Posted by Adam T. Sutton in Landing Page Optimization	June 12, 2007

Landing page design depends on landing page goals

By Adam T. Sutton, Managing Editor, Mequoda Group, LLC

Conversion rate, as illustrated yesterday, is the most important website metric. If you are not converting users then you are not making money online.

If your website could use a conversions boost, look at your landing pages and ask yourself

• What is their intention?
• Are they designed to achieve it?
  
• How could they better achieve it?

Landing pages should convert targeted website traffic. That means having an organized system that matches the user with the right landing page.

The more targeted the landing page, the better the chance of conversion.

Your landing pages are the first place users encounter your website, so choose and design them well.

Download our 8 Master Landing Page Templates special report for free and learn the concepts, tips, tricks and techniques that will increase your landing page conversion rates by 30 to 50 percent. Download the report for free!

Finding the right landing page

A landing page's design and strategy varies with its goals. Those goals can range from being picked up by search engines to converting as many users as possible.

Through our research, the Mequoda group has identified 8 specific types of landing pages that have their own intention and strategy.

Rapid conversion landing pages, for example, are designed to coax users into low-risk, no-immediate-cost transactions. They have overt and aggressive sales pitches and usually offer a free report or email newsletter subscription.

These types of landing pages are extremely effective for "low-friction" offers. They frequently get conversion rates between 9 and 47 percent.

Download our 8 Master Landing Page Templates special report for free and learn the concepts, tips, tricks and techniques that will increase your landing page conversion rates by 30 to 50 percent. Download the report for free!

Optimizing design

After you have decided your landing pages' intentions, you have to design them properly.

We have developed 12 guidelines for optimizing landing pages to ensure that you are converting as many users and attracting as much traffic as possible.

One of them is to keep your landing page clean and focused.

Having good use of white space and limited use of animation, graphics and buttons are a good way to keep the user focused on the transaction.

Also, don't provide links on your landing pages to other parts of your website. You want the users focused entirely on the transaction.

The less distraction that users have, the more likely they will be converted—especially when it's the only option, other than closing the window or clicking back.

If you're interested in creating or fine-tuning your landing page marketing strategy, attend our Landing Page Driven Internet Marketing executive webinar. We will tell you which kinds of landing pages you should be using to boost your conversions and how to design the