Landing Page Best Practices To Improve Online Visibility

Landing pages are a great way to improve online visibility, increase conversion rates and bring in targeted visitors to your business. But you need to be sure you’re optimising the page in the right way for the best results, especially in a competitive market such as property. 

Just as optimisation is critical for your website, there are tricks to effective landing page optimisation too that will improve the user experience and increase the chances of a visitor becoming a client. When it comes to the property sector, here are a few best practices for stronger online visibility. 

 

Define the goal of the page

Whether you’re an estate agency looking to hone in on a specific subset of the market, a landlord advertising a property or a seller hoping to attract the right buyer, you need to be clear on the marketing goals you’re trying to achieve, whether they’re singular in scope or you have several you’re aiming for. 

Maybe the goal of the landing page is to increase your newsletter sign-ups to make it easier to advertise properties as they come onto the market, or maybe you’re looking to generate interest in an eBook or a similar marketing material. Perhaps you’re promoting your services — each of these goals requires a different approach for the right results, so being clear from the get-go will make all the difference. 

Some examples within this industry that may be useful include:

• Landing pages for a specific area or for a particular market, such as those looking to rent instead of buy or buy-to-let investors. 
• Promoting property evaluation services to help homeowners understand what their property is worth. 
• Guides to buying, selling or renting a property to help those new to the market understand the process. 
• Lead generating pages to gather contact information and grow your customer base. 

A landing page differs from your website. It has one goal only and you need to be focused on that objective to achieve what you’re striving for. With a clear goal in mind, it will be much easier for you to create a landing page that works and speaks to the right audience. 

 

Leverage social proof

You want to provide evidence that you’re reliable and trustworthy, and your existing customers or clients are the best way to do that. From testimonials and comments on social media to reviews of your business or accreditation logos, these trust signals are a great way to instil confidence from your viewers and enable them to quickly see that you can back up your claims of a great service and expertise. 

It’s one of the most effective ways to showcase your business in a positive light and encourage people to get in touch, because ultimately people buy from people. Few people today will buy from or engage with a new business without first reading reviews and finding out how other customers perceive the business, and estate agencies are no exception. 

There are several platforms you can use which will ensure that the reviews you publish on a landing page remain fresh, such as Google Business Profile and Trustpilot. Using embed codes, this will ensure that your social proof content remains up to date and relevant, without you constantly needing to manually update the page. However, it’s a good idea to keep this element of the page at the bottom, below the main content, so as not to distract from your key message. 

 

Keep important information above the fold

Just as you would in an email, your landing page needs to be laid out in such a way that the most important information is front and centre as soon as they land on the page. With a highly actionable page such as a landing page, where you want the user to complete a certain action, you want those elements to be above the fold so they can see it and know what to do immediately.  

There’s plenty that will sit below the fold, such as testimonials and logos, case studies and the main bulk of copy or visuals. But above the fold, make sure that the content is simple, to the point and includes the CTA for them to take whichever action is necessary. 

 

Be mindful of how you use colour

Colour is incredibly powerful in any landing page and it has the potential to completely dilute or amplify your message, depending on how you use it. If your viewers can’t see the key information you’re trying to promote, how are they supposed to convert? For example, a best practice that can be overlooked is making your CTA button stand out by using a contrasting colour to the rest of the page. This ensures it stands out and attracts attention, so users are more inclined to click on it. 

It can help to do some research into colour theory before creating your landing page, depending on the goal of the page. For example, red is a powerful colour that evokes feelings of urgency, so it’s a great colour for grabbing attention. Green is a colour which summons feelings of growth and newness, while blue is connected with trust and dependency. Think about what you want your visitors to feel when they land on the page, as this may influence the colours you use. 

 

Include strong CTAs and simple copy

With the goal of the page determined, you need to write clear and inviting call to actions. Call to Actions or CTAs are pieces of microcopy which usually are no more than three words and are designed to encourage the user to click or take action, such as ‘Buy Now’, ‘Find Out More’ or ‘Call Now’. Your CTAs should be short and to the point, so you need to avoid jargon and fancy adjectives. There should be no doubt as to what the user needs to do next. 

Visuals are also important here. Your CTAs should be in keeping with best practices for CTA buttons, so that users who want to take you up on your offer don’t need to spend time figuring out how to do so. Make sure that any CTA buttons are recognisable in shape, bright and bold in colour, and have contrasting text so that it stands out. 

CTAs should be bold, powerful and concise, and the rest of the landing page copy should follow in those footsteps. Any time you’re writing for a landing page, you need to factor in the layout so that the text is evenly paced and easy to scan. Your users don’t want to contend with huge blocks of text to find the information they’re looking for, so keep it simple with plenty of bullet points and subheadings. 

This breaks up the text and improves the user experience of the page. You want the copy to resonate with your target audience for the best results, and include your main keywords to help the page rank highly. 

 

Make headlines clear

A common mistake with landing pages, regardless of the sector or specialism, is that creators use too much jargon and confusing copy that detracts from their main message. This makes it hard for users to understand what the page is about, so utilise headlines to spell out to your audience what you’re trying to convey. 

Headlines should speak in clear, plain language and avoid the use of brand-specific jargon that might confuse or frustrate readers. They should be focused on the subject of the page and highlight the benefits of the offer you’re making to your audience, explaining how you can help people achieve their property-related goals. And, naturally, you want to ensure you’re including your main SEO keywords for optimal results and higher traffic to the page. 

 

Optimise for mobile

Your landing page should be compatible with any device and clearly viewable regardless of the screen size. Research shows that as many as 74% of people searching for a property or an agent will do so on their mobile, so having a responsive layout that will shrink and adapt to a smaller screen will ensure you’re not missing out on potential clients simply because they can’t view and navigate the page. 

There are various plug-and-play options for landing page design which give you the opportunity to adjust the layout for a smaller device, but another thing to remember is that it’s quantity as well as the positioning of items. More often than not, the quantity of content you have on a desktop landing page won’t fit into a mobile-friendly design, so you may need to edit what you include to make it responsive and easy to scan. This might mean removing video elements or trimming down the number of testimonials you include. Make sure you keep CTA buttons clear and prominent, and headlines concise for the best results. 

 

Don’t neglect visuals

In property marketing, visuals are highly important. It’s what buyers and renters want to see in order to know whether the types of properties you offer are right for them, and to encourage them into getting in touch. No-one wants to read about a Victorian terrace or a stunning penthouse, they want to see for themselves and imagine themselves in the property. 

So, when creating a landing page that performs well online, you need to prioritise visual elements that have the wow factor. Photos and video content help to evoke a certain image for your audience, and they’re vital to developing a high-converting landing page that doesn’t just interest your viewers but leads them to take action. 

Video marketing, in particular, is great for SEO and has an even stronger effect than photos, with more and more people inclined to prefer videos to reading text or browsing a photo gallery. Videos help estate agents to generate more interest in their business and services, and increase lead generation than those who neglect this form of digital marketing. It also helps your landing page stand out and encourages users to interact. 

 

Test and iterate

Lastly, your landing page is likely to benefit from tweaking occasionally so as to better serve your audience and help you reach your goals. The best tool for this is A/B testing which gives you the opportunity to gather valuable data on the page, experiment with different colours, layouts and headings to find out which ones resonate the most with your users. Testing one variable at a time is the best course of action for the greatest efficiency, enabling you to iterate on your initial page so it’s constantly improving. 

A/B testing is particularly important if you’re not seeing the results you were expecting from your page. You can change out new keywords, for example, adjust the layout of each element or play around with new colours on CTA buttons to see what it is that’s failing and make the right changes for better results. 

You might find that moving the CTA button from the left of the page to the right improves the click-through rate, or that including an alternative keyword in your H1 brings in more traffic. These are details that can’t be known without proper testing and it’s a worthwhile part of the landing page design process. 

Landing pages are not just for sales or conversions. They’re also beneficial for increasing engagement and A/B testing gives you the best foundation for finding ways to improve engagement, raise awareness of your brand and services, and spread your message. 

Whether you’re an estate agent, an agency owner or a marketer in the property industry, you’ll no doubt have realised just how valuable landing pages can be to a property business. In today’s internet driven climate, landing pages have the potential to improve conversion rates and raise your business’ reputation while also enabling you to target specific audiences. What many of these landing page best practices have in common is making the page as clear and easy to navigate as possible, from the placement of certain elements to colour and responsive design.