Ashley's Blog: Web Analytic Metrics - What Is A Landing Page?

Landing Page

What is a landing page? “Let's answer that by first establishing what a landing page is not. That's important because there are a lot of different definitions floating around out there. (The other definitions aren't better or worse -- they're just different.) The biggest difference I often see is the term "landing page" being used to refer to any ol' page on a website. You know, they're all pages on which one might "land. However, many marketers, ourselves included, prefer to differentiate landing pages a little bit more than that. Instead, we would call any page on the web on which one might land a "web page," whereas a "landing page" is any page on the web on which one might land that 1) has a form and 2) exists solely to capture a visitor's information through that form.” (Wainwright, 2017).

A landing page is a key metric one must watch as it is the introduction to your site. It must captivate the audience to have them further explore your website while communicating your message in a concise manner. Your landing page can supply valuable information as to if the marketing message or message in general you are trying to communicate is resonating with the visitors to your site. In addition, you must analyze all visitors that arrive on your landing page to understand where they originated from. “It’s important to watch the behavior of all traffic on your landing page. Organic search traffic that results in a high bounce rate might mean the ideas you’re optimizing that page for don’t necessarily match what a user might be looking for.” (Hill, 2001). This will ultimately help you understand if the message your landing page is communicating is valuable and producing the returns you are seeking.

For example, Belk a Southern based retailer not known to many in regions must communicate who they are and what they have to offer on their landing page in order to have the audience delve further into their website and potentially make a purchase. Not only does Belk need to appeal to new customers they also must capture returning customers to warrant a purchase. Belk will utilize their landing page to communicate specific marketing campaigns based on what they are targeting through the years such as important holidays, back to school sales, the ever-popular Black Friday items along with Cyber Monday deals. All of these marketing campaigns must be effectively communicated on the landing page in order to persuade customers to make a purchase. In down times such as seasonal transitions such as summer becoming fall Belk will utilize their landing page to communicate clearance sales and other deals to warrant customer purchases. Therefore, their landing page must communicate to new and existing customers in a quick and captivating manner what type of merchandise they offer such as designer, branded, and private labels.

Belk Clearance Hero on Landing Page (Belk, 2017)