Conversion Rate: The number of visitors to a website that take a desired action divided by the total number of visitors to that website.

The first step is to find out if conversions are really the problem. Let's face it, no matter how fantastic a website is it will never achieve a 100% conversion rate. For retail, the electronics industry is on the low end with a common conversion rate of less than 1%; while on the high end the catalog industry average is around 9%. The average for most other industries is between 2% and 3%. (According to current Fireclick data.)

When it comes to lead generation conversion rates (newsletter sign-ups, free downloads, free trial offers), the average goes up to around 5% to 6%, although I have seen claims of as high as 70%. This conversion rate is going to be most affected by how enticing the offer is and how targeted the marketing is that led visitors to the offer.

If your website is already achieving average conversion rates, congratulations. Of course that is no reason not to strive for beating the averages. If you are not sure what your conversion rate is, Google Analytics has a Website Optimizer tool that can help you find out what it is.

A landing page is the specific webpage of your site a user lands on after following a link to your website. The link may be from a pay-per-click ad, a blog post, a search term, or anywhere a link to your website has been posted.

Not Your Home Page

When people click on links they are usually looking for something specific and the text around the link indicated they would be able to find it by clicking on the link. If they do not find what they are looking for on the page they are taken too, they are not likely to click around your website until they do. Let me give you a specific example.

Judy is a veterinarian. She just finished reading an article about a new device that makes dog dental care much easier. The article included a link to the device, so she clicked on it. The page the link took her to was the home page of a website that offered a variety of animal related supplies. Judy was only interested in the doggie dental device so rather than hunt around the website for it she simply typed the phrase into the Google search bar on her web browser. A different website came up as the top search listing and when Judy clicked the link it took her directly to the doggie dental device page, where she was easily able to place her order.

Moral of the story: make sure your links are targeted and match the page they link to.

If the item or special that you are offering is prominently featured on your home page, then use your home page. Otherwise your link should always direct people to the specific page where the information or item is located.

Focus

Your landing page should be focused on one thing - converting your visitor. Ways to do this include:

Call to Action

Once you get a visitor to your page you need to make it clear what action you want them to take. If you want them to sign up for your newsletter then make the sign-up box a prominent feature on the page (preferably near the top). If you want them to purchase something then make the buy now button large enough not to be missed (but not obnoxiously large) and use the words "buy now" so there is no mistaking what it is.

Summary

In short, a good landing page is: