6 Common Landing Page Mistakes You Should Avoid [UPDATE]

1. Not paying enough attention to your Call-to-Action (CTA)

The purpose of a landing page is to draw attention to your call to action. Getting a visitor to click on the CTA link means you have effectively achieved your landing page objective. If you don’t pay enough attention to its key elements – specifically copy and design – you’re likely losing out on a lot of potential conversions.

As a design standard, your CTA button should stand out. Avoid multiple button options that will clutter your landing page and confuse the direction you want your visitors to take. The color of your button is also critical to the effectiveness of your landing page. If it blends too much with the background, it will not inspire urgency. The color should be able to grab their attention and inspire immediate action. Therefore, make sure that the color contrasts with the rest of the page.

2. Not taking into consideration visitor reading habits

Remember, most online visitors don’t read – they skim.

An informative, well-written copy is important. However, if you choose to relay details about your offer, paragraph after paragraph, it’s very likely that no one will end up reading it.

Take the time to compress your message into bite-sized, easy to understand points. Avoid the use of jargon as this tends to alienate visitors and makes it difficult to build rapport. And whenever possible, use short sentences in bullets.

3. Not communicating your purpose clearly

To be effective, a landing page has to effectively communicate its purpose.

Achieving this means you have to consider all the elements on the page – from images, to design, to copy. Your landing page should tell a story, albeit in the briefest way possible.

Getting to know your customers allows you to better tailor your communications. It’s important you know what you want to communicate so that your landing page can fulfill that need.

4. Not taking the time to choose the right font

Keep these in mind when creating your landing page text.

5. Not using images on your landing page

A lot of marketers make the mistake of not using images on landing pages in the interest of streamlining the page’s design. While it’s true you should avoid cluttering your landing page, choosing the right image to accompany your message and CTA can actually inspire action.

For example, good quality images of people smiling tend to create a feeling of trust, making it easier for visitors to click on your CTA. A more common technique to draw attention to your CTA involves selecting images where their gaze is fixed on your CTA button. Psychologically, this helps draw attention to what you want people to focus on.

[UPDATE 07/2019]

6. Not checking your browser and device compatibility

An effective landing page should be displayed correctly with all its features in any browser on any device.

Browser compatibility is how a landing page looks in various browsers. Different browsers read, understand and interpret the website code such as HTML and CSS, individually. Safari, Chrome, Firefox or Microsoft Edge don’t render landing pages in the same way. Also pay attention to in-App Facebook Browser, because it may sometimes turn out to be a troublemaker. After clicking on a link in a Facebook post, a page is opened inside the Facebook window and might not be displayed as intended. It may cause a loss of visitors' attention. That is why it is crucial to provide browsers’ compatibility on your landing page.

Nowadays, visitors are accessing landing pages from their mobile devices much more often than from PCs. It means that compatibility not only with browsers but also with mobile devices is a matter of life or death to your landing page. Use Responsive Web Design approach to provide a perfectly-looking and working landing page on every device. Ensure compatibility for Apple users, Android users, etc. Making your landing page compatible with as many browsers and devices as possible increases your landing page reach and results in a growth of leads.