Whats the difference between a landing page and a website?
This is a common question in the website design world. So what really differentiates a website home page from a landing page? As a general overview, a homepage acts as an introduction to the business and a landing page is focused on creating 1 specific conversion, for example, a page with a message and design targeted specifically to one campaign.
What is a home page for?
Website homepages are there to provide information about your services or products. The goal of a website homepage is to entice the website visitor to explore your website further. As the first page on your website, it is important to make sure you create a good impression. A home page is designed to speak to a broad audience, including people who may have never seen or heard of your company before, as well as what you do and why they should pick your company over others.
What is a landing page for?
Focus is the key factor for landing pages and their effectiveness. As mentioned above, landing pages are designed for the web visitor to take a specific action and are created to use for a specific marketing campaign.
How to create a landing page for conversion:
- Create one call to action
- Have no distractions on the landing page
- Design the page specifically for your marketing campaign (colours, typography etc)
- Write content that is matched strictly to your marketing campaign
HOW TO DESIGN A GREAT LANDING PAGE
Create a specific action you’d like your potential customer to take
Ensure your landing page contains one specific action you would like your potential customer to take. For example, you might have a landing page for a fundraiser. In this case, you might have a paragraph at the top of the page explaining what the fundraiser is for and where the money is going and at the bottom, you might have your one call to action a donate button.
Ensure there are minimal distractions on your landing page
As we outlined above, a website home page contains lots of information to introduce the business and create different areas of exploration to find out more information about your services or products. A landing page should eliminate anything that is not about the specific marketing campaign or offer you are promoting eg. Navigation, extra links and information unrelated to your marketing campaign. Having distractions will minimise your conversions and draw attention to other areas of your website rather than clicking the call to action button.
Design the page specifically for your marketing campaign
The biggest difference from a home page to a landing page is the customer experience you create for your potential client. From the ad to click-through to conversion, everything needs to be cohesive. By doing this, you create the exact experience the customer is subconsciously expecting. All design elements, web page and written content all need to be cohesive to the marketing campaign.
Write content strictly related to your campaign
Ensure that the content you write on your landing page matches what you are advertising for. Don’t write content that is going to distract your potential customers from the product or service you are advertising in your marketing campaign. If you write irrelevant content this will make all your marketing efforts go to waste.
WHEN WOULD YOU USE A LANDING PAGE?
When you’re running ads on Social Media, for example, Facebook or Instagram you’ll want to direct them to a landing page that relates to the product or service, not your home page.
When you’re running pay per click advertising. For example, Google Ads. Again, you’ll want to direct them to a landing page that relates to the product or service you’re advertising for. An example would be if a building company was advertising its recladding service on Google – in this case, the company would benefit from linking through to a landing page all about the recladding service, not a page that outlines all the services they offer.
When you’re launching a new product or service a landing page is a great way to generate audience excitement and prompt potential customers to take immediate action.
Overall landing pages are all about focusing on one particular part of your business to line up with a specific marketing campaign. Whereas a website home page is created to give an overview of your business and create a good first impression so that your potential customer can gain trust and explore more of your website to then convert.