The Ultimate CRO Checklist for Landing Pages That Convert

Designing an engaging landing page can lead to more users interacting with your site than ever before. All it takes is to conduct a proper landing page optimization. However, you may still be unsure how to optimize your landing page. But don’t worry, as in this article, we’ll go through the ultimate checklist for optimizing your landing page. Let’s get started!

Landing page optimization aims to increase site engagement and conversions to boost sales. It’s all about improving your website elements and doing A/B testing on your site content placements, links, forms, CTAs, and overall landing page design. You can consider landing page optimization as a subset of conversion rate optimization (CRO) to increase return on investment (ROI) and increase product sales.

Why is optimizing your landing page important for your online business?

There are plenty of reasons related to landing page optimization, and you should understand some basics before starting. A landing page is one of the key elements of running online marketing campaigns, such as paid campaigns and ads, to generate leads and convert them into sales.

If you can optimize your landing page or pages well, you can more effectively reach your target audience, drive traffic, and improve conversions. This makes landing page optimization crucial for any online business.

Implementing your landing pages properly in a marketing campaign can immediately drive sales, boost customer acquisition rates, and improve your customer base.

The strategy for effective landing page optimizations

Landing page optimizations (LPO) aim to improve your landing page’s performance by creating a more targeted and compelling message for your visitors, eventually driving conversion. You can start by understanding

• The primary goals of the page
• What we want the pages to do for our visitors
• Does the page accomplish its goals or not

Common goals can get users to buy a product or plan, subscribe to a blog or newsletter, book a demo or contact the team.

Five ways to improve your landing page conversion rate

The key to increasing the conversion rate for landing pages is continuously optimizing them. Here are five ways you can do to get the ball rolling.

1. Audit which factors are affecting your current conversion rate

You won’t know how to increase conversions effectively until you discover why web page visitors aren’t converting. Luckily, there are many ways to analyze the different elements of your landing pages.

Auditing user behavior on the existing landing page will offer valuable insights. These include website heatmaps, which can help you identify the elements on your landing page that attract the most and least attention. These insights can help you fix and optimize any ineffective elements, including a CTA button or an image on the page.

For example, a modeling company’s landing page shows that the models displayed on the page were a big distraction to visitors. And when the image was replaced by other alternatives, visitors paid more attention to the copy, eventually increasing conversions. Bandwidth used these Heatmaps to understand user behaviors and implemented necessary changes to product pages, resulting in a 12% conversion improvement.

2. One call to action (CTA)

Every landing page should have a clear goal, whether downloading an eBook, filling in a form, or taking other actions. Everything about your page, including the design, copy, and visuals, must align with your call to action.

Place your CTA on ‘the spot’ where your visitors will find it seamlessly as they land on your page. This will boost your chances of witnessing an increase in conversions. Many online businesses have witnessed dramatic changes in conversions by making their primary CTA more legible by moving it to ideal positions above the fold and playing with different colors, resulting in increased clicks by a massive 101%.

3. Introduce new elements and do continuous testing

Landing page optimization is an ongoing process; you’ll likely learn something new at every step. The best practice is to keep tweaking, experimenting, and replacing your page’s elements. Try out new headings, copy, images, CTAs, colors, and more. Change the design and move things around. This will help you determine the components that will drive conversion.

Many companies have experienced a massive hike in conversion rate just by changing a different background and a more suitable CTA. Keep tinkering with every aspect of your landing page and keep track of everything during the experimentation stages. Conduct A/B tests to analyze changes to individual elements and multivariate tests for new pages.

4. Enhance your visuals

The visuals you display on your landing page can massively affect the page’s conversion rate. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words. Attractive images, explainer videos, and even GIFs are the main examples. However, even though visuals are a great way to improve conversion rate, it isn’t always the case.

HubSpot conducted an A/B experiment on an opt-in form. One version had an image, and the other did not. The results showed that the version without the image experienced a 24% increase in sign-ups.

Heat maps show that an image’s positioning has a big impact on where people turn their attention. This is why running tests to improve landing page conversion rates is crucial. Also, if you include videos or animations on your landing page, make sure they don’t affect your page’s load time. Longer loading times result in more friction, leading to higher bounce rates. The ideal load time shouldn’t exceed 3 seconds.

5. Take advantage of your social proof

Social proof is a powerful element that affects human psychology. People are much more likely to take action when something is recommended to them. Stories, evidence, and opinions profoundly impact people and their decisions. Therefore, adding social proof to your landing page is a great way to improve conversion rates. This can be in the form of testimonials, reviews, or a display of your brand’s interactions and likes on social media.

In summary

Optimizing your landing pages is one of the quickest and most effective ways to increase your sales and volume of leads. Like other CRO practices, you can improve landing page conversion rates as long as you understand your specific audience’s needs.

Through a series of data-driven analyses combined with a few experiments, you’ll likely witness some guaranteed improvements in your landing page conversion rates.