5 Landing Page Mistakes You Should Avoid

Your website is up, your ad campaign is ready to go and you are anxiously awaiting that flood of visitors to arrive at your landing page and convert. Landing pages are a vital component of online marketing success. Yet, just because you have a landing page does not mean it will do what you expect it to do.

Before you kick off your marketing campaign, or if you are wondering why you are not getting as many conversions as you expected, your landing page could be the problem. Here are some mistakes that could be preventing you from seeing the results you want. 

1. Slow Loading Time

The importance of page loading speed to the end-user experience cannot be overemphasized. Each additional second visitors have to wait for your landing page to open will dramatically increase their likelihood of leaving and going to a competing website.

Use tools such as Google’s PageSpeed Insights to see your landing page’s current loading speed and what the cause of any problems might be. Often, you can accelerate your page loading speed with some quick fixes like reducing redirects, minimizing image size and cleaning up your code. If these don’t lead to an improvement, take it further by upgrading to a higher capacity web hosting plan.

2. Not Optimizing for Mobile

Smartphones have been far outselling personal computers for years now and internet users have decisively gone mobile. Yet, a surprising number of landing pages are still rigidly designed for desktop users. If many or most visitors to your page are browsing using their phones, you run the risk of losing potential conversions.

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Make sure your landing page is responsive and readily adapts to different screen sizes and browsers. Even though you may have difficulty making certain items such as banners, borders and images mobile-screen friendly, make sure the page is at least navigable on mobile with minimal difficulty.

3. Ambiguous Call-to-Action (CTA)

A landing page must be designed to emphasize your CTA if it’s going to successfully drive conversions. In a desperate attempt to increase conversions, marketers will sometimes craft a CTA that is wordy, ambiguous, generic or one that oversells. CTAs are most effective when they are simple and straightforward.

Reduce distractions both in the CTA text as well as the elements and narration leading up to it. Make the CTA the center of attention. If need be, try different phrases until you find the perfect wording. Anything else that you deem important – but that could be a distraction to the landing page’s CTA – should be moved to a different page on your website.

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4. Unnecessarily Detailed Opt-In Forms

Your initial landing page opt-in forms should ask for the minimum information possible. Use simple forms that demand few details. The objective for each session should be to get the visitor to complete the form before they proceed to something else. Asking too much information at the beginning could potentially put off promising conversions.

If certain information is not necessary, delay it for later. Adopt the breadcrumbs technique. Use a simple question as the first step in the opt-in form, something that does not demand identifiable personal information or complicated details. It allows the visitor to retain their anonymity especially at the start so they do not feel pressured or overwhelmed.

5. Lack of Social Proof

Social proof is a means of showcasing your business and product as reliable, reputable and trustworthy. It all comes down to first impressions. Visitors may not have the time to read through the entire text of a long-form landing page. Social proof is a quick means of building credibility.

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Social proof comes in many forms. The most effective is when it involves real customers, real profiles, real quotes and real pictures. Visitors who have been using the internet for a while can easily spot suspect or inauthentic testimonials. You could also use influencer, celebrity or media feature quotes, if you have them. Association with such high profile brands could entice customers even further.

Keep Testing and Changing

Just avoiding these landing page mistakes can significantly boost conversion rates. A landing page should not just be intuitive and visually appealing, but also have a focus on the CTA. There is no end to creating quality landing page design. The key is to keep testing and changing it up regularly for continued success.

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