A landing page has the tough job of:

• keeping the visitor’s attention on the offer so he doesn’t immediately leave
• increasing or re-enforcing his interest after he has chosen to stay on the page
• guiding the visitor to take action.

Since every visitor is different, landing pages do indeed have a tough job. Their design has to be very well thought out for them to perform well.

Here are some guidelines to follow when designing a landing page:

1. Make sure it looks professional, credible, and industry appropriate. Your landing page might be the first impression a visitor has of your company. It needs to match the quality of the products and services your provide.

2. Include testimonials and references. Select the most appropriate client testimonials, awards, mentions in newspapers or magazines, etc.

3. Simplify the navigation and branding. Although the landing page needs to look like it belongs to the same website, it does need all of the branding or navigational items the rest of the pages have. This is not the place to wow customers with everything else you do. You want them to focus on the offer and only on the offer.

4. Provide what was promised. Make sure that the content you provide on the landing page really does match the advertisement or link visitors clicked on. From the headline, to the graphics, to the actual offer, you need to stay consistent. Don’t make visitors wonder if they landed on the right page or not.

5. Offer different options for different users. If appropriate, provide clear and different paths for each of the most important audiences you anticipate will see your landing page.

6. Choose your content carefully. You need to have compelling copy, quality graphics, and the most effective media type. Is a photo, chart, podcast, or video clip the best to use? Your call to action needs to be clear and simple… from the language you use to making the button or link look like one.

7. Don’t get greedy. If you are making visitors fill out a form, only ask for the information you really need to process their request. Don’t get greedy and ask irrelevant questions for your own internal marketing purposes.

8. Explain what’s coming next. Visitors don’t like surprises. Be clear each step of the way and always stay a step ahead with your instructions.