A landing page is a specific web page designed for visitors to land on when following a promotional link from elsewhere. For example, if you are running a promotion for a product release on social media, you might create a landing page specifically for that product. When people click or tap on your link, they are taken to that page rather than to your website.
Why create a landing page? Why not just direct people to your website?
Good question. A landing page may live on the same domain as your website, so why not just send people to your main site?
Unless your site is built around the product you are promoting, it is likely to confuse people. You want people to follow your promotion and land on a page devoted to that promotion. The page might have one or more specific purposes:
- To capture email addresses
- To sign people up to a mailing list
- To offer a freebie
- To offer a special deal if someone buys your product
And so on. If you sent them to the home page of your website, it wouldn’t be set up to accommodate any of those purposes. Instead, it might be set up to welcome people to your overall business. People arriving on the home page having read about a specific deal or product you are offering aren’t going to spend time looking for relevant details. They are far more likely to leave, possibly feeling annoyed they have wasted their time.
Not the best outcome.
Landing pages aim to turn visitors into leads
Leads are typically people who are interested in what you can offer, even if they do not buy it at that time. For example, you might promote a free report across social media, sending people to your landing page to read more about it. If they let you have their name and email address, you’ll send them the report.
A landing page is therefore a powerful and streamlined tool that can help you achieve a desired outcome. It is possible that separate promotional campaigns could lead to several targeted landing pages on the same domain as your website, for example.
If you haven’t created any landing pages yet, it is worth thinking about how they could be integrated into your business to achieve the effect that you are looking for. When done correctly, they can have a profoundly positive effect.
Tristan Whittaker
Founder & Director, Infinity3
Tristan Whittaker is the founder and director of Infinity3, with more than 20 years of experience in web design, digital marketing and technology. He works with businesses across the UK to improve their online presence, generate more opportunities and make better use of digital tools, AI and automation.
Combining strong technical knowledge with a practical understanding of how businesses actually operate, Tristan has helped hundreds of organisations create better websites, improve their visibility and simplify the systems behind them. He’s particularly interested in finding sensible ways to use technology to solve real business problems, without unnecessary complexity or jargon.