5 things that harm your landing page
They are not as obvious as you might think.
A landing page or landing page is a popular but rather specific type of site. I often wonder why it is so difficult to find a well-made landing page these days? It would seem that we, as designers, site owners and users, know enough about design (compared to what we were 10 years ago), but there is one simple thing that everyone seems to forget about:
The main purpose of a landing page is to sell a product or idea. No more, no less.
We have to design landing pages with a very strict list of goals in mind. This is not a beauty or creativity contest. The page should be distinctive, but not overloaded. The message should convey the essence and be understandable. The overall visual style must match the characteristics of the product. It also needs to be attractive to the target audience. The shopping process itself should be as fast, easy and enjoyable as possible.
Below I will present the most common landing page problems.
1. Thoughtlessly following trends
If I were asked to name one thing that harms the product design industry the most, I would choose pointless use of trends™.
While I have nothing against the trends themselves, the worst thing a designer or product owner can do is copy all of the currently popular visual trends.
Your landing page is about selling a product, not getting thousands of likes from other designers. Fresh example: Using 3D illustrations doesn t necessarily guarantee big sales. It may even turn out the other way around.
- It is wrong to add a popular trend just to be like the rest – you will easily get lost in the crowd of clones.
- The look of your landing page should be determined by your target audience, not what s hot on Dribbble right now.
- Think about the characteristics of your product. What style, colors and looks will suit him best? Maybe a real hand holding a real phone matches your product better than a chubby cartoon 3D model?
2. Too much text
No matter how good your product is or how much you want to tell the world about it, there is one thing to remember:
Most people are not very fond of reading.
This is why you need to be able to describe the idea or main benefit of your product in one sentence. You need to grab the user s attention and interest in the first few seconds of the session.
The person visiting your page is likely to scroll through the content rather than going through every paragraph, and is more likely to leave the page if there is too much text.
- Try to convey the most important things in short, clear sentences, rather than writing long paragraphs. Divide long pieces of text (like testimonials) in half.
- Make sure the overall proportion of text and images on your landing page is at least 50:50. Text must be accompanied by images or data visualization, otherwise it will seem too boring and heavy.
3. An abundance of calls to action
The popular “less is more” rule also applies to calls to action.
Contrary to popular belief, placing 15 calls to action in a row or repeating them under each section of your landing page will not necessarily result in a higher conversion rate. This will most likely annoy your visitors.
- The more often an element is repeated, the less attention it gets. People tend to ignore things that are devoid of individuality.
- Instead of placing 15 call-to-action buttons on the landing page, think of one button pinned to the top of the page as the user scrolls down. This way, the call to action is always visible and easily accessible, but not overly aggressive.
One of the basic rules that I follow:
Don t try to reinvent the wheel. If something works great, why complicate it?
Therefore, I absolutely do not like landing pages with non-standard navigation. Users are so used to scrolling down the page that it has become part of our nature. We scroll because this behavior became intuitive for us.
So it surprises me when, after entering the page, I automatically try to scroll down, but nothing happens. Instead of focusing on the product, I spend time figuring out how navigation works. Is it horizontal scrolling? Do I have to click on any link for the content to appear? Or do I just have to wait?
- Scrolling down is the best way to navigate your landing page. Don t change this UX pattern in order to make your site more creative or personal. It s not worth it.
- People are used to scrolling down the page and do it automatically when they hit it – don t disrupt this natural user flow.
5. Refusal from custom tests
Unless you re running custom tests, you don t really know if the landing page is working properly (an indicator could be low sales).
The peculiarity of the landing page is that it constantly requires the attention of the owner.
Sometimes a small change in the color or text of a call to action works wonders and can have a huge impact on conversions.
Do you need a group of UX experts for this? Not really. Anyone can install a simple tool called Hotjar and see how users interact with the website. An experienced designer with some knowledge and experience in the field of usability can analyze the metrics and identify problem patterns. This is incredibly helpful and helps you draw the right conclusions, leading to increased sales and overall visitor satisfaction.
Remember that a newly launched website is just the beginning – the work doesn t end there. Make sure your landing page captures the spirit of your product, has personality, grabs attention immediately, and is convenient for your visitors. Use tools to monitor user behavior and constantly adapt your site to suit their needs!