Landing Page 101: Back to Basics

Getting ready to attend the week-long Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco next week (That’s the SF Museum of Modern Art to your right) and I thought now might be a good time to return to an important topic: Landing Page Optimization. Web 2.0 is great, and needs to be a part of many companies branding strategy. But landing page optimization is also very important. Having a continual, rigorous, testing process, even if only done on a quarterly basis, can pay huge dividends, giving you more leads, mores sales, and the knowledge that you are doing what it takes to keep growing in today’s competitive economy.

Here’s a brief primer. Remember to download the whitepaper if you want more information.

What is Landing Page Optimization?

Landing Page Optimization is the process of testing multiple versions of your website or online process to see which one creates the most “conversions” such as a purchase or information request. For example, if you want to increase the sales of a certain item, you would create a second version of the sales page. The second page might have a different headline or value proposition, it might have a new “buy now” or “add to cart button” or a different image or product description.

You would then use a program such as Google Website Optimizer to “split test” the two sales pages. When a visitor comes to the website, the program would randomly assign the person to see one version of the website or the other. After several days and a certain number of visitors, the program would be able to tell which version created the most sales. For example, you might find that 1% of people purchased from the original sales page, while 1.5% of visitors purchased from the second version. The difference of .5% would represent a whopping 50% increase in your sales.

Why Optimize?

Optimization can dramatically improve the efficiency of your online marketing campaigns and increase your return on investment or ROI. By testing alternatives to your current landing page you can create better-performing versions. Many approaches and tools are available for testing. The one you select depends on a number of variables, including; your website traffic levels, available in-house skill sets, the number of variables you want to test, and the quality or “confidence level” of your desired results.

Tests can be implemented via Google’s Website Optimizer and other free or low-cost tools. Larger tests may require a more complex solution. Complete or partial outsourcing of conversion testing is available, with some vendors offering pay-per-project and even pay-for-performance plans.

Download the Landing Page White Paper:

If you are interested in knowing more about website testing, make sure to download the free industry overview. No registration required: Landing Page 101