Have you ever walked into a new store expecting to find something interesting? Often you know from the moment you walk into the store that you won’t find a thing. You decide not to waste your time and leave without giving the store a fair chance because you just know. In the online world, the same thing happens; only here you have the ability to adapt the site to the needs of your visitors.
There are numerous functional areas of a website that influence the behavior of a visitor. The starting point of any visit is the landing page. A landing page can be anything as simple as the home page or it can be a microsite especially designed for a specific keyword in a given campaign. No matter how the visitor arrived at the site (that is a topic for a later post), the landing page is the first opportunity to grab and hold the attention of a visitor. The landing page, therefore, needs to convince the visitor to continue to click deeper into the site.
Web Analytics Tip 1: Try comparing the bounce rate of different landing pages. Are visitors leaving a certain landing page at a greater rate than other landing pages?
Web Analytics Tip 2: What is the bounce rate on landing pages by entry type? Look for any entry types that are sending your bounce rate through the roof. Go a step further and examine each individual landing page by entry type and see if there are particular campaigns or search terms that are causing a high bounce rate.
A good landing page leads visitors towards a desired action. However, since not all visitors have the same goal, the trick is to create a landing page that manages all these needs.
The landing page of the online invoice service, Zoho, does a great job in addressing the needs of its visitors. There is a clear call to action to sign up for the free service. The information content on the site provides answers to the major questions – what are the benefits of this service and can this benefit me? This landing page works so well because all elements support the main call to action on the page, namely, to sign up for the service. Finally, through the visually separated sign-in area, existing users are not alienated and have their own call to action.
