The design of landing pages is something a lot of businesses overlook. Because these pages are often within the site, they are frequently left as they are. Users that are transported there directly are thrown in with no introduction to what the site’s about. This can cause problems and even bounce users straight back to the site they came from.

The effect of a badly designed internal landing page is rather like trying to start at the middle of a book. It’s possible to understand what’s going on, with some effort. However, the introduction to the site has already happened somewhere else and there is nothing there to ease the transition. The going is hard.

No matter where your users land within your site, you want their path to be as easy as possible. This doesn’t mean that every landing page has to be as straightforward as your home page. It just means that a little care and attention must be paid in order to have the best effect. The principles of design for landing pages are quite similar to those for home pages, although not quite as complex.

1. Allow plenty of white space so that your message can be transmitted easily. Users tend to briefly scan pages before deciding to plunge in. Leaving room around your words gives important terms, like keywords, the opportunity to stand out.

2. Feature a catchy title that clearly states what the page is there for. It should match the purpose of the users in clicking on the link to your site. For example, if your garden supplies site manages to get a link from a landscaping site, making ‘Handy Weedkillers’ the landing page is unlikely to produce good results. Unless, of course, the title is ‘Don’t let weeds ruin your manicured lawn’.

3. Use short blocks of text that have a clear purpose, along with lots of sub-headings and lists where possible. The first sentence in each paragraph should provide the most critical information.

4. Redirect to more relevant areas of your site by providing prominent links. There should be a link to address every specific need. For example, the weed-killer page above might feature subheadings on lawn pests, low-maintenance landscaping, and a weed calendar, all with appropriate links.

The design of landing pages is also important to your site’s search engine optimisation. You need to highlight the importance of the page for search engine spiders with your use of keywords on landing pages and by directing internal links toward the page.

The selection of pages to use as landing pages will depend on your various groups of target users. Analysis of your user groups should be part of your initial SEO development. The selection of user group will also guide which keywords are used in the links distributed around the net that lead back to your landing pages. Landing pages are an opportunity to address the highly specific needs of target users. Don’t waste your SEO efforts by sending users to unfocused, unimportant pages. Our experts at SEO Consult can guide you safely through these issues.

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