180 | Five Landing Page Optimization Tips

Honestly , this is probably one of the most talked about things in my world when because landing pages , if they're not converting it , just can be a disaster . So in this episode we're going to talk about exactly what a landing page is and why they're important , and then we're going to go through five mistakes that I see frequently and how you can fix them .

So a landing page is any page that's not attached to the website through the menu or like . Basically it's a standalone page . That's the word I'm looking for . So a landing page is a standalone page that isn't attached . It can't be easily navigated to through your website . Often they're used for sales pages or for opt-ins .

They can also be used for thank you pages , courses can be hosted on them , and the main reason for this is , again , that they are standalone and they're not easily navigated to , so the only way someone can get to it is if they are given the link .

This is great for an ad or for , again , those sales pages , if it's only open for a certain period of time and you don't necessarily want people navigating to that sales page or that opt-in page at any time .

Landing pages as standalone pages are important because it gives you the ability to have additional pages and not clutter up your menu On your main website .

You want there to be probably three to five things that people can do , and if every single page that you created was directly linked there , it would just get really cluttered really fast , and so it can help with the organization .

Landing pages are also important because it kind of separates whatever you're doing from your main website , but that page is still branded . So we're going to specifically talk about landing pages as they relate to opt-ins and freebies .

When you're getting people to sign up for your email list in exchange for some sort of freebie whether it's a PDF or a video training doesn't really matter what it is these landing pages are all going to be pretty similar . There's two main styles that I would say I see the most frequent the short form and then the long form .

So the short form one is typically really short , sweet , simple . It has an image on one of the two sides , either left or right . Sweet , simple . It has an image on one of the two sides , either left or right , and then on the other side . So let's just say the image is on the left .

On the right hand side there's maybe a blurb of text , a couple bullet points and the form , and then that's it . The other one , the long form version , has more information . So typically it will start with that kind of hero banner , if you will , where there's an image behind and then the form , there's a significant amount of information and then it goes into .

Often there'll be an about me section so that you can learn more about the person who's created it , and there will often be more information , maybe a video , and then at the bottom you'll find another link to the form , or you'll find the form a second time , because it's just so much longer that you want to have either the form at the top and the bottom or

the form at the top and a button at the bottom . That brings people directly back to the form so they're not hunting around for it . So the five mistakes that I see . I'm going to just quickly read through them and then we'll go into explaining a little bit more what I mean and then how to fix them . So the five mistakes are lots of things to do .

Mistake number two is too much text . Mistake number three is where the heck is the button . Number four is what do you even want me to do ? And then number five is a pop-up . So mistake number one lots of things to do . Commonly , I will see landing pages that have things to do . On them .

They might have a sidebar that has an opt-in or a menu of some sort . Sometimes there's archives to the blog . Very , very frequently there is the bar at the top . So the standard menu that you would see on any website . For example , if you go to my website , at the top I have an about me work with Team JD case studies podcast .

I have links to my social media and my podcast and then I even have a button that says book a discovery call . So on a landing page I will often see that entire like menu bar at the top . If you want to see what I'm talking about , head to genzadamartelcom and it's on all of my pages that are connected to the website . Yeah , so there's that menu .

That's at the top . There might be things to do at the bottom , another menu bar . Now , I'm not saying you have to get rid of , like the menu at the bottom . If I scroll down to the very bottom of mine , I do have a privacy policy terms and conditions contact and then it says pirate by love and chocolate chips in Ontario .

I forgot I'd written that that's fine to leave those things there . Most people aren't going to be looking at privacy policy terms and conditions . They might want to contact you . You can leave that bottom thing there , but what you really want to do is get rid of the quote unquote more interesting ones that people might be distracted by .

You don't want them to be distracted and that's why having a lot of things to do is a mistake , because when they're on this landing page , the only thing you want them to be able to do is sign up for your opt-in . You don't want them to be able to really do anything else , just opt-in and that's it . That's all .

So if you have that the menu , or you have a sidebar , then it's giving them things to do and people will get distracted . They'll forget why this tab was open . They might have 30 some odd tabs open and they're like okay , I'll come back to that .

They might forget why they're there and they're like oh , there's a podcast I'm gonna go listen to it or whatever it might be . They might also just like not have any memory of what it is . And then they see all these buttons are like I don't know , I need to close these things . Whatever it was , if it's important they'll come back right .

So you want there to be one thing for them to do , and that one thing is opt in . The way you fix this really depends on the platform that you're on . Squarespace , I actually had to add code in to remove the header .

Other platforms , like Kajabi , actually has a landing page setting or like a sub section , and so if you create a page in the landing page section , it will by default have that set up , where there's nothing else to do . I use Squarespace , so I had to put in the code .

So you're just going to need to figure out how to remove the menu bar on your platform . I just Googled it . I either came across it was probably Reddit . I probably found the code that I needed in Reddit . So , yeah , google , get rid of the menu bar or whatever you're trying to get rid of like sidebar , in whichever website builder that you're using .

Again , some are going to be easy . Leadpages is really easy . Kajabi is really easy . Some are going to be more challenging , like Squarespace , and then others like WordPress . You're probably going to need to use plugins like Elementor , and I have no idea . Wordpress terrifies me , absolutely terrifies me . The only thing I can do in there is install a pixel .

I know how to do it . I get in , I get out . I hope I don't break anything . Okay , mistake number two is too much text . This one's pretty common too , where there are chunks and big , huge paragraphs of text specifically at the top .

If you have a longer form landing page , you're probably gonna have more text lower down , but at the very top you want it to be a title or a heading of some sort . Maybe one sentence , two sentence , a couple bullet points . Maybe you want it to be really really easy to read and understand .

Not an overwhelming amount of text at all , because again , people are going to get distracted . They're going to have 30 some odd tabs open . Their kid's going to need a glass of water and they're going to like have to leave and come back and you want them to know exactly what it was that they were looking at instantaneously , even if it's two days later .

So , keeping it really simple , with a heading , very limited text , and obviously your solution to this .

If you currently have a big chunk of text , my two recommendations are use bullet points and if there's a longer piece of text that you're really , really , really set on keeping , then find a way to highlight the most important words , like bolding or underlining or using a different color , so that if someone is in a rush , in a hurry and they're not going to

read the entire paragraph chunk , that they'll be able to pull out those

keywords . Mistake number three is where the heck is that button ? So the button I'm talking about is the submit button , and sometimes the color . It just really really blends into the background .

Sometimes it's below the fold , which you've probably heard of this before , but like with a newspaper , because it's below the fold , which you've probably heard of this before but like with a newspaper , because it folds , the most important headline of the day goes above the fold , so that when the newspaper is sitting on the table or the counter or wherever , that's

the story you see , and then anything below , where the newspaper actually folds , is hidden . And so in technology world we still use above and below the fold , but what we really mean is above or below the scroll . So when the page opens without scrolling , what can you see ?

If the form and the button are below the scroll , so someone has to scroll to find it , then you're going to lose people . You are absolutely going to lose people .

So even if you have a longer form page where there's more text , I still highly highly recommend that you have the form or , at very , very , very minimum , a very obvious button , so people know exactly what to do immediately and they're not searching for it .

Also , this is a really , really great place to use contrasting colors so that the form and the button really , really pop out . You want people to immediately know what to do without having to look , without having to search , and to see it instantaneously . Mistake number four what do you even want me to do ?

This is kind of like all of the mistakes wrapped up in one .

It needs to be so obvious what you want somebody to do and what the page is for , and so that's why my preference is to have that simple , short form landing page about 90% of the time , where there is a picture of something like maybe it's the cover or maybe it's one of the main pages of the resource , that you're giving away some sort of image that pops

so that they can immediately see what they're getting , and then a very , very obvious form with , like , maybe even an arrow , sign up for free , grab it today for free . Something like that that immediately reminds people of what you want them to do on that page . There's nothing else , there's no distractions , the amount of text is just right .

So , just again and I've reiterated this like so many times , because every single other mistake kind of comes back to this one but just making sure that people know exactly what it is that you want them to do . A really great way to make sure that this is okay is to actually have people give you their feedback , so having people who are outside of your .

And then mistake number five is having a pop-up on the landing page for your free opt-in Especially . Well , actually , I don't know which one's worse If you're popping up for the exact same thing or if you're popping up for something different .

Either way , if someone's on a landing page where the goal is to have them sign up for a free thing a pop-up which is there's two main pop-ups , there's a time-based pop-up , which is there's two main pop-ups , there's a time-based pop-up , so after 10 seconds or 30 seconds , whatever it might be , however long it pops up . Or there's exit intent pop-ups .

So when you move your mouse towards the X to close the tab , the pop-up that brings you back to the page , either one of those when somebody's on a landing page to get them to sign up for a thing , having a pop-up that basically is asking them to sign up for something , it's just tacky . That is .

The biggest problem here is that it's tacky because you're already asking them to sign up for their email list and , yes , maybe this thing that the pop-up is for is really great , but it's just tacky . Either the person has already signed up or they're about to sign up . When a pop-up is for is really great , but it's just tacky .

Either the person has already signed up or they're about to sign up . When a pop-up comes in my face , I get annoyed and I definitely will sign up for them , like if I'm on someone's blog or something and then I go to exit and a pop-up comes up , I'm like , oh yeah , that's actually a good idea . I'm glad that that showed up .

But when I'm trying to sign up for something and it pops up , or I've decided I don't want to sign up and it pops up as I'm trying to get out . It's just annoying and it's just not kind . So try your best to make sure that the pop-up is turned off for your landing pages . And I'm saying this and I don't even know if it's turned off for mine .

I'm going to have to go look because I don't want to be annoying people . And , like I said , I'm not even sure which one's worse . If you have a thing that people are going to sign up for and then it's a pop-up for the exact same thing , or if it's for something different . I'm really trying to decide which one .

I feel like an exit pop-up for the same thing is the worst , because you've already , if you're exiting , you probably have either already signed up or decided you don't want it , and then this pop-up for the exact same thing shows up and you're like , no , I already said I didn't want it . And then you're just even more frustrated .

At least if it's an exit intent pop-up for something different , you can be like oh , you know , I wasn't interested in that first thing , but I'm interested in this other thing , I don't know . Anyway , get rid of that pop up , especially if it's an ad .

You really just don't want to seem too salesy , too tacky in someone's face when they've never heard of you before and they just found you through an ad . So try your best to not have that there Again . It might be hard , depending on your setup . The program that you're using I have to use like an extension and I'm not even sure I can do it .

So we're going to go look right as soon as I hit . End recording on this podcast , but I always like to recap . So we talked about what a landing page is , that standalone page from your website often used for a sales page or a free opt-in For most of this podcast .

We talked about the freebie opt-in and talked about why they're important , how to use them , and then the five mistakes were that there's lots of things to do on the page and that you need to get rid of anything on the sidebar , any menu , that you have , anything that could distract people from getting them onto your email list .

Mistake number two is having too much text . People want to scan , they want to easily readable , so highlight the important words , use different colors , use bullet points , get rid of any non-essential text , especially at that very top part above the fold . Mistake number three is where the heck is the button ? If people can't find your form , the button blends in .

Then they're not going to be able to sign up . So use contrasting colors and make sure that the form and the button are above the scroll so that people see them immediately as soon as the page opens . Number four is what do you even want me to do If people don't know what they're supposed to do ?

They don't know where the form is , they don't know the information that you want . They're not going to do it , they're going to frustrate it and shut the page . So make it easy and make it obvious . And then number five is having a pop-up on a page that someone is trying to sign up for a freebie anyway . So get rid of those pop-ups .

Make it as simple and obvious Again , just one thing that you want them to do on that page . I hope that you found this helpful and I am excited to be back with you for another strategy session next Saturday . Thank you for listening to this episode of Market Scale Grow .

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