How does one go about creating a quality landing page? Should you go online and learn how to do it all by yourself? Or should you hire a professional to create it for you?

Well, in a way, both. In order to create a quality landing page, you both need to know what a landing page should have and you need to hire a professional web designer to help you make it.

But, while this may seem pretty straightforward, there are a lot of things that you need to keep in mind in order to create a good landing page and then be able to promote it properly. So, let’s take a look at what you’ll need to wrestle with.

Before You Start Creating A Quality Landing Page

Before we go over the necessary steps for creating a quality landing page, there are a few things that you should be aware of. Know that the landing page is, arguably, the most important aspect of your website. In most cases, it will be the first thing people see once they visit it. Therefore, it serves as a first impression of what your company is like. And if there is one thing that marketing experts can tell you it’s that first impressions matter a lot. So, you better think long and hard about what your landing page is going to be like before you set out on making it.

What Should A Landing Page Have

Your landing page is the first thing a person will see once they visit your website. Therefore, it needs to have all the necessary information about what your website is for and, if it’s a company website, what your company does. Does this mean that your landing page should be miles long with a bunch of text outlining various services and products? Of course not. After all, you will have other pages that should detail out various aspects of your website. Instead, your landing page should serve as an overview of all that you offer on your website.

Once a person visits your landing page, they should have an idea of what your website is all about.

Short, Smart And Informative

Now, how are you supposed to write the content for your page? Well, we suggest that you keep the SSI principle in mind. SSI (short, smart and informative) implies that every piece of content you place on your website needs to be:

• As short as possible, without losing vital info.
• Well written and void of any confusion.
• Filled with vital information (no empty sentences).

Even though this is easier said than done, try to keep the SSI principle in mind. A lot of landing pages are filled with empty sentences (sentences that have no informative value) and are overall badly written. Some even have grammar or syntax mistakes. This is, with today’s writing assistance apps like Grammarly, unforgivable. So, keep in mind that your landing page needs to be top-notch.

Creativity Pays Off

Another pitfall to avoid is sounding too generic. A lot of people try to use the SSI principle, but end up sounding too formal and sterile. Keep in mind that people will have a feeling while reading your landing page. After all, we experience feelings when we read almost anything. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be such a thing as poetry or literature. So, try to keep the reader’s feelings in mind when writing content for your landing page. If it starts feeling like the landing page is too formal, mix it up a little. Creativity can pay dividends when it comes to creating a landing page. Some landing pages are so creative that people even share them with their friends, simply because of their creative aspect. So, don’t shy away from trying something new and fresh.

Keep Marketing In Mind

One of the most important things to keep in mind, when creating a quality landing page is marketing. After all, in order for people to visit your landing page, you will have to market your website. Be it through SEO, PPC or social media. So, to make all of that marketing effort easier, you need to carefully design your landing page. Now, the more you look into marketing, SEO especially, the more you will see how little things can have huge effects.

SEO is a part of every aspect of your online presence. Therefore, your landing page is no exception.

You will probably need to pick certain phrases and keywords in order for your landing page to pop up in search results. And, if you want to make it more marketable on social media, you need to optimize the content on your landing page so that it easily connects to various subjects. All in all, there is a lot to consider. So, try studying online marketing strategies a bit before you set out to create a quality landing page.

The Necessary Steps For Creating A Quality Landing Page

So, now that we have some basic principles figured out, let’s take a look at the necessary steps of creating a quality landing page. Keep in mind that while following these steps in the order we outline them is smart, they are not set in stone. Making a landing page is a creative effort which means that there cannot be a set procedure for creating it. But the steps we will outline should give you a good idea of what you need to do and a timeline that you’ll need to follow.

Step 1: Plan Your Website

Before you start creating your landing page, you need to understand that it is a part of a website. Arguably, the most important one. Therefore, what you need to do is plan your website properly before you start creating your landing pages. Other pages will contain valuable information. And the more pages you have, the less information you’ll have to put on your landing page. Keep in mind though that your landing page should at least hint to the rest of the pages, in order to incentivize people to further explore your website. So, try to figure out where you will put your content and how you will reference it. Don’t forget the SSI principle while organizing your website, as it requires you to have a limited, yet a substantial amount of content to put on your landing page.

Step 2: Add A Search Engine

Once you plan your website, we suggest that you add a search engine. One of the most common mistakes we see other people make is to either put up a bad search engine or to not put one up at all. Both of those are bad ideas since they make exploring your website a chore. If a person is trying to find a service or a piece of information on your website, they need to be able to do it in as few steps as possible. So, the better the search engine you are able to implement on your landing page, the more time people will spend on it. And, as you will soon learn, this is quite important for SEO. Ideally, you want your search engine to be as close to Google as possible.

The closer your search engine is to Google’s, the better.

Avoid being creative or artistic with your search engine as it is a tool, not a decoration. The faster it is and the easier it is to use it, the better the experience people will have while visiting your website.

Step 3: Consider Your Brand

The first two steps were concerning the technical aspects of your landing page. The third one has more to do with the look of it. Now, every long term marketing strategy will require you to make a brand. And once you create your brand, you need to sew it into every aspect of your website, including the landing page. Therefore, once you start designing the look of your landing page, try to keep your brand in mind. Ideally, you want to design your landing page around it so that it is properly incorporated. It is hard to overstate the importance of branding and brand placement, so try to tackle yours with the necessary effort. The more you can make your landing page exude the message that your brand promotes, the better.

Step 4: Designing The Landing Page

Now, with your brand in mind, you can start designing your landing page. A smart thing to do is to check out other companies’ landing pages and see what they did right and, more importantly, what they did wrong. As you will soon learn, there are literally hundreds of different ways in which you can organize your landing page. From animated ones to the ones made with 3D elements and even ones that use graphic elements. Not to mention subtle design decisions like utilizing minimalism or dark mode. The possibilities and combinations are endless. So, try to find the one that seems most appropriate for your company. Just remember that the design you pick for your landing page should be the design you keep for your entire website.

Step 5: Working With A Professional Web Designer

Once you pick a web design style that you like, you will need to incorporate it with your brand and your website organization plan. Doing this, as you might guess, can be difficult, which is why you need to find a professional web designer to help you out. Even though some websites may claim that they can teach you to design a landing page on your own, trust us when we tell you that you need to have an experienced web designer at your side. Keep in mind that creating a quality landing page means that it doesn’t only look good, but that it also runs smoothly. It also needs to be optimized for various platforms so that people can visit it from their devices. So, if you want to make a true quality website, hire a professional designer.

Creating a quality landing page without help from a professional web designer is practically impossible.

Ideally, you will find one that has experience with the line of work you are in. Such designers will give you tips and hints that never even crossed your mind. And, with luck, they will make your whole website a whole lot better. So, do yourself a favor and find a quality web designer to work with.

Step 6: Organization And Updates

The final step that you will have to take care of is the organization of your landing page and the updates. By organization, we mean how the content on your website will be updated and how the programming behind it will work. This, of course, is something that only a professional can tackle, which is one more reason why you need to find a good web designer. Also, you need to keep in mind that websites need to be updated regularly. New security updates and even new technologies will come up. And if your website isn’t update-friendly, you are going to have a bad time dealing with it. So, even when creating your landing page, try to keep updates in mind.

Things To Avoid

The steps we’ve outlined so far should give you a clear idea of what creating a quality landing page is all about. Now, we’ve mentioned before that creativity can be a great thing when making both a landing page and a website. After all, some of the best landing pages out there are quite creative. But, some people tend to implement outdated and overall bad ideas. So, to prevent this from happening here is what you need to avoid.

Pop-up Windows

No one likes pop-up windows. So, when creating your landing page, do not consider implementing them. Even if you think that you can give helpful tips or assist people in finding what they want, it’s can be detrimental to your website’s popularity.

Everyone hates pop-ups.

Music

The second thing that no landing page should ever have is music. There was a time when people thought that every good webpage should have music. But, there also was a time when people thought Tamagotchis and Walkmans were cool. Those things are now obsolete, and so is the idea that websites with music are neat.