Landing Page Testing: What You Need to Know
Landing pages are often your first impression to new clients and you only have two or three seconds to connect with them. In order to maximize these precious seconds you have to test your approach. While landing page testing has been made easy with free tools like Google Website Optimizer, knowing what to test is the real key to success.
What You Need To Test
1) Call to Action – Every landing page you create should have a specific purpose. Your call to action should be very clear to the visitor. Give your page the Mom test. Would your Mom know what you want her to do if she landed on this page? Don’t make your visitor think; be very clear with your call to action. You should always be testing your call to action. Do people convert better when the button says “Add to Cart” or “Buy Now”? Do people convert best when the text is red or blue?
2) Forms – There are many studies that say asking for less information will improve your conversion rate but, honestly you should test it to confirm your visitors conform to the norm. People expect to provide an address when they purchase something but they don’t expect to provide an address to download a free whitepaper. Knowing how much information your visitors are willing to give is important for online success.
3) Credibility and Testimonials – Not every company is a well known brand and we all know people tend to believe, search and buy from brands they know. You can gain trust by using customer testimonials and symbols on your landing page. Symbols from companies like the Better Business Bureau or Truste can go a long way to earn your visitors trust. Test the placement of these credibility factors. Small changes in page placement can turn an under-performing page into a winner.
4) Text and Content – Testing content is very important. New headlines are one of the quickest and easiest things to change. As the new headline rotates through your landing page, visitors to your site will select the one they like best. You must also test different features of your product or service to see where your visitor’s hot buttons are. Testing different formats for your text is also important. Do people like bullets or paragraphs?
Other Helpful Tips for Landing Page Testing
• Length of the test
The more landing page elements you test the longer it will take to see results. Test pages that get a lot of traffic if you want fast results.
• Test more then one thing at a time
The beauty of Website Optimizer is that you can test many different things at once! The bad thing about Website Optimizer is that you can test many different things at once! Google suggests testing two titles and two images for your first test. We seem to be a little bolder with our testing but the right mix is different depending on the client and traffic to the landing page.
Landing page testing is one of the key factors to a successful online marketing campaign. You should start off testing the main elements on your page first, like the call to action, forms, credibility placement and content. As you learn what works and most importantly what does not, implement the new elements into your landing page and keep going. You only have one time to make a first impression and it’s worth constantly testing your approach.
