Landing Pages that Work
Google Conversion Team

Northern and Central Europe (NACE)

Disclaimer

In general, there are no such things as best practices that offer a full guarantee to success
when it comes to optimizing landing pages for conversion.

There are however a number of things that every site owner should take into account when
creating or optimizing landing pages – or in other words – a couple of boxes that (nearly) every
landing page should check.

This deck covers these and aims to provide clients with 10 questions they should ask
themselves when looking at their own landing pages. It explains why these are important
to ask and gives tips on what to improve / test in case the answer to any of the 10 questions
turns out to be negative.

To get started, find an important landing page for your client and an ad leading to that page

10

Landing pages that work – The BIG ten

4

Branding

& site purpose

2

Speed

1

Confirmation

3

First

impression

3

5

Design

6

Visuals

7

Text

8

Call-to-action

9

Value

proposition

Persuasion

1

Confirmation

Why is it important?

•

 

Visitors click on your ad because they saw

something they liked

•

 

If what they liked is not present or not confirmed

on the landing page they are more likely to
leave your site right away

What you should do

•

 

Make sure the text (and colours) of your landing

page match the ads driving traffic to them

•

 

Keep the promises from your ads: if you are

advertising with free delivery, a specific product
price or a discount, these should be confirmed
on your landing page.

Question to ask

Does your landing page confirm what was in the Ad? (e.g. Product from the Ad, Number
of offers, Price, Discounts, Free Delivery, Top Rated site…)

2

Speed

Why is it important?

•

 

Load time is a ranking factor in the organic Google

results and affect your AdWords LPQ score

•

 

Around 50% of visitors will leave your site if it does

not load within 3 seconds (sources: PhocusWright,
Forrester Consulting)

What you should do

•

 

Use

Google PageSpeed Insights

,

YSlow

and/or

WebPagetest

to identify slow loading pages and review

specific advice on how to speed up load times on your
pages

•

 

Review

Let's Make The Web Faster

to find more

information on how to make your site faster, with access
to more Google tools

•

 

If you use Google Analytics, explore the

site and page speed reports

there over time to assess

how much you are improving as you get to work on page
speeds

Question to ask

Does your landing page load fast? – aim for less than 3 seconds for the page to load
using a normal broadband connection (tip: use

pagespeed.googlelabs.com

to check

landing page load time performance for desktop and mobile)

3

First impression

Why is it important?

•

 

Various studies show that it only takes a fraction

of a second for visitors to get a first impression
of your site

•

 

It is extremely hard to change the first

impression of a visitor. A negative first
impression will stick to their mind and reduce
the chance they will convert on this visit or ever
come back

•

 

Research shows that indications of sincerity

and competence are key in building visitors’
initial trust

What you should do

•

 

Use a limited number of mostly natural colours and

make sure the contrast between page background
and your text is strong

•

 

Limit the number of advertisements and banners

on your page

•

 

Remove any elements that look out-dated – visitors

will respond positively to a page that looks modern
and up-to-date

•

 

Make sure there are absolutely no errors / layout issues

on your landing pages for all major browsers and screen
resolutions, you can check what your site looks like on
most devices with

Screenfly

Question to ask

Does the page make a good first impression? Without looking any
further, is this a site run by someone you would buy something from?

“You never get

a second chance

to make a first

impression”

4

Branding & Site Purpose

Why is it important?

•

 

Your landing page acts as a highly targeted

storefront and visitors will appreciate immediately
knowing where they are and what is being offered

•

 

Visitors who know your brand expect to

recognize things on your site, like your logo
or corporate colours

What you should do

•

 

Clearly show your corporate logo

•

 

Use your corporate colours as part of the colour

scheme of your page

•

 

If available, show well know spokespeople / mascots

•

 

Use a tagline below or next to your logo to serve as a

memorable and easily recognizable phrase associated
with your brand name

•

 

Use BIG HEADLINES that explain what visitors can

expect on your site.

Question to ask

When coming to the page, is it immediately clear whose site it is and what the purpose of the
page / site is? (things like a logo, corporate colors, and a clear tag-line are things to look for)

5

Design

Why is it important?

•

 

Distracting visitors from the actual offers they

came looking for will have a negative impact
on your conversion rate

•

 

Overwhelming visitors with options, offers,

specials and call-to-action buttons will make
them indecisive, confused and less likely
to convert.

What you should do

•

 

Remove as many elements as possible from your landing

pages that can draw the attention of your visitors away
from your offers

•

 

Show your key offers above the fold

•

 

Keep your page clean and uncluttered

•

 

Make use of whitespace

Question to ask

Is the design of the landing page ‘clean’ and does it focus your attention on the actual
offer(s) on the page?

6

Visuals

Why is it important?

•

 

Visuals can be used to show off your products

from all possible angles, build trust, create the
right emotions or make your landing page just a
bit more personal

•

 

A so-called Hero Shot (an image that makes your

offer look more substantial) can do wonders for
your conversion rate

What you should do

•

 

Make sure that the visuals you show are of high quality

(though compressed enough not to slow down your load
times)

•

 

Don’t auto-play videos upon page load

•

 

Consider showing your products ‘in action’ or show

what great things your product / service can do

•

 

Let visitors zoom in to the very details of your products

if you are selling products with a high ‘touch factor’

•

 

Ensure images of products show the size dimensions of

the product

•

 

Consider testing the impact of product videos on the

conversion rate of your landing pages

Question to ask

Are high quality graphics / images / videos used that support the offer(s)
on the landing page?

7

Text

Why is it important?

•

 

Most visitors do not take the time to read

everything on your landing page but quickly
scan it to see if it is what they were looking for

•

 

Text tailored to your target audience will help

create the right emotions

What you should do

•

 

Use BIG HEADLINES to get your key message across

•

 

Keep sentences and paragraphs short

•

 

Make use of bullet points to list important features

and benefits

•

 

Write positive and activating text

•

 

Customize standard product or service description

•

 

Start with the most important message at the top

of your page

•

 

Avoid obvious marketing lingo and jargon unless you are

certain every visitors would understand the terms

Question to ask

Is the text used on the landing page tailored to the target audience and is it easy to scan
and skim the text?

8

Call-to-action

Why is it important?

•

 

Call-to-action buttons provide guidance to visitors

coming to your page

•

 

A clear call to action will grab the attention of your

visitor and with the right wording can improve the
conversion rate of your page

What you should do

•

 

Use wording that describes what will happen next

preferably starting with a verb (example: ‘Download
our free Guide book’)

•

 

Make sure your call-to-action appears above the fold

and keep a considerable amount of space between
call-to-action and the rest of your content

•

 

Use a colour that lets your call-to-action stand out from

the rest of your page

•

 

Size your call-to-actions based on their priority

•

 

Try and limit the amount of call-to-actions on your page

Question to ask

Is a (limited amount of) call-to-action button(s) provided above the fold, and is it
immediately clear where to click to continue to the next step in the process?

Read this text

9

Value proposition*

Why is it important?

•

 

Consumers often compare the offers on multiple

sites and make their final decision based not only
on price but also on the additional value provided

•

 

For many products, your value proposition is what

distinguishes you from your competitors

What you should do

•

 

Summarize your Value Proposition on your landing page

•

 

Phrase your Value Proposition in a way that it

shows the benefit to your potential customer

•

 

Keep it short and simple (e.g. ‘Delivery in less than

24 hours’)

•

 

If you offer a wide range of payment methods, consider

showing these right here

•

 

Consider providing the answer to FAQs in your

Value Proposition

Question to ask

Does the landing page do a good job in explaining why to buy here, instead of
somewhere else?

* The unique added value an organization offers customers through their operations

10

Persuasion

Why is it important?

•

 

Improving the usability of your site is just one

part of the equation – the other part is to get
visitors to want what you are offering

•

 

Persuasion tactics can be used to replace the

friendly sales person assisting visitors with their
buying decision

What you should do

•

 

Try Reciprocation:

if you want visitors to perform a

certain action, offer them something in return (like a 5%
discount in return for signing up for a newsletter)

•

 

Show Commitment:

make sure visitors know that you

deliver what you promise with your offer (e.g. by offering a
money back guarantee)

•

 

Use Social Proof

: social influences are a huge factor in

human decision making, so use this to your advantage
(example: show how often a specific hotel was already
booked this week, or which friends of the visitor endorsed
the product or service on a social media site)

Question to ask

Is the landing page doing a good job persuading visitors to make a purchase on the site?

(1 of 2)

10

Persuasion

What you should do

•

 

Reveal Scarcity

: if visitors get the feeling that a product is running out they will feel

more inclined to buy it (now) instead of running the risk that they will be too late.
Additionally, something that is running out must be a good buy, right?

•

 

Show Authority

: if your landing page appears to be credible and authoritative, visitors

will be more likely to convert. Show customer testimonials, trust and security
certificates and awards

•

 

Use Framing

: if your landing page has multiple products or service options, help your

visitor make a decision by for instance listing one offer that is clearly the best or show
one that visually stands out from the rest

(2 of 2)

Summary

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

Final comments / summarizing thoughts:

Final Score

Confirmation

Speed

First impression

Branding & Site Purpose

Design

Visuals

Text

Call-to-action

Value proposition

Persuasion

16

Track visits to your website with

http://www.google.com/analytics

Google conversion team

Northern and Central Europe (NACE)

Original author: Jos Meijerhof

For more information contact:
Oliver Borm -

[e-mail]

Shane Cassells -

[e-mail]