Landing Pages: The Definitive Guide

What Is a Landing Page?

A landing page is a page that’s designed to facilitate a single desired action, such as making a purchase, filling out a form, signing up for a free trial or entering an email address.

It’s called a landing page because it’s a page where users “land” after clicking on a link in a Facebook post, Google Ad, email newsletter or any other traffic source.

Why Do Landing Pages Convert So Well?

There are two main reasons that landing pages are GREAT for increasing conversions:

1. They have a focused CTA.
2. They’re targeted to a specific group.

Like I just mentioned, successful landing pages CRUSH normal pages because they’re 100% focused on a single CTA.

But that’s not the only reason that landing pages convert super well.

They also convert because you can target them for a specific group, type of potential customer, or offer.

In fact, HubSpot found that more landing pages=more total sitewide conversions.

Now that we have the basics out of the way, it’s time to dive deeper into the exact types of landing pages that work best.

Email Signup Page Template

An email signup page (also known as a “Squeeze Page”) is a page engineered to collect emails in exchange for an ebook, report or a valuable newsletter.

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Headline=What They Get

People today are SUPER reluctant to give away their email address. And I can’t blame them.

When you hand over your email to someone you have no clue what’s coming next. They could start sending you a bunch of crap, bombard you with a million messages, sell your email to the highest bidder.

Which means you need to make what someone’s going to get SUPER clear.

For example, if you look at the Exploding Topics newsletter signup page, we used a compelling headline that made “what you get” crystal clear.

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Detailed Subheadline

Your subheadline is designed to add more details to your offer, including what it is and why it’s valuable.

Here’s an example:

The headline that we used is a good start. But it’s still not 100% clear what you’ll get when you sign up. Which is where the subheadline comes into play.

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Hero Image

Your email signup page should have a “Hero Image” that shows off what they’re going to get.

Remember: an “email course”, “report” or “weekly newsletter” are SUPER hard to picture in your mind.

And your Hero Image makes your offer more tangible and real.

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Above The Fold CTA

I recommend using your first email sign-up form way above the fold, like this:

If your headline and subheadline are strong, the majority of your conversions will come via this form.

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Feature List

If someone scrolls down past your first form it means that they need more info before signing up.

Enter: The Feature List.

Here’s where you dive more into why your offer is worth trading for someone’s email address.

The exact list of features depends on what you’re giving away.

If the Squeeze Page is for a webinar, you might have a bulleted list of the top things someone will learn.

If it’s a report, you should outline the strategies that you’ll cover.

If it’s an email newsletter, list out exactly what you’re going to send them.

For example, the Exploding Topics about page has a thorough “How It Works” section that walks people through how the newsletter is developed, packaged and sent.

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Social Proof

Like any landing page, social proof can help boost your squeeze page conversion rate.

This can be the number of people that have already signed up.

Or testimonials from a handful of happy subscribers.

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Second CTA

I recommend adding a second CTA at the very bottom of your page.

That way, your visitor ends their scrolling directly on top of a CTA button and signup form.

SaaS Free Trial Page Template

The main goal of your SaaS Free Trial landing page is to get someone into your sign up flow.

This is a little bit different than a Squeeze Page. With a Squeeze Page, the conversion actually happens right there on the page. But with a SaaS page, you usually push them towards another page where they actually sign up.

With that, here’s the template:

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Plain English Headline

This is something a lot of B2B SaaS companies struggle with. Instead of a straightforward headline, they write some nonsense like this.

Instead, I recommend a straightforward headline, like this one from Help Scout.

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“What We Do”

You just established a clear benefit. Now it’s time for you to give a high-level overview of how your software gets people there.

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Concept Hero Image

Back in the day, SaaS companies would use a screenshot of their software for their hero image. And this can still work.

The issue with that approach is that it’s tough to understand what the software does based on a screenshot.

Which is why many SaaS companies opt for illustrations that show what the software actually does for people.

For example, Woven’s hero image shows groups of people meeting up.

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Get Started CTA

This is an above the fold button that usually takes people to a signup page.

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Feature List

Nothing fancy here. Just a list of 4-5 of your software’s best features (and benefits).

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Social Proof

This can be a customer testimonial, number of customers, big name businesses that use your product, or all three.

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Final CTA

It never hurts to add a CTA to the bottom of your landing page.

SaaS Landing Page Example From Confetti

Why It’s Awesome:

• Crystal clear headline
• Subheadline adds context
• Multiple CTAs throughout the page

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Sales Page Landing Page Example From Nerd Fitness

Why It’s Awesome:

• Benefit-packed headline
• Strong testimonials
• Compelling risk-reversal

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Newsletter Signup Landing Page Example From Ramit Sethi

Why It’s Awesome:

• Clear and direct call to action
• Social proof in the form of media mentions
• No distractions or competing goals

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Lead Gen Landing Page Example From Zillow

Why It’s Awesome:

• Forms only appear after the user clicks on the “start today” button
• Nice illustrated “fine print” section
• Well-curated testimonials

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Ecommerce Landing Page Example From Casper

Why It’s Awesome:

• Multiple CTAs up and down the page
• Page is optimized for Facebook traffic
• Super well written feature list

Test BIG Changes First

If I could give you one piece of advice for split testing ANY page it would be this:

Test BIG changes. Especially early on.

This is a mistake that I made a lot back in the day.

I’d test a slightly different headline. Or change my button color from red to green. And none of these changes made ANY difference.

That’s when I realized something:

If you want big improvements, you need to make big changes.

For example, my friend Larry Kim used to offer a “free trial” on all of his landing pages.

And no matter how many minor changes he made, the page was stuck at 2%.

So he decided to do something drastic: change the offer.

Instead of a free trial, he offered people an “Adwords Grader”.

And this single change took that page’s conversion rate from 2% to 40%.

Another example: we’re currently testing two different pages at Exploding Topics.

Version #1 (the control) is a super long page that explains what the newsletter is, has tons of social proof, and more.

Version #2 is the same page… with 80% of it chopped off. It’s literally just the above the fold area now.

Which one will do better? I have no clue. That’s why I’m testing it. But I’m showing you this example to highlight the types of changes that you want to A/B test.

Let The Test Run For At Least Two Weeks

I’m super impatient. So, for me, waiting weeks for a split test to fully do its thing is like watching paint dry.

In fact, when I was brand new to this whole conversion rate optimization thing, I would stop a test the MINUTE that it reached statistical significance.

As it turns out, this was a mistake.

Instead, you want to run your tests for several weeks. And you want to continue running the A/B test even after hitting 95% confidence.

Why?

Peep Laja explains the math better than I can (math isn’t my strong suit). But it comes down to the fact that most “wins” that you see from split testing are flukes.

So to be SUPER confident that your “winner” is actually a winner, you need more conversions than you probably think (and more than most A/B testing software estimate). You also need to run your tests for long periods of time to iron out any flukey stuff like holidays and weekends.

Turn Your About Page Into a Landing Page

A landing page isn’t just a random page that you send Facebook ads traffic to.

In fact, you can turn pretty much any page on your site into a landing page.

Including your about page.

For example, we have two signup forms on the Backlinko about page.

And thanks to these two forms, that page converts at 4.49%:

Not amazing. But 4.49% is infinitely higher than if we didn’t use any forms at all.

Remove Site Navigation

Remember: one of the main features of a landing page is that it’s focused on ONE action.

Which is why I recommend stripping your site’s navigation from your landing page. That way, the focus is on your offer.

For example, we remove the “Contact” and “About” links from the header on our newsletter signup page.

We also use a simplified footer that only has links to our terms and privacy pages.

Use Your Confirmation Page to Get “Lateral Conversions”

When someone signs up to your email list or for a free trial, you probably send them to a confirmation page.

Well, I recently discovered that you can use your confirmation page as a landing page.

Obviously, you don’t want them to take the same action again.

Instead, go for a “lateral conversion”.

You still want to give people the info that any good confirmation page should.

But don’t stop there.

You can also gently ask people to take another small action from your confirmation page.

For example, in addition to the usual confirmation page stuff, I also ask new email subscribers to follow me on Twitter.

Which leads to dozens of new followers every week.

Other folks use their confirmation page to spread the word about their site. Here’s an example:

See how that works? As soon as you sign up, there’s another offer (a swipe file). To get it, all you need to do is share a post on Facebook and it unlocks.