9 Incredibly Simple (Yet Powerful) Landing Page Tips and Add-Ons to Boost Conversions

Stuck in a rut? Not sure why your landing page is converting?

I’d like to say we feel your pain here at Convertri HQ – but in reality, we love it when landing pages fail. That’s because there’s nothing we love better than getting stuck in, working why a page isn’t converting like it should, and experimenting with tips and hacks until the conversion rate shoots as high as we can make it.

Over the years we’ve collected quite a few tried-and-tested methods to boost landing page conversions. Some are fairly simple, some are so commonplace they’re easy to overlook. Some might not work in just a few months, and others are evergreen.

But we know you don’t care about that as much as making more sales, fast. So, without further ado, here’s our very best tips to help you optimise your page conversions, fast:

1. Remove the main navigation.

Where do you want your visitor to go after a landing page? Straight to the Buy button, of course, and you won’t find that in your main site’s navigation. There’s no point in distracting your prospect with links to your blog, contact info or bio, so get rid of your main navigation on any landing pages. This should up your page conversion in quite possibly the simplest way we’ve ever found.

2. Only ask for information you need…

The fewer fields you have in a form, the higher the conversion rate. TrueNorth published a fascinating study on why this is – as well as a couple of niche cases where it isn’t – and why it’s an excellent general rule to follow.

TLDR, each new field you add to a form creates more work for the visitor. And that’s… way boring, and makes people suspicious. On the other hand, the more fields you require, the better quality the leads, because they are likely to be more interested in your offer. It really depends what they’re signing up for – are you offering a free checklist, or an in-depth consultation call? In any case, reducing the form fields to the bare essentials should boost your conversion rate.

3. …Or, make the form look shorter

But what if you really do need all that information, but it’s putting your prospects off? Consider splitting it up into multiple pages. This had the added bonus of making each piece of information your prospect submits into a microcommitment: if they only have to fill out a couple of fields at a time, it’s easier for them to think “I’ve already filled out half, let’s keep going”.

You can also try merging form fields (such as “Full Name” instead of “First Name” and “Last Name”) or even aligning the titles to the left of each field instead of above it so that the form appears shorter. If the form covers less space on the page, it may seem as if you’re asking for less information.

4. Include eye-catching shiny objects

Video! GIFs! Interactive sliders! We’re not trying to tell you it’s a good idea to go crazy and create a 90’s nightmare landing page with marquee text, flashing cursors, big red buttons and music coming from God-knows-where that you can’t turn off. Instead, try adding a demo or explainer video, one or two GIF’s, or an interactive element to explain information.

Here’s an awesome example from Cal Newport. Catch the toggle about halfway down the landing page, which lets users view their productivity from a standard approach vs his time-blocking system. It’s simple, but satisfying.

Failing that, a cat GIF is always good.

5. Check your spelling and grammar

It’s 2021. And your landing page is still written in grade school English, despite the existence of Grammarly, Hemingway, and millions of people on the internet ready to tear you a new one over your “theirs” versus “theres”. Marketers like to argue fiercely over this: do spelling errors really affect landing page conversion? Is everyone really so pernickety?

To that, we’d like to say: if it’s this simple of a little fix, why wouldn’t you?

(Oh – and besides, yes: it does. Spelling mistakes can ruin your conversion rate.)

As it turns out, bad spelling offends more than your English professor. Misspelled keywords will tank your SEO, and harm your site’s usefulness for text-to-speech programs who read your site’s snippets for people with sight problems as well as assistants like Google Home and Alexa.

6. Make your landing pages mobile-friendly

Mobile ads are so effective because they appeal to consumers’ desire to buy something right now, wherever they are, whatever they’re doing (we don’t like to think about it that much). That means your landing pages – and their forms – need to make it as easy as possible for them to convert while they’re on the go.

Optimise your landing page by ruthlessly editing the mobile version, ensuring the form is effortless to fill out. It’s all to do with the less time the user has between decisions, the better. Get them from stage to stage as fast as possible, and you’ll increase your landing page conversions.

7. Change your CTA

The call-to-action is arguably one of the most important – if not THE most important – elements of any landing page. Therefore, it’s the number one thing you need to consider when you come to optimise that landing page.

When crafting a new CTA, attack the problem from an “I want” perspective. Nail down what your ideal customer wants to do – and then phrase it in an irresistible way. For example, no one ever lay at wake at night thinking, “If only I could submit that form.” A plain ol’ Submit label will work in some situations, but it won’t help you optimise.

However, people have lost sleep over wanting to lose weight, coach their clients, get help, grow their traffic… you see where I’m going with this. Try changing your old “Go”, “Submit” or “Buy” buttons with your visitor’s desire, and see your conversion rate skyrocket.

8. Use a bulleted list

Bullets let people digest an impressive amount of information at once. They focus people’s attention on the essentials of your offer, while quickly moving them closer to the sale. This is not the time to explain the product or service you are offering- bullets need to be up front, short, sweet, snappy and salesy.

Afterwards, then you can dive into your story, when the reader is invested. But by using bullets, you help their brain’s separate and digest information much faster. Think of bullets as the fibre cereal of your landing page – a healthy dose of those little nuggets will keep things moving.

9. Add social proof

According to BrightLocal, 85% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. Social proof is hardwired into our primal brains as an essential mechanism of survival. If our cave pal ate a purple berry and said ‘mmm’, purple berry good. Spread word to others, and tribe grows strong. Other cave mate ate red berry. He dead. Not good – warn others.

Another aspect of social proof is the appeal to our aspirations – this is where celebrity endorsements come in. Maybe if we buy this lipstick Kim Kardashian wears, we’ll look as rich and fancy as her. Maybe if we buy the microphone our favourite podcaster uses, our podcast will be as successful, etc.

Celebrity endorsements might not be easy to get – but try and include a personal anecdote, a friend’s experience (with permission), or a well-known story to highlight an element of your offer. Alternatively, just embed positive reviews you have from Amazon, TripAdvisor or past happy clients.

BONUS – test, test, test!

It’s all in the split. Any good landing page optimisation starts with A/B testing – otherwise known as split testing – to determine the cause of the issue, and nail down an increase in conversions. Only test one element of the page at once, so you get a better idea of what’s going on, and more importantly… have fun with it!

Increasing conversions doesn’t have to be a pain, or a hassle. Try these tips out for yourselves and let us know how you get on!