So, you’ve got a slick offer that you’re ready to try out, but you need the perfect landing page for it… right? 

You want to be 100% sure the landing page you’re sending traffic to is going to do an amazing job of converting said traffic… but how do you know what to focus on?

What makes a landing page truly great? Luckily there are some proven, tested answers.

Make sure you’re not wasting leads and burning traffic. Instead, follow these 5 essentials of landing pages that convert.

1. Speed

Speed is, without a doubt, the most critical element to any landing page, period. 

It doesn’t matter how slick your landing page is– if it never loads for the customer and they bounce before experiencing it, your landing page sucks. 

According to Neil Patel, 47% of customers have an expectation that a site should load in two seconds or less. Every second after that window, and you’re hurting your chances of conversion. It won’t be long before customers tap that back button impatiently, leaving your lander forever. 

When your landing page loading time is lightning fast, you’re striking while the iron is hot. The longer customers have to wait (if they don’t bounce) their level of impulsiveness decreases.  In more than 12 recent case studies, faster page load times resulted in up to a 17% increase in conversions

Google also looks very closely at your landing page speed. They hold this factor in high regard when deciding where you should rank in SEO, and your quality score for their paid advertising. 

If your landing page isn’t fast, it’s time for a new one. 

2. Simplicity 

Landing pages should have a clear call to action, and no distractions. Everything on the page needs to serve the purpose of the page– which is to get conversions.  If something doesn’t serve that purpose, get rid of it. 

So how can you keep your landing page simple and effective? Most would agree that less is more.

Have a headline, some copy on the page that puts forth a clear value proposition, and a direct call to action. 

You’ll need some sort of lead form or purchase offer as well. Make sure to keep it to a single, potent conversion action. 

You can also include social proof (more on trust signals later), and other incentives, but keep things as lean as possible. 

If your page includes more than this, you’d better have conversion data that justifies it… or consider testing versions of the page without those “extra” elements. 

And remember,  no navigation. A landing page should never have navigation to other pages. You don’t want people clicking around on different tabs or pages (also know as “leaks”).  You may think you’re helping “educate” the customer, or letting them “do research,” but in truth, you’re pulling them away from your offer and lowering your chance of a conversion.

3. A Clear, Killer Offer

Your landing page can have all of the perfect elements that should convert, but if your offer isn’t absolutely perfect, no landing page in the world can fix that. 

When you’re spending resources to get traffic to a landing page, there are some rules of thumb you want to follow to make sure your offer is likely to convert.

It doesn’t matter if your offer is $1000 or $49, you have to be certain that your value-to-cost ratio is weighted as heavily as you can toward value. The perceived worth of whatever your offer contains should exceed the cost of it by as much as possible, and that should be explicitly clear. 

What you’re wanting is for any traffic that you send to the landing page to view your offer as such a good bargain that they don’t want to miss out, so they take action now.

A solid offer with clearly stated value is essential for your landing page to convert.

4. Trust Signals

If people don’t trust your offer, they will never convert. Trust signals are what you use on your landing page to give people peace of mind that they aren’t going to be ripped off. 

There is a constant risk of people’s information being stolen online. In the wake of battling phishing attempts and online data theft, many people are overly careful about who they do business with– especially if they’re not familiar with a brand or website. A great way to overcome this is with trust signals.

Trust signals come in many shapes and sizes, and they have a unique relationship with your conversion rates. They aren’t often the sole reason someone converts on your landing page, but commonly they’ll be the thing that tips customers over the edge into a sale. 

Some Examples of Trust Signals You Can Use:

Guarantees – Money-back guarantees are powerful because it signals that a customer’s purchase is protected.

Social Proof – This is anything that has other customers telling your potential customers how good you or your products or services are. Testimonials, verified reviews, and expert recommendations are great for this.

Trust By Association – This is basically other trusted logos on your website. The concept is simple: if well-known brands and companies trust you and associate with you, customers are likely to as well. The more recognizable the company or logo, the better (but always make sure it’s 100% true). 

Verifications – Verified Visa and Mastercard logos can make a customer’s purchase feel protected. There are also website verification emblems that help customers see that you take their online security seriously.

Memberships – If you’re part of other professional organizations, you carry their stamp of approval. Having logos of companies like the Better Business Bureau and any applicable chambers of commerce are great builders of trust.  

Contact Information – This one may seem so dead simple, but if a customer doesn’t see any contact information, alarm bells start ringing. “Are they going to rip me off?” If your traffic feels like they could contact you easily, it goes a long way (a phone number and a physical address are two of the heavy hitters).

Including trust signals in some form on your site can be a major conversion booster, making them essential. 

5. Tracking

It’s staggering how many people don’t track their marketing efforts. And for those that are tracking them, they’re not doing it as well as they could. 

Your landing page absolutely must have proper tracking in place so that you know what’s working. Whether it’s a form fill, click to call, or anything else, you need to know these basic things:

Where did the traffic come from? 

This is especially important if you only have one landing page, and you’re driving traffic to it from multiple marketing campaigns. If you’re not properly tracking your conversions, you won’t know which campaigns are doing well and which ones are wasting your money. Without proper tracking, it will be impossible to optimize. 

What is your cost per conversion? 

By setting up your tracking properly, you can measure the amount you’re spending on your marketing efforts. The most basic way to do this is to take the amount you spent on a specific marketing channel, and then divide that by the number of conversions you received from it. 

So if you spent $1,000 on Google AdWords, and got 10 conversions, your cost per conversion would be $100 ($1,000/10). Cost per conversion is a good place to start, but you shouldn’t stop there.

Return on Ad Spend

Return on ad spend (also known as ROAS) is an important metric to consider in your tracking efforts. More important than knowing how much each conversion is costing you, you need to know how much profit you’re making. If you get 57 conversions you might be jumping up and down, but what if you only made $50? Or worse, what if you didn’t break even? 

To find out your ROAS, you take the total amount of revenue you made from your conversions and divide it by the amount you spent on advertising. 

If you’re not tracking your conversions, you’re making a huge (and potentially costly) mistake.

Still Don’t Know Which Attributes Describe a Good Landing Page Experience?

Let us show you what’s essential with Landerpage.io

With the ability to build and test landing pages quickly, and amazing built-in tracking, you won’t find a landing page builder that’s easier to use (especially for the price).

Try Landerpage.io now, and you’ll see how easy it is to know which attributes describe a good landing page experience to your customers.