Benefits of a landing page

A landing page is a page, other than your index page, where visitors enter your website. For example, visitors who receive your email message and click on the link in the email that takes them to your website should enter on a landing page not on your index page. If you use pay-per-click search engine placement, visitors who search on one of your keywords and click through from the search engine should enter your website on a landing page containing information specific to that keyword. If you run banner ads on other websites, visitors to your website should enter on a landing page with information specific to that banner.

Using landing pages offers significant benefits. First, it provides a better user experience. Because the viewer goes directly to the information he/she is looking for, there's no need to navigate through your website to find that information. In addition, we can track the number of visitors who enter your website on a particular landing page and this measures the effectiveness of the external link--the banner ad, email message, or search engine link.

Landing pages can improve the conversion rate of your website. A visitor entering your website through your index page is presented with general information and has the opportunity to follow many paths through your website. A visitor coming to a landing page, on the other hand, is presented with information that the visitor has specifically requested. The content of the landing page as well as its navigation can lead the visitor to the "order button," "sign-up button" or equivalent.

Landing pages are also valuable because with them we can measure the effectiveness of the external link. Knowing how many people received your email message, for example, compared with the number who clicked through to view the landing page measures the effectiveness of the email message. Knowing the number of visitors who clicked through from a pay-per-click placement measures the effectiveness of the keyword bid, the search rank, and the search engine listing copy. Taking this, and other measurements, are useful in improving your online marketing in three ways.

First, we can improve the external link and get more visitors to your landing page. With a banner ad we can improve the content of the banner, improve the banner design or place the banner with a different advertiser. With a pay-per-click search engine we can bid for a higher rank for that keyword, or test and improve the copy that the search engine displays for that keyword. With an email message we can improve the content of the email. Measuring the number of visits to the landing page indicates the effectiveness of the external link.

Second, we can improve the navigation and the content of the landing page itself to guide more visitors to the "action link." We measure the effectiveness of the landing page by measuring the ratio of the number of visitors to the landing page as compared with the number of visitors who click-through to the to the "order button."

Third, we can improve the effectiveness of the "order button" and the page on which it resides. We measure this by comparing the number of visitors who start the process compared with the number who complete it.

There are many reasons we recommend using landing pages. Landing pages make it easier for visitors to find specific information they're looking for and landing pages can improve the conversion rate of your website.

Next, we'll create sub-sites.