors and the fewer of you jump off. Especially in the buying process, it is crucial that no step takes too long. Performance is a topic in itself, but I don’t want to go into it again at this point.

Click Here:  The Importance of Anchor Text in Backlinks

The fine art of landing page optimization

Optimizing a landing page is a fine art. Every factor has some effect, every statistic has to be interpreted correctly and used skillfully for improvement. This requires a lot of knowledge, time and insight into almost all areas.

But once a landing page has been optimized, it quickly brings great success and helps to achieve certain goals even faster. Whether it’s an eBook, a course or another product that has its own landing page, it always makes sense to intercept your visitors in a targeted manner and to induce them to take an action via the landing page.