What is a landing page?

A landing page is a standalone web page that a person "lands" on after clicking through from an email, ad, or other digital location.

Once they’re on your landing page, users are encouraged to take an action, such as joining your list or buying your products. If the user takes the specific desired action, then your landing page has succeeded in getting them to convert.

Typically, landing pages only encourage their users to take one such action, like to fill out the custom signup form on the page. Why?

It’s because of what researchers call the “paradox of choice.” In simple terms, that means that the more options you give people, the harder it is for them to make a decision and act.

Imagine you're offering a free ebook. But on your landing page, you invite your users to visit your blog, buy a product, and check out your social media channels as well. With each ask, the chances of your users downloading your new ebook grow slimmer because you've directed their attention away from your primary objective.

On the extreme end, too many choices can overwhelm your users, causing them to stall and take no action at all. This is why it’s critical to focus on a single call to action (CTA) rather than 3 or 4.

This is why a landing page should have a clear visual hierarchy and value proposition and should be tested for the best conversion optimization.

What makes a homepage different from a landing page?

There are a handful of things that set homepages and landing pages apart. 

Homepages have:

More links. On a typical homepage, you can find at least 10 links. There's often a navigational menu at the top, links in the footer, and many in the page’s content. On a well-optimized landing page, you'll usually find fewer links, and sometimes only one—the link that allows your users to convert.

Broader CTAs. Your homepage introduces your business and serves as a hub from which users can navigate to other corners of your site. Because your homepage has so many jobs to do, its content is often broad and has fewer specific CTAs (e.g. "learn more"). Since landing pages have 1 goal, they have tailored CTAs (e.g. "download our free ebook").

A different audience and purpose. Many of the people who visit your homepage probably haven’t decided what they want yet. On the other hand, users who end up on your landing pages have already shown interest in what you offer. They’ve ventured deeper into your customer journey and are more ready to convert.

Landing pages aren’t all the same. They can be sorted into 2 broad categories.

The 2 main types of landing pages

As far as structure goes, landing pages are generally built to serve 1 of 2 functions: generate leads or direct users to the next step.

Lead generation landing pages

Also known as “lead gen” and “lead capture” pages, this type of landing page focuses on collecting lead data. In other words, it collects information about your customers.

The trademark feature of a lead capture page is a form, which serves as the CTA. In exchange for a product or service, it asks users for data like their names, email addresses, and phone numbers. You can even ask for more specific details like their age ranges or job titles. That way you can contact leads and nurture their interest in your business.

This data serves another purpose as well. The information you collect can teach you about your contacts. You can then focus your marketing efforts and target the people who match them and are consequently more likely to convert. This can increase your return on investment (ROI), especially if you run paid advertising campaigns.

In this way, the data that lead generation pages capture helps improve your marketing strategy and make it more efficient. It allows you to tailor your ads to your audience so that you won’t spend money advertising to people who aren’t likely to convert.

Lead-generation landing pages are a valuable asset to your business because they provide insight into who your potential customers are as well as how you can reach them. If lead nurturing is a priority for you—or you need to understand your audience better—consider adding one to your site.

Click-through landing pages

Unlike lead gen pages, which use forms, the focal points of click-through landing pages are CTA buttons. Clicking the button redirects your users to a page where they can complete their desired action.

For example, a button that says "schedule a demo" might take the user to a scheduling page, “order X now" would redirect to a checkout page, and so on.

You’ll often find click-through landing pages on e-commerce websites or other sites that are more focused on making sales immediately rather than collecting user information. Besides the CTA button, these landing pages generally include persuasive information like product details or user testimonials to further intrigue and engage prospective customers.

The importance and benefits of a landing page

Landing pages are different from other pages on your site because they focus on specific, short-term goals so that you can get the results you want. Besides increasing conversions, improving paid ad campaigns, and yielding new audience insights, landing pages can:

Boost your credibility. Users typically appreciate clear, simple messaging that explains the value of what you’re offering. A well-planned landing page shows your customers that you have their best interests in mind. They’re also places where you can insert testimonials about your product or service, which are an element of social proof. Social proof has been shown to increase conversions.

Reinforce your brand. This is the result of maintaining consistency in your website’s appearance, tone, style, and copy. Having a clear and strong brand has several benefits. When your users don’t convert immediately, a strong brand identity can help them remember you in the future, respond to your remarketing efforts, or recommend you to their friends.

Clearly, landing pages are essential to your marketing strategy. And the more optimized landing pages you have, the better. But that raises 2 questions: how should they be optimized, and what should they be optimized for?

Landing page best practices

Of course, you want your landing pages to be well-oiled conversion machines. But it's also important that you design them for search engines, a practice known as search engine optimization (SEO). This will make your pages more visible in organic search results, which can help increase traffic and conversions.