When it Comes to Conversion Rates, Who Wins? Landing Page or Homepage

Landing Page or Homepage

You’ve spent hours working with a developer to create the most beautiful site. The colors are right, the branding is on point, and the content is riveting. But if your website is perfect, why are people bouncing? Why aren’t the leads coming in?

Let’s debunk what might be happening.

First, we need to know: Where are you directing your paid marketing traffic?

Landing leads straight to the homepage versus a dedicated landing page may be the culprit. Let’s explain the difference and which one will help increase your conversion rate.

Homepage vs. Landing Page – What’s the Difference?

Since the homepage serves as an introduction to your business, brand, and value propositions, it’s important to treat it as a first impression that allows leads to learning more about what you do.

The homepage showcases various facets of your business and gives an overall picture, therefore it attracts a broader audience like a group of more-than-you-can-count suitors.

But what if you want to attract just one type of suitor, one niche audience that has a specific need? Enter the handsome landing page!

Landing pages allow a more targeted approach. They carry stronger Call/s to Action (CTA), such as signing up for newsletters, downloading PDFs, and purchasing a product. (Whether a landing page should have one or multiple CTA is an entirely different discussion.)

While the homepage broadens awareness about you and your products/services, landing pages contain specific information that takes your readers further down the sales funnel – from Awareness to Consideration, Conversion and Decision-making.

Let’s dive deeper into the pros and cons.

So Which One Should You Be Using for Your Paid Marketing? Our Verdict

We believe a landing page is the better choice for lead generation and for increasing your conversion rate.

Why?

1. The ultimate purpose of a landing page is to convert many potential suitors into “The One.”
   • Tip: Target a specific niche (either demographically or thematically).
2. An effective paid search campaign links back to a landing page that matches the ad copy.
   • If the page has the content that the visitor is precisely looking for, then congratulations! You are most likely going to gain a lead. Trying to get your homepage to match various ad copies to satisfy users’ searches could be cumbersome.
3. Generating conversions requires convincing a copy.
   • Tip: Create curiosity! Push out messages that are specific to a demographic or customer need.
   • Content on landing pages needs to carry highly-targeted key selling messages, like something to attract a certain suitor (hint hint).
4. In the realm of lead generation and conversions, some content is appropriate for landing pages and are otherwise awkward on a homepage, such as:
   • Promotional offers targeting a specific customer segment offered for a brief period
   • Information and displays on one value proposition, like a whitepaper
   • Thought-leadership articles that talk about your expertise, which is just one of the services in your whole portfolio

What do you think?

We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section.

If you’re keen to know more about how landing pages can get you the conversions you want, check out this case study. You’ll see how making changes to the landing page resulted in a 101% increase in conversion rate and a 50% decrease in CPL.