A person arriving at your landing page will only take a few seconds to decide if they're going to stick around. Constructing a high quality, enticing landing page is the surest way to interest people in your offer.

What a Landing Page Does

A landing page is the middle step between your advertisement and meeting a new possible customer, or "lead." It is the place a prospective client "lands" after she clicks on your advertisement or search engine hit. It isn't a homepage that details your service; it's an alluring call to action, designed to pique interest and make people leave you their contact information.

Visuals

Visuals are the most effective part of a landing page. Pictures are what the human eyes seek first and linger on the longest. Special care must be taken in your use of them. The graphics on your page should be clear and compelling. Avoid a clutter of cheap stock photos and clip art. Make sure the search term that brought them to you is highly visible, preferably in the title of the page.

Be Scannable

A prospect should be able to absorb all your pertinent information in seconds. Prospects aren't really reading your page, they're skimming. They will lose patience fast if they can't immediately tell that your page fits their search criteria. Thick paragraphs, tangential writing, and text that needs to be scrolled will complicate your purpose. Bold headings and bullet points are quick and direct methods of communication.

A Worthy Call to Action

Give your prospects a direction. Convincing them of the value of your program isn't enough. Tell them their next move, and have be it worth their while to make it. When you ask a person to convert to a lead, you are often asking them to inconvenience themselves. They came to your landing page as effortless observers. But, now you want them to take the time to fill out forms, and give you personal information. It is important that your page communicates to them that this is a safe, smart and worthwhile endeavor.

Testimonials in the margins of your page are one way to inspire confidence in your prospect, as does the use of inviting words such as "free" and "no commitment" in your graphics. 

Testing

The only way to find out for certain if your landing page is as effective as it can be is to test. Multivariate testing, or "split testing," allows you to find out which aspects of your page are having the strongest effects on your prospects. Two landing pages with the same text and offers, but with different visuals will help you learn which composition gives you the highest yield.

Landing pages are literally the link between you and your customers. If you hope to convert a prospect to a lead, your landing pages should catch the eye and inspire confidence.