Landing Page Mistakes That Hurt Your Conversion Rate
Discover common landing page mistakes that hurt conversions and learn how landing page SEO, better design, and clear CTAs can improve results.
10/29/20267 min read
It will be one of the early places where prospects will interact with when they click on the ad, social media posts, or search results. It plays a very important role in ensuring that you convert these prospects into leads and eventually, into customers. Nonetheless, regardless of how great your website may be, there is a chance that you will lose potential clients due to bad landing pages.
However, many organizations engage themselves in several internet marketing techniques like SEO and online advertisement in order to increase traffic but they do not manage some problems which won’t allow the traffic to perform any action. This can result in wasting of advertising budget as well as reduction in number of inquiries and sales.
Understanding Landing Page SEO and Conversion Optimization will help you create quality landing pages which attract visitors and encourage them to take certain actions. Below are some of the landing page mistakes which lower the conversion rate.
What Is a Landing Page Conversion Rate?
The conversion rate of a landing page is the percentage of people who perform a particular task on the landing page. The particular task might include:
Submission of the contact form
Purchasing the product
Booking the consultation
Subscribing to the newsletter
If you have 100 visitors coming to your website but only five of them complete the inquiry process, then the conversion rate for your website is 5%.
The conversion rate is not always indicative of lack of traffic on your site. There might be certain problems with the landing page itself.
1. Having an Unclear Headline
The first point that comes into consideration of your visitors while they visit your landing page is your headline. It doesn’t matter whether your headline is very interesting or not; you may not even make it clear for your users what value proposition you have got. They will simply leave your landing page.
"Welcome to Our Website" is an example of an unclear headline that does not say anything about the value of your business.
How to improve it:
Formulate a title that will show exactly what the advantage of your business is.
Describe the issue that your solution tackles.
Make sure the message is concise and understandable.
Support your headline with a subhead that would clarify your offer.
For example, you should use "Get More Qualified Leads with Strategic Digital Marketing" instead of "Our Digital Marketing Services."
2. Having Too Many Calls to Action
Call To Action (CTA)
The Call to Action lets users know what to do next. The examples include:
"Get a Free Quote"
"Book a Consultation"
"Buy Now"
Too many calls to action competing with each other on a landing page can distract visitors from making any decision. When a guest is confronted with several unrelated alternatives, then he will find it difficult for him to decide what he should do next.
Fixing the Problem
Select one conversion goal for the landing page.
Select an action-oriented CTA.
Place your CTA in a prominent position on the landing page.
Repeat the primary call-to-action in case of a long landing page.
Only include secondary call-to-actions if they make sense with your primary call-to-action.
Your landing page needs to help your user take the next step.
3. Slow Page Loading Speed
Loading time of a website is one of the factors that affect the overall performance of the website. Website could get abandoned by users due to its slow loading time, especially when users use the Internet through their mobile phones.
Moreover, slow web pages can influence the web page's visibility in the results of search engine inquiries and decrease the efficiency of paid online advertisements.
This is where the need for Landing page SEO becomes evident. The SEO process needs to align with the website's efficiency and user comfortability.
How to fix it:
Use image compression without significant lowering of its quality.
Eliminate unnecessary scripts and plug-ins.
Choose reliable web hosting.
Implement browser caching when needed.
Conduct website test using Google PageSpeed Insights.
Fast-loading landing page allows visitors to find necessary information quickly and perform actions that you desire from them.
4. Ignoring Mobile Users
Potential clients find many companies through their mobile phones. In case the page of your company is appealing on the desktop and becomes complicated for usage via a mobile phone, you may miss some important opportunities.
Proper font size, button placement, complicated forms, and horizontal scrolling may annoy mobile users.
What to do about it:
Make your design flexible depending on screen size.
Make the buttons big enough.
Have a comfortable font size and spacing.
Keep the forms short.
Test your page using different mobile devices.
Mobile usability is crucial both for the user and Landing page SEO.
5. Writing Too Much or Too Little Content
Content helps to make visitors aware of your offer and helps them to evaluate the benefits and make a decision to trust your brand. However, at times having too many or too few content on your web page might harm your conversions.
A page that has too much text can scare visitors away, while a page that has insufficient content can leave questions open.
How to solve this problem:
Explain the main offer on top of the page.
Describe benefits instead of features.
Separate long blocks into paragraphs or bullet points.
Add answers to customers' frequent questions.
Eliminate irrelevant information.
Your content needs to have enough information to inspire trust without making the decision complicated.
6. Using Weak or Generic Calls to Action
Even when visitors comprehend what you’re offering them, they won’t follow through if your CTA is ambiguous and lacking substance.
The actions of "Submit" and "Click Here" buttons provide no explanation of their purpose.
The solution:
Employ action-oriented language that shows them the value in clicking through.
For example:
Get My Free Quote
Schedule Your Free Consultation
Download the Guide
Get Your Free Trial
Request a Callback
Make sure that your CTA button stands out among other buttons on your site and matches your offer. Do not fool your audience with empty promises.
7. Failing to Build Trust
People will hesitate to give out their personal information or purchase any products if they do not feel sure that your company is reliable. This applies even more to first-time visitors that have not interacted with your brand before.
Lack of cues for credibility on a landing page might raise suspicions regarding the offer made there.
How to solve it:
Present authentic testimonials from customers.
Include case studies or measurable results.
Display logos of your clients if you have the authority to do so.
Provide contact details.
Elaborate on how you protect users' personal data.
Use secure payment options and inform the user of related policies.
Credibility cues need to be relevant and authentic.
8. Using Poor-Quality Images and Visuals
Visual elements assist in conveying your message, yet irrelevant stock images, low resolution images, and distracting designs will negatively impact the professionalism of your landing page.
Also, there is the issue of loading for large images, particularly if those images have not been optimized correctly.
How to solve it:
Use visual elements which are high quality and relevant to the message you are trying to deliver.
Show real pictures of your products or photographs that match the essence of your business.
Keep the color schemes, fonts, and spaces constant.
Don’t use animations and other decorative design elements.
9. Neglecting SEO and Search Intent
Your landing page may be designed beautifully but may still lack relevant visitors if it doesn't resonate with user queries.
Landing Page SEO is not limited to keyword usage on that particular page. Understanding user intent and providing relevant content to them are what matter.
What to do to fix this issue:
Conduct research on relevant keywords before creating the page.
Remember that you should use the primary keyword naturally in the title, header, and rest of the content.
Provide a descriptive meta title and description.
Structure your URLs properly.
Alt tag should be written for all images.
Make sure that your webpage can be indexed by search engines due to organic visibility.
Provide valuable content that fulfills the requirements of the visitors.
Do not stuff keywords and do not use irrelevant ones just because you want to achieve higher positions in search. Your content should sound natural.
10. Making Forms Too Complicated
Forms are usually the last thing standing between a visitor and a conversion. Gathering too many details from the user may cause him to refrain from filling out forms.
For instance, a visitor looking for a brief consultation might feel dissuaded by having to provide some superfluous information about himself or his business.
How to solve it:
Collect only the information you really need.
Provide understandable labels for all the fields.
Create error messages that will be comprehensible for your users.
Make sure that the form is mobile-friendly.
Inform users about what will happen after the submission.
Display the completion of the form submission process.
11. Failing to Test and Improve the Page
Landing page creation does not mark the end of the process. Customer behaviour changes, campaigns evolve, and different audiences respond to different messages.
Without regular testing, you may continue using a page that performs poorly.
How to fix it:
Monitor conversion rates using suitable analytics tools.
Review where visitors leave the page.
Test different headlines, CTAs, and page layouts.
Compare form completion rates across devices.
Use heat maps and session recordings whenever appropriate while maintaining privacy at all times.
A/B testing allows you to see which page works better. Try to test only one element each time if possible and collect sufficient data before making your conclusion.
Sometimes little changes based on facts lead to great effects.
How Digital Marketing Agencies Can Help Improve Landing Page Conversions
Optimizing a landing page requires a balance between strategy, design, performance, content, and data analysis.
A digital marketing company can assist organizations in uncovering obstacles to conversions, researching keywords, improving landing page content, ensuring fast loading times, and creating compelling calls to action.
A digital marketing agency can coordinate their landing pages to their advertisements so much that when a user sees an advertisement, the message of the advertisement coincides with the landing page message.
With the right combination of Landing page SEO and conversion rate optimization, businesses can strive towards attracting more targeted traffic and converting a higher percentage of visitors into qualified leads.
A landing page should do more than just look professional. It has to communicate value, build trust, give answers, and facilitate actions of its visitors.
A number of problems can be pointed out, including:
Ineffective headings
Slow page loading
Unclear CTAs
Difficult filling forms
Inappropriate mobile adaptation among others
Fortunately, there is an opportunity to solve all of these problems thanks to appropriate analysis and improvements.
An appropriate combination of Landing page SEO along with the right design of a landing page and relevant messages will result in the development of landing pages useful not only for search but also for your potential customers.
Instead of trying to generate more traffic for your website, it would be better to find the reason why users do not convert into leads and solve their problems.