5 Reasons Why Landing Pages & Forms are More Valuable than Homepages

A recent post over at Google made an interesting claim: The ROI for improvement is much better for landing pages and forms than it is for homepages. At first this sounds controversial, but it makes sense for many reasons. While the article talks about how to improve forms and landing pages, it doesn’t really explain why they are more valuable than home pages. Here are five reasons landing pages are more valuable than home pages: Landing pages & forms are real interaction points.They are the primary way that visitors enter information or communicate back to you, the web site owner. Most pages are simply one-way communication, but forms and landing pages with forms are two-way…they are the conversation. By “listening” to the conversation on these types of pages, you’ll learn a lot more than you will by trying to figure out what home page traffic is telling you. Landing pages are transactional, and the transactions they enable are the ones crucial to your business. This means they are the most important point in the usage lifecycle of your customers…it’s when visitors are deciding to do business with you or start the process of doing business with you. They contain the most important decision points for your customers. Landing pages are contextual. When designed well, landing pages address a very specific need of a very specific audience. This makes them high value…they are like the sales closer. They come in after someone has shown interest and are the most powerful way you can close the deal. They might have a lot less traffic than the homepage, but that traffic is much more important. Home pages are a catch-all. They act to triage all incoming traffic. They have to handle first-time visitors, returning visitors, the press, friends and family, investors, people who want to sign into your web app, everyone who has any reason at all to visit. Therefore, the messages on homepages are necessarily weakened and can’t speak as strongly to any specific user group…they have to handle everything. They serve a completely different purpose than more focused pages like landing pages or forms. Homepages are notoriously political. Everyone wants a piece of the homepage. The thinking is that because the homepage is the single page with the most traffic, it must be the most important page on the site. But that’s simply not true…the mere fact that it’s the root URL on your domain means that it will inevitably get more traffic. In the end the politics almost always serve to distract…by spending so much time on the homepage design teams often overlook the value of their other, more important pages. As site visitors we don’t often see landing pages unless we come via a specific pathway, such as clicking on an ad on Google Search or Facebook or some other ad provider. This serves to diminish landing pages in our mind…because we don’t see them as often as the venerable homepage. But there are real reasons why it makes sense to [...]

Landing Pages & Forms vs Homepages. 5 Razones

Un reciente post más en Google hizo una interesante afirmación: El retorno de la inversión para la mejora es mucho mejor para las páginas de destino y las formas de lo que es para páginas web. Al principio esto suena polémico, pero tiene sentido por muchas razones. Mientras que el artículo habla de cómo mejorar las formas y páginas de destino, en realidad no se explican por qué son más valiosas que las páginas de inicio. Aquí están cinco razones por las páginas de destino son más valiosas que las páginas de inicio: 1    Las páginas de destino y las formas son reales points.They interacción son la principal forma en que los visitantes entran información o comunicarse con usted, el propietario del sitio web. La mayoría de las páginas son simplemente la comunicación de una sola vía, pero las formas y páginas de destino con las formas son de dos vías ... son la conversación. "Escuchando" a la conversación en este tipo de páginas, aprenderá mucho más de lo que lo hará tratando de averiguar lo que el tráfico de la página de inicio le está diciendo. 2   Las páginas de aterrizaje son transaccionales, y las operaciones que permiten son los que son cruciales para su negocio. Esto significa que son el punto más importante en el ciclo de vida de uso de sus clientes ... es cuando los visitantes están decidiendo hacer negocios con usted o iniciar el proceso de hacer negocios con usted. Contienen los puntos de decisión más importantes para sus clientes. 3    Las páginas de aterrizaje son contextuales. Cuando se diseñan bien, páginas de destino responden a una necesidad muy específica de un público muy específico. Esto hace que sean de alto valor ... son como las ventas más estrechas. Vienen en después de que alguien ha mostrado interés y son la forma más poderosa que puede cerrar el trato. Puede ser que tengan mucho menos tráfico que la página de inicio, pero que el tráfico es mucho más importante. 4    Las páginas de inicio son un cajón de sastre. Actúan para triaje todo el tráfico entrante. Ellos tienen que manejar visitan por primera vez, los usuarios recurrentes, la prensa, amigos y familiares, los inversores, las personas que quieran acceder a su aplicación web, todos los que tienen alguna razón para visitar. Por lo tanto, los mensajes en las páginas principales están necesariamente debilita y no puede hablar con tanta fuerza a cualquier grupo específico de usuarios ... que tienen que manejar todo. Ellos sirven a un propósito completamente diferente a las páginas más específicas como las páginas de destino o formas. 5    Páginas de inicio son notoriamente política. Todo el mundo quiere un pedazo de la página principal. La idea es que debido a que la página de inicio es la única página con más tráfico, tiene que ser la página más importante en el sitio. Pero eso es simplemente no es verdad ... el simple hecho de que es la dirección URL raíz [...]

45 Rules for Creating a Great Logo Design

This list is an exploration of design principals used in some of the world’s most famous logos. At the same time, the list was created as a way for designers to question themselves and the creative techniques they use when creating a logo design. Forcing the reader to reflect not only on the actual list, but also on their reaction to each listed insight, the last rule is the most important. Do not use more than three colors. Get rid of everything that is not absolutely necessary. Type must be easy enough for your grandma to read. The logo must be recognizable. Create a unique shape or layout for the logo. Completely ignore what your parents and/or spouse think about the design. Confirm that the logo looks appealing to more than just three (3) individuals. Do not combine elements from popular logos and claim it as original work. Do not use clipart under any circumstances. The logo should look good in black and white. Make sure that the logo is recognizable when inverted. Make sure that the logo is recognizable when resized. If the logo contains an icon or symbol, as well as text, place each so that they complement one another. Avoid recent logo design trends. Instead, make the logo look timeless. Do not use special effects (including, but not limited to: gradients, drop shadows, reflections, and light bursts). Fit the logo into a square layout if possible, avoid obscure layouts. Avoid intricate details. Consider the different places and ways that the logo will be presented. Invoke feelings of being bold and confident, never dull and weak. Realize that you will not create a perfect logo. Use sharp lines for sharp businesses, smooth lines for smooth businesses. The logo must have some connection to what it is representing. A photo does not make a logo. You must surprise customers with presentation. Do not use more than two fonts. Each element of the logo needs to be aligned. Left, center, right, top, or bottom. The logo should look solid, with no trailing elements. Know who is going to be looking at the logo before you think of ideas for it. Always choose function over innovation. If the brand name is memorable, the brand name should be the logo. The logo should be recognizable when mirrored. Even large companies need small logos. Everyone should like the logo design, not just the business that will use it. Create variations. The more variations, the more likely you are to get it right. The logo must look consistent across multiple platforms. The logo must be easy to describe. Do not use taglines in the logo. Sketch out ideas using paper and pencil before working on a computer. Keep the design simple. Do not use any “swoosh” or “globe”symbols. The logo should not be distracting. It should be honest in its representation. The logo should be balanced visually. Avoid bright, neon colors and dark, dull colors. The logo must not break any of the above rules. Source: Tanner Christensen