What is a Landing Page?

Posted on 10 July 2009 | by Ryan Battles

We are all familiar with homepages for a website.  However, sophisticated websites also employ what are known as "Landing Pages."  A landing page is a single page designed for a single purpose, to orient a particular group of people towards a particular action.  For example, if you are a construction company, you may deal with general contractors as well as homeowners.  Which group do you target your homepage?  Well, both, I suppose.  However, you should create a landing page for each group.  A landing page for homeowners would highlight the ways that your company serves that group, and gently lead them into taking that next step, such as calling for a consultation, filling out a form, or ordering some brochures.  A landing page for the general contractors will probably have more industry lingo on it, and answer the types of questions a general contractor would like to know about your business.  Your call to action for a general contractor might also be different.  These landing pages often link back to other parts of your site, in case the target audience wants a bigger picture. 

So what are landing pages used for?  Whenever you send out an email campaign, or generate some other targeted advertising such as Google Adwords, you place a link to the particular landing page of the demographic that you are targeting.  This will result in a greater likelihood of users finding what they are looking for when they visit your site from a link, and will undoubtedly lead to higher sales or conversion rates for your website.