A landing page (sometimes also called “marketing page”), simply spoken, is the first page of a Web-presence that visitors see after klicking an ad or special link, which is intended to attract Web surfers’ attention for a certain offer (e.g. information, products, forms and so on). A key element of landing pages is the “response” element (e.g. link, form, button) to create a first user communication.

These landing pages are an essential tool of online marketing to improve traffic to a website and make a certain web-presence popular. As a consequence of this, they should be thought-out perfectly, as Web surfers decide within 2-3 seconds if the called page rather satisfies their needs or not. A guy called Tim Ash is talking about this topic for more than an hour in a Webinar called “The 7 deadly sins of a landing page”,  from which I want to present the key points with resolutions here as reminder:

1. Unclear call to action:
   
   • keep the page obvious / simple
   • clear leading of the eye
   • make visual competitors less important
2. Too many choices:
   
   • reduce the number of choices
   • do not show details in the early time of the process
   • reduce the number of categories to a well-arranged number
   • use visual shortcuts (e.g. for categories)
3. Asking for too much information:
   • ask as few information as possible
   • ask nothing inappropriate / too personal
   • ask for additional information on a later date
   • shorten labels / unclutter form
4. Too much text (problem: short span of attention):
   • clear headlines
   • important stuff first
   • short bullet lists instead of full text
   • shorten text
5. Not keeping promises:
   • repeat words from the target page
   • provide clear access to the information offered
6. Visual distractions (visual assault, unrelated to the product, unclear navigation –> waste of time):
   • elements must not compete with the call-to-action
   • remove colors, effects, …
   • use only specific relevant images
7. Lack of credibility:
   • strength by positive association
   • feature well known symbols prominently
   • show client logos / brands / media as “badges” (little signs)

When creating a landing page just go through this checklist and make sure you did not make one of these most serious usability mistakes – and the chances for success will rise significantly.

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