How Many Landing Pages Should My Website Have?

A landing page is a stand-alone web page specifically created for marketing purposes to gain leads that can be nurtured. It is focused on a particular stream of traffic that comes from users after they click on a link in an email or an ad on social media platforms and search engines.

Landing pages are designed with a single call to action (CTA) and the objective to convert visitors into leads.

They typically offer visitors business resources like an e-book, for example, in exchange for their contact details. An effective landing page provides visitors with something worthwhile in exchange for their personal details.

Companies use this data to broaden target audience reach and send lead-nurturing marketing materials to nudge prospects further down the sales funnel.

For business owners, there’s often confusion about what a landing page is (is it different from a website?) and how many they should have.

Below are the most important things you need to know about creating landing pages and the fundamental role they play in digital advertising.

Is a Landing Page the First Page of a Website?

Business websites and landing pages are frequently confused, but they are not the same thing. Unlike a website which is a digital storefront, so to speak, a landing page is a stand-alone webpage designed to serve a specific purpose and target a specific audience.

To use a retail analogy: A website is like a grocery store where you can buy a range of things, whereas a landing page is a shelf in one of the aisles offering a single product.

It comes down to function and focus.

Websites are designed for exploration, but landing pages are customized to specific marketing campaigns that offer and guide visitors towards a single call to action.

Consider a website a collection of different “landing pages” and sections that helps users find what they’re looking for.

A typical site might have an about section, a separate blog page, a contact us page, products, and services pages, and more. There are a plethora of website types with various pages and features.

To summarize the differences:

• Landing pages have no navigation menus, but homepages do.
• While website traffic comes from many sources, homepage traffic is derived from ads.
• Homepages are the front page of a business website, whereas landing pages are separate from a business website.
• Landing pages have a single conversion goal; webpages, however, encourage browsing.

What Is the Difference Between a Landing Page and a Microsite?

Ah, the microsite, a lesser-known and talked about digital marketing concept. A microsite is a highly targeted miniature website used to:

• Target audiences with a new message
• Showcase a new product or launch a countdown
• Educate and entertain on a specific topic
• Generate interest in an event

While they can be a single page, they often contain a handful of pages and link to your primary website. Microsites offer unique experiences to expand brand awareness and increase loyalty.

Both microsites and landing pages are hyper-focused and SEO-friendly. So, how do they differ? Landing pages encourage action and have a more positive impact on the SEO of parent websites. They essentially provide extra pages and keywords to rank for.

Landing pages are the ultimate sales pitch, directed at driving conversions and nothing else. They exist to help your audience make the final conversion after they’ve completed their research.

Leads move through your sales funnel, reading your content marketing, and comparing your products or services against competitors, and could end up on your landing page last. Hence, it might be the final digital asset in the marketing funnel to convince them what you offer is what they need.

Are Landing Pages Marketing Tools?

Landings pages are an indispensable part of digital marketing! As valuable marketing tools, they can help you reach short-term goals in the buyers’ journey.

Every unique landing page is an opportunity to lead visitors down the sales funnel and convert them into customers.

A great landing page is built to serve one of two functions: generate leads or direct users to the next step.

Lead Generation Landing Pages

Also called “lead gen” and “lead capture” pages, these landing pages focus on collecting customer information.

The distinguishing feature of lead capture pages is a form, which serves as a CTA. As we mentioned before, it asks for a visitor’s email address, phone number, and more in exchange for a product or service.

Depending on your landing page campaign goals, you can ask for specifics like age ranges, hobbies and professions. Acquiring this information helps personalize marketing campaigns and guides accurate target audience segmentation.

For example, if you’re a sports-related store, selling gym clothes and equipment, it’s useful to know whether a lead practices yoga or HIT training. Armed with this info, you can send marketing campaigns that match their needs, increasing conversion chances.

Lead-generation landing pages are a valuable marketing tool because they offer insight into whom your target audience is, as well as the best channels to reach them.

Click-through Landing Pages

Instead of forms, these landing pages have CTA buttons directing users to a page where they can complete the desired action.

For example, a button that says “free trial” or “order now” might take the user to a checkout page and so on.

Click-through-landing pages are common on eCommerce websites or other businesses, prioritizing sales over data collection.

Besides a CTA button, these landing pages also include persuasive information like customer reviews and product details to encourage sales.

What Does a Landing Page Look Like?

When it comes to creating a landing page design, there’s no set template for a high-converting landing page, as long as it’s simple, attractive, and transforms clicks into leads.

A great landing page should have a clear headline showcasing the business’s unique selling proposition (USP). You can see from the example below how it explicitly offers easy domain registration.

Depending on the product or service, this is usually followed by a hero video or image and then more information highlighting the benefits of your offering.

Notice how, in the example provided, the page has a section that elaborates on core services and extras.

A good landing page also has social proof like personal testimonials to create a deeper and more emotional appeal for a service or product. Lastly, and most importantly, it must support a strong call to action.

[In case you’re wondering what a call to action is (CTA): In digital marketing, it refers to the next step a marketer wants its audience to take. It can instruct a reader to click a button to complete a sale or request a quote.

Effective CTAs are obvious and immediately follow marketing messages. They are generally used at the end of a sales pitch and can drive a variety of different actions depending on the digital marketing strategy.]

Increasingly, marketers are also embedding videos on their landing pages. According to WordStream, landing pages with videos increase conversions by 86%.

Shorter videos, ideally around 90 seconds, work well. They allow you to convey essential information without boring visitors.

Ensure that the copy is succinct and benefit-centered. Strong landing pages are mobile-friendly and don’t require much navigation.

When designing the layout, bear in mind that many people use their smartphones, and your landing page should translate effectively across all devices, whether the user is on their computer, tablet, or mobile.

Some tips to make your landing pages effective:

1. Headline: This sums up your offer in a clear and compelling way.
2. Copy: Landing page text should explain the value of your offer in a simple manner. Using bullet points keeps it brief and succinct.
3. Keywords: Like any other digital marketing campaign, keywords should be utilized in the page title, header, and text to boost SEO.
4. Social sharing buttons/links: Links to your Facebook Page, LinkedIn profile, and other social media accounts extend the reach of your landing page to a wider audience.
5. Images: Landing pages with real and relatable images make your marketing offers more appealing.

If you need help creating a strong landing page, you can always ask a digital agency to design landing page templates for your business, or alternatively, just download them online.

How Do Landing Pages Affect Marketing?

Hypothetically, let’s say you’ve built a brand new, SEO-friendly website that’s brilliant at converting leads once visitors arrive at your homepage. Now, how exactly do you get them to your website?

Through organic SEO marketing efforts, certainly, but great landing pages can also improve SEO and your digital marketing campaigns.

Performance-driven digital marketing strategies implement a mix of paid ads and organic tactics. Because SEO takes longer to yield results, paid ads can boost website traffic in the interim, as you wait for organic traffic to gain momentum.

The point of landing pages is to build a repository of leads that can be nurtured with personalized marketing campaigns via email, direct mail, paid ads, and other types of targeted marketing (See: benefits, of which there are many!)

When strategically done, the best landing pages increase lead generation, web traffic and sales, providing positive marketing results.

Do I Need a Website if I Have a Landing Page?

There’s a misconception that landing pages are cost-effective websites. Regardless of whether you need to create landing pages, they’re never suitable replacements for a website.

Technically, you don’t need a website to have a landing page, but we’d strongly discourage this. A proper online presence for your brand is essential. It makes your business look legitimate.

Websites provide necessary information customers look for, and are very much a business investment. To use another retail analogy, a website is an outfit, while a landing page is a pair of shoes. You’d be in trouble if you walked around in public just wearing a pair of shoes!

Websites offer potential customers a comprehensive view of your business and build credibility. Without one, you risk appearing unprofessional.

How Many Landing Pages Should I Have?

According to research, business websites with 10 to 15 landing pages will increase conversions by 55%. Additionally, websites with over 40 landing pages increase conversions by over 500%.

A single landing page won’t cater to an entire target audience, and there’s no limit to how many landing pages you should have.

It depends on how many audience segments you have and your digital marketing campaign strategy. The most important thing to keep in mind is their strategic design and purpose.

Always opt for quality over quantity and specificity over generalization when it comes to strategy and roll-out.

Tailor Your Landing Pages for Better Targeting

Multiple landing pages allow for the precise targeting of audience segments, which is incredibly beneficial when running pay-per-click (PPC) marketing campaigns. PPC is a form of online advertising where advertisers only pay when users click on their ads. Advertisers bid on the perceived value of a click in relation to the keywords and platforms in which it originates. PPC campaigns work best when focused on selling specific services and products, and landing pages are just the same.

Benefits of Multiple Landing Pages

1. More Landing Pages Means More Leads

The more landing pages you have, the greater opportunity to hyper-target potential customers, meaning you can engage with every segment of your audience.

Each landing page can be tailored with different offers to appeal to a broader range of potential leads. A tailored landing page with strategic search engine optimization (SEO) aligns with users’ searches and can turn them into leads.

2. More Landing Pages Means More Conversions

Multiple pages also boost conversions because they offer an easy pathway from discovery to conversion. If a user clicks on a PPC ad that takes them directly to a landing page with a strong CTA, it eliminates the effort required to find the same product by clicking through a website.

When browsing a website, they might not find what they’re looking for, nor will they necessarily be required to fill out a lead-capture form, resulting in a wasted opportunity for lead capture.

Creating more landing pages means more leads and more opportunities to convert them. Remember, not every page will convert visitors, so you need a fair amount for successful lead generation.

3. More Landing Pages Means Better SEO

A landing page with precise SEO copy will rank higher on Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs). When you create specific landing pages with varied copy, your site’s traffic will originate from multiple external sources, signalling credibility and popularity, which Google rates highly.

Due to their concise nature, landing pages can only incorporate a few keywords. Still, the more pages you have, the more keywords you can utilize, increasing your website’s overall visibility on SERPs.

4. More Landing Pages Means Better Efficacy Data Tracking

Because multiple landing pages are designed to attract different buyer personas, they automatically allow for easier data tracking and management, and market testing. A/B testing can make a considerable difference in generating leads.

When properly managed, multiple landing pages produce precise, segmented data, which can be better tracked and analyzed. This provides valuable insights into your audience’s interests and online behavior.

5. More Landing Pages Mean Better Customer Segmentation

An accurate understanding of each segment of a business’s target market is vital to execute tailored strategies that produce sales. Having a single perfect landing page doesn’t enable effective customer segmentation, especially if everyone fills in their details on the same page.

Digital marketing is driven by and thrives on specific data. The better your customer segmentation, the stronger and more effective your marketing becomes. Having multiple landing pages that different users respond to provide a clearer idea of what types of offers work for different buyer personas. You can leverage this data to improve ads and keep target market information updated.

Landing Page Best Practices to Improve Targeting

Multiple landing pages work when they target precise audience segments. If you’re not experiencing the conversion rate you are expecting, despite high website traffic; you might reconsider your landing page design and apply to professional conversion rate optimization agency.

A/B Testing

A/B testing, sometimes called split testing, is a common marketing practice used to compare two versions of a web page to determine which performs best. In terms of landing pages, this means pitting two slightly different variations of the same page against each other to see which one has the highest conversion rate.

You might change the copy, images or where the call-to-action button is, for instance. The point of A/B testing is to optimize your landing pages to such a degree that they provide the highest conversion rates possible.

Keyword Targeting

A solid keyword strategy forms the basis of a successful landing page. Focusing on long-tail keywords and search intent ensure you’re writing for humans and not search bots. From an SEO standpoint, keyword-optimized headers signal relevancy to search engine crawlers.

Tools like Ubersuggest and WordStream can help you come up with industry and product-specific keywords. As you enter your base keyword, they’ll suggest alternative keywords that may be more helpful in converting leads.

Build a Strong Brand Identity

Always keep the visual identity of your brand consistent. Messaging, logos, colors, and slogans should align with your brand image.

A landing page must leave a clear impression on first-time viewers, so they recognize your brand when it comes to making a purchase decision.

You can also increase conversions with the inclusion of verified customer reviews, testimonial quotes, customer logos and awards.

Segment Your Audience

If you haven’t done this, now is the time. Because your target audience consists of different personas (types of customers) it doesn’t make sense to have one landing page. Consider creating separate landing pages for each audience segment.

Segmenting your audience allows you to increase message match from ads to landing pages, as well as improve clarity and relevancy through the use of copy, offers and messaging that appeals to different segments.

Utilize Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising

PPC is a form of online advertising where advertisers only pay when users click on their ads. Advertisers bid on the perceived value of a click in relation to the keywords and platforms in which it originates.

PPC campaigns work best when focused on selling specific services and products, and landing pages are just the same. For example, let’s say a user types in “buy yoga mat” into Google. A row of ads will appear at the top of the search engine results page. These are PPC ads.

PPC ads with dedicated landing pages have higher than generic pages. FYI: placing a lead magnet on a custom landing page yields an 8% to 20% conversion rate, rather than a 1% to 3% when placing it on a website homepage.

Why? Well, the purpose of a dedicated landing page is to expand whatever message caught the visitor’s interest when they clicked on the ad. Directing your paid traffic to a generic page (or poorly designed landing page) will jeopardize your paid advertising efforts and leak leads.

If a lead lands on a page that’s only vaguely related to what they’re interested in, they’ll leave without hesitation.

Conclusion

Landing pages are powerful promotional tools when correctly utilized to improve lead generation and help gather important customer data. Perfecting landing page best practices requires skill and time, and relies on constant testing and tweaking.

We know multiple pages generate more data and provide increased opportunities to improve the targeting of existing customers while also reaching new ones. Optimized landing pages are guaranteed to provide a competitive marketing edge, improve conversion rates and grow your ROI.

If you’re searching for expert help developing and integrating landing pages into your marketing strategy, contact our team. As a full-service web development agency, we can help businesses in Miami and all over the US generate new leads and increase sales with perfect landing pages.