Landing pages – Part #1: Considerations & goals prior to implementation

Matthieu Dejardins — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 20:37:44 +0000

Human being limitations, we are not perfect!

Landing Page Optimization Study Vonage.com. This example shows excellent LP separation. Design & branding elements are consistent with the main site, but layout and user experience is dramatically different.

1/ Research by Dr. Gitte Linbdgarrd in Behavior and Information Technology indicated that Web users form first impressions of pages in as little as 50 milliseconds (1/20 of as second).
2/ You have up to 8 seconds to convince visitors this page is for them and them alone. At most they will read 15 words.
3/ Usability experts have found that people read about 25% slower on the web, and their perennial recommendation is to use 50% of the copy that you would use in printed material. The average American reads about 50 words online in 20 seconds – if they aren’t distracted by other graphical elements.
5/ Eye-tracking tests prove that people’s eyes flick about a page, reading a few words here, a few words there. People read the first 3 words of paragraphs, bulleted items and then they often stop reading and skip on to the next paragraph and/or bulleted item.
6/ Often men and Google users may never scroll or click to read more. The will make their yes/no decision entirely based on what they can see right away, and convert or move on.

Challenging goals & many entry-barriers

Your ad persuaded them to click. You landing page needs to convince them to stick around for at least a minute and possibly do a bunch of fairly unpleasant stuff:
- Do a bunch of reading (90 % of the population doesn’t much like reading)
- Laboriously type their name and address (only geeks use auto form fill)
- Hand over a phone number so a telemarketer will pester them
- Give an e-mail and take the risk of being spammed
- Dig out a credit card and have it stolen by a phisher or fraudster
- Pay for something

Top 16 Must Have check-list

1/ Logo (generally on the top left of the page).
2/ Clickable Hero shot (to the left of the text if possible). Easier for human eye.
3/ Conversion action link or button
4/ Headline
5/ Quick offer explanation
6/ Longer product/service explanation
7/ Links to more info
8/ Deadlines
9/ Forms and descroptive tags next to each field
10/ Tagline describing what your brand does or stands for
11/ Security and reassuring elements (BBB, TRUSTe and Verisign icons)
12/ Testimonials: textual, include photos or audio/video (e.g. “as seen on TV”)
13/ Technical specifications
14/ Guarantees (e.g. create own trust labels: free shipping, money-back guarantee, etc.)
15/ Rich Media elements (streamed video/audio, Flash)
16/ Fine print at bottom (copyright, legal)

Slide 4

- Research by Dr. Gitte Linbdgarrd in Behavior and Information Technology indicated that Web users form first impressions of pages in as little as 50 milliseconds (1/20 of as second).

- You have up to 8 seconds to convince visitors this page is for them and them alone. At most they will read 15 words.

- Usability experts have found that people read about 25% slower on the web, and their perennial recommendation is to use 50% of the copy that you would use in printed material. The average American reads about 50 words online in 20 seconds - if they aren’t distracted by other graphical elements.

- Eye-tracking tests prove that people’s eyes flick about a page, reading a few words here, a few words there. People read the first 3 words of paragraphs, bulleted items and then they often stop reading and skip on to the next paragraph and/or bulleted item.

- Often men and Google users may never scroll or click to read more. The will make their yes/no decision entirely based on what they can see right away, and then convert or move on.

Tags: conversion funnel, conversion rate, engine optimization, google adwords, keyword, landing page, landing pages, lead generation, online marketing, page optimization, ppc campaign, relevant content, search engine, search engines, testing, transactional landing

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