How Do Landing Pages Work? A Guide For 2025

Last Updated: January 2, 2025 by Editorial Team

How do landing pages work?

Landing pages are standalone web pages that are highly targeted and are proven to be effective when converting visitors into subscribers and loyal customers.

They can be used to collect email addresses, make direct sales, or have visitors perform any other desired action. 

The benefit of landing pages is that they can be quickly and easily launched and allow you to get the results you want quickly and effectively.

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What Is A Landing Page?

How Do Landing Pages Work

Backlinko’s landing page is not only simple but uses a powerful and straightforward headline to grab the visitor’s attention.

The headline is the first thing visitors see and it hooks them so they want to read on through the rest of your page. Make it relevant, keep it short, and confirm that the page delivers on the promise you made in your ad copy.

How A Landing Page Differs From A Home Page

Unlike a landing page, a home page includes an overview of information about the business such as details of the products and services you offer, comprehensive navigation, links to contact details, privacy terms, and much more. 

Its purpose is to introduce visitors to the website and guide them to various sections or pages within the site.

A landing page is designed with a single, specific goal in mind, such as encouraging visitors to take a particular action, like signing up for a newsletter or making a purchase. It serves as a dedicated entry point for a particular marketing campaign

Types Of Landing Pages

A landing page has a single goal, and before you can even start to create buyer personas or identify pain points, you need to first identify the action you want visitors to take. Lead generation landing pages can be classified by the desired action.

  • Lead Generation Landing Page - These pages are specifically designed to capture a visitors name and email address for the purpose of building a relationship and promoting your products and services.
  • Clickthrough Landing Page - These types of pages are often used in e-commerce and SaaS based websites and typically provide detailed information about the product with the aim to make a transaction.
  • Squeeze Page - These pages typically contain minimal content that includes a headline, bullet points and an optin form for collecting a visitors contact details.
  • Sales Page - These pages are generally aimed at making a sale and will include a long-form sales letter to encourage the visitor to purchase.
  • Splash Page - This page serves as an introduction to the actual website, presenting visitors with information such as a disclaimer, language/region selection, or promotional information.
  • Thank You Page - This page is common shown after a visitor opts in or makes a sale. The visitor will be presented with the page that will provide them with further details on their next steps.
  • Upsell Page - These pages are used to promote further products to a customer post the initial sale and is designed to help maximize revenue.
  • Downsell Page - This page is similar to an upsell page only it is shown directly after a customer skips the purchase of an upsell and is presented with an alternative offer.
  • Webinar Landing Page - This page is used for signing up for webinars and include details about the webinar content, the date/time, and a registration form.

What happens on a landing page

Effective landing pages are simple in their premise and deployment. And because there are so few distractions, the process potential visitors take involves only a few steps:

  1. Potential Customers Read Ads And Follow Links. Your prospects see a link on your social media post or sponsored ad and click the link. They are directed to your landing page.
  2. Visitors Read Content And Complete The CTA. On your landing page, visitors read the content, which is targeted specifically to them and relates to the ad content they read. They fill in the form, click the download button, or perform whatever the desired action is.
  3. Offer Is Completed. Once the visitor completes the CTA, they are sent a download, added to an email list, or taken to a checkout page. In turn, you receive any data or information from them.

How Do Landing Pages Work?

Landing pages can be highly effective if done right.

The conversion rate you will enjoy varies according to industry, what you are offering, and how effective your landing pages are. While estimates vary, studies suggest that the average across all industries and considering all landing page types is 2.35%. Top advertisers achieve a conversion rate of nearly 12%.

So, how do landing pages work? And why do they work?

The Rule Of One

The rule of one is a marketing concept that concentrates your efforts and provides a narrow focus.

Create a marketing campaign that targets one group. Have one landing page per campaign, and deliver a single message or offer per page. You can also identify one problem and offer one solution to it, with your offer being that solution.

This single-minded focus drives prospects down a very narrow road and doesn’t offer any other exit points.

Hyper-Targeted Landing Page Content

The content of a landing page is highly targeted to the page’s visitors. You know the exact route that those visitors have taken and what message drove them to click.

You should understand their pain point and they will be pre-sold on the offer you’re making. There’s no need to introduce your company or provide additional background.

Create ads for different groups of prospects and direct them to landing pages that are set up especially for them. Visitors will feel as though the content is targeted directly at them and it will convince a good portion of them to complete the CTA.

Follow Through On Ad Copy

Making landing pages for every offer, and even for each ad group associated with that offer, means you can follow up on the promises you make. At the very least, the CTA should match the promise you make.

If you offer a free trial in your ad, don’t demand prospects click through various links or provide unnecessary information. Your visitors will expect to click the ad link and be signing up for a free trial directly on the page they visit.

Make A Value Offer

Detailed Optin Form - Do Landing Pages Work

An example of a landing page offering a free newsletter

You want something from your landing page visitors, whether it is data, a commitment, or money. But they won’t willingly provide this information without getting something in return.

You need to make a value offer. You give visitors something that they value, and they give you something you value. Your offer needs to genuinely benefit the recipient and it should be relevant.

Your email newsletter should provide useful information or genuine tips.
A free trial should offer some worth and not just be there to generate conversions.

Remove Distractions

The rule of one applies to everything on your landing page. If you’re gathering user data, have a single simple form. Use one CTA button.

Remove any other distractions from your page. This means getting rid of the navigation bar, losing links to contact pages, and minimizing the amount of visual content you incorporate. Some of the most successful landing page designs have everything above the fold, so visitors don’t even need to scroll.

Distractions dilute the offer you’re making and have a similarly negative effect on conversion rates. All that extra information is important on your home page and product and service pages, but not on landing pages.

TheFutureParty’s landing page has a single field for users to fill in and no other links, other than a privacy policy link.

How Do Landing Pages Work The Future Party

Test And Optimize

Landing pages present a great opportunity to test, measure, and optimize. You can use split testing, which serves slightly different versions of the same landing page to equal numbers of people.

Testing like this means you can determine whether that extra field in your sign-up form drives potential list members away, or even whether a blue or red CTA button proves more effective.

Because the page is so highly targeted and has so few distractions, it is easier to test and apply changes than on other pages of a site.

Landing Page Best Practices

There is no single type, layout, or design of landing page that is best in all cases. It depends on the industry, target audience, and other factors. But, below are some best practices you can implement in your design before testing and optimizing.

Get The Headline Right

Some landing pages include little more than a headline, a form, and a CTA. Even if you do include some written and visual content, the headline is the most important element on the page.

Backlinko Optin How Do Landing Pages Work

Backlinko’s landing page is not only simple but uses a powerful and straightforward headline to grab the visitor’s attention.

The headline is the first thing visitors see and it hooks them so they want to read on through the rest of your page. Make it relevant, keep it short, and confirm that the page delivers on the promise you made in your ad copy.

Get Rid Of The Navigation, Author Details, And Other Information

Dispense with any clutter. Get rid of navigation, links to contact pages, and other extraneous data. It detracts from the purpose of the page and dilutes conversion rates.

Minimize Friction

Friction points are areas of the page that slow, or potentially halt, the transition from visitor to conversion. If your form has two columns of fields, try reducing this to a single page. 

If it has dropdown boxes, try removing them and replacing them with open text fields.

Include Testimonials

While you do want to minimize distractions, it can be beneficial to add customer testimonials or social proof to the page.

If you’ve identified trust as a potential pain point for visitors, displaying testimonials will help garner trust and may convince a few more visitors to complete the desired CTA.

Zoom lists some of its biggest customers and includes a personal testimonial from one of its users to build trust.

Zoom Testimonials - How Do Landing Pages Work

Test, Test, Test

As with every page and element of an online business, you should test the landing pages you implement and the elements you change.

Monitor results before and after you make changes and keep the number of changes you make at once to a minimum. 

If you change everything on a landing page and see results increase or decrease, you won’t know exactly what caused the changes.

Conclusion

When it comes to generating leads, good landing page implementation is key. Every landing page should have a purpose and it should be tailored to the specific visitors it attracts. Avoid clutter, add a powerful headline, and minimize the content on your page, while offering something of value to visitors.

Monitor results and test any changes you plan on making to make sure they don’t have a detrimental effect. 

Lastly, do not be afraid to test multiple variations of your landing page. Taking the time to analyse and finding the right one for your audience will pay dividends in the future and will ensure you set your business up for success.

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