Top 5 Landing Page Mistakes

This Friday starts our 6 week session on Landing Pages. Before we get started you should understand a few of the biggest mistakes businesses make when creating landing pages that can drastically decrease conversion rate.

1) Keeping Navigation

You’ve done the hard work of getting your visitors to your landing page, so why give them the opportunity to leave? Removing the navigation has been proven to increase conversion rates as visitors have less options and a more direct course of action on the page. The single option available on a landing page should be to complete the form.

I know you might be thinking “Well, don’t I want them to be able to navigate throughout my site?” Of course you do! But, you can bring back the navigation on a thank you page after they fill out your conversion form.

*You may hear us refer to removing the page's navigation as “going naked” during Content Camp webinars and in Success articles.

2) Form is Below the Fold

A landing page visitor shouldn't need to scroll down the page to see the form.  Putting the form above the fold makes it clearly visible for the visitor once the page loads. In the vast majority of cases the visitor will be expecting to see this form and will not want to go digging for it by scrolling down the page.

3) Too Many Form Fields

The rule of thumb for the number of fields in a form is "get all the information you absolutely need, and nothing more".  The fields you display should allow you to either follow up or qualify the lead. The less information you ask for, the higher the form's conversion rate will be. You’ll have the opportunity to find out more details on the lead through lead nurturing.

You can also experiment by making certain, more valuable fields required while making others optional. Still, the number of form fields matters when a visitor makes a decision to start the process and less is always better.  

4) No Image

Just like with blogging, an image is an essential piece to a landing page’s success. A relevant graphic helps draw the attention of the visitor while reinforcing the value of whatever your offer is. Like the saying goes, a picture is worth 1,000 words and in many cases can make the difference between someone being just a visitor or an actionable lead.

5) Doesn’t Pass the Blink Test

If a visitor can’t easily understand whatever your offer is within five seconds, your landing page isn’t passing the blink test. Most landing pages don't pass the blink test because of an overload of unnecessary information on the page that isn’t critical for conversion. Just like forms, less is more and concise and bulleted details can accomplish the goal of demonstrating the value of your offer.  

What are some other mistakes you have seen on landing pages? What are some creative ways a landing pages conversion rate can be increased?