Building a finely-tuned landing page is an essential step in any webmaster’s mission to drive traffic and increase conversions.
A landing page is a standalone web page is going to be the first point of contact for visitors to your site, and as such it needs to effectively promote a specific product or service, capture contact information for lead generation, or present your brand in an engaging and accurate way.
In this post, we’ll guide you through the process of building a custom landing page on WordPress, covering everything from selecting a theme and creating a layout, to adding content and ongoing optimizations. Let’s jump in!
Step 1: Choose a Theme
The first step in building a custom landing page on WordPress is to choose a theme. WordPress has thousands of themes available, both free and paid, so it’s important to choose one that is suitable for your needs.
When selecting a theme, consider the following:
- The theme should be responsive, meaning it should look good on all devices (desktop, tablet, and mobile).
- The theme should be customizable, with plenty of options to change colors, fonts, and layout.
- The theme should be optimized for conversion, with elements such as a clear call-to-action and a form for capturing contact information.
Though any theme can be customized to the point that it’s unrecognizable when compared to the original template, the theme you choose in this first step can have a profound impact on future design decisions and the overall direction your landing page takes.
Think carefully about your choice here, taking cues from example projects and considering how the theme fits into “bigger picture” decisions from the business leadership.
Step 2: Create a Layout
Once you’ve chosen a theme, the next step is to create a layout for your landing page. This is where you will decide on the placement of elements such as the header, the main content area, and the footer.
With every decision you make regarding the layout of your landing page, it’s essential to consider whether or not a certain feature or design will benefit the visitor’s experience.
The final result can follow established norms or do something way outside the box, but should still prioritize certain principles of UX design. This means keeping your layout uncluttered and easy to understand, aesthetically pleasing and easy to navigate, and designed to move the visitor naturally towards a specific call to action.
Think of some of the competitor sites you admire most, and you’ll likely see that their layout is setup to check all these boxes in a way that delights their specific audience.
Just like your product, if the layout of your custom landing page is geared to delight your leads, you’ll be sure to maximize your conversions and enjoy higher-quality traffic.
Step 3: Add Great Content
Once you’ve created a layout, the next step is to add content to your landing page. This cover copywriting, adding images and videos, and curating any other content that’s necessary for your landing page to function.
When you’re filling your landing page with content, one of the easiest things to screw up is the copy. Remember to aim for copy that’s both compelling and persuasive, but also concise and scannable. Some studies suggest that modern humans have an average attention span of just 8 seconds, meaning your content has to be easily digestible and compatible with the skim-and-scan approach modern web users have to the written word.
Using bullet points and lists to break up long blocks of text, changing up font sizes to help visitors differentiate by importance, and using as few words as possible to communicate salient points can all contribute to a more effective page.
Once you’ve made your page as user-friendly as possible in these areas, the next important step is to think about optimizing it for SEO. You’ll likely be some of the way there as Google’s algorithms increasingly favor positive user experience.
“With Google using at least 200 different factors to assess where a website should rank for a specific search query, it’s understandable to not know where to start.” says KAU Media Group. Getting a free SEO audit from a trusted agency will highlight some of the more technical shortcomings and help get your wider SEO moving in the right direction.
Step 4: Test and Analyze
Once you’ve curated your content and optimized your landing page for conversion, it’s time to take a deep dive into how your visitors are interacting with your page and make calculated adjustments to improve its effectiveness.
Though there are plenty of best practices touted by web design specialists, no two audiences are exactly alike. Continuous analysis and improvement will separate your landing page from your more passive competitors.
There are a few key metrics that you should track when analyzing your landing page:
Bounce rate: This is the percentage of visitors who leave your site after viewing a single page and not taking any further action. A high bounce rate indicates that your landing page is not engaging or relevant to your visitors.
Conversion rate: This is the percentage of visitors who take a desired action on your page, such as filling out a form or making a purchase. A high conversion rate indicates that your landing page is performing effectively and moving your visitors down the funnel.
Time on page: This is the amount of time that visitors spend on your landing page. A high time on page indicates that your visitors are engaging with your content.
To test and analyze your landing page, you can use tools such as Google Analytics, Hotjar, and Optimizely. These tools will allow you to track and analyze key metrics, as well as run A/B tests to compare different versions of your landing page.
Step 5: Keep on Improving
After following the previous steps, you’ll have a functional landing page that’s ready to start bringing in qualified traffic. The fifth and final step in this process is to make a plan to continuously analyze interactions with your page, and make regular improvements based on your findings.
This could include things such as changing the layout, rewriting the copy, or adding new elements such as images or videos. Just like your business, your audience and modern consumer trends are always in a state of flux, and making sure you’re caught-up with these market shifts is essential to your continued success.
It’s important to remember that building a custom landing page is an ongoing process, and you should always be looking for ways to improve it. Keep testing and analyzing your landing page, and make adjustments as necessary to ensure that it is as effective as possible.
Final Thoughts…
By following the steps outlined in this post, you can create a landing page that is simple, visually appealing, and optimized for conversion.
Remember to keep your audience at the center of your decisions, and maintain a mindset of constant improvement, and your landing page is certain to make a splash with your unique audience!
Flavius is a digital tech savy with passion for web design, digital marketing and all online stuff. In his free time, he likes to go to the gym, practice kickboxing and watching sports.
