18 Common Landing Page Mistakes to Avoid in 2024

Just like you spend a lot of time developing a perfect ad creative, you also need to ensure that your landing page is on point!

In any marketing campaign, a landing page is a web page where users land and eventually convert. But unless a landing page is correctly optimized and doesn’t miss any essential element, the entire marketing campaign is at risk!

So, is your business bleeding money on campaigns with no satisfying CRs (conversion rates)?

If so, there are two possible reasons for that: i) your ad creatives need a revision, or ii) you are making landing page mistakes!

Before it is too late and you end up losing a lot of marketing budget, let’s look at some common landing page mistakes & how to fix them!

Usage of stock photos

Using stock photos is a common practice, or should we say a common landing page mistake!?

Just don’t even think about doing it… Stock photos are generic & advertorial in nature. Worse is, they generate a mediocre perception with those fake smiles and almost perfect poses.

Stock photos are made to cover a broader perspective & thus can’t send the original feeling you need to convey through your brand. Nobody’s interested in purchasing high tickets from the likes of those websites!

In fact, people want to do business with brands represented by people and to people. And the use of stock photos can send a signal that you are yet another greedy brand with no human affinity.

Not to mention, thousands may be using those images as well, increasing the odds of you sounding repetitive and tedious to your leads. Your message would be undermined, and your brand image would even deteriorate.

On the contrary, the use of custom and personalized photos can help a visitor to connect with your brand on a personal level.

Let’s assume you are providing roofing services. If so, include pictures of the actual projects with your team carrying out their tasks… It’ll convey a more humanitarian and personal feeling.

Similarly, sharing pictures of people who have benefited from your non-profit can look more authentic than a stock picture of a doctor with a fake smile.

Slow loading speed

There’s no way a marketer would expect a landing page to convert with a slow loading speed. When a lead lands on a web page, the lead’s expecting the information to show within very few seconds. This justifies why landing pages that load in less than 30 seconds get an average/low bounce rate of 10% to 30%, while 4 seconds experience a bounce rate of 90%!!

That’s a huge difference, isn’t it!? And guess what a lead would do after bouncing off a website… Right, the lead would check a competitor’s website!

You can have the best graphics and animation on your landing page with stellar copywriting… But if it fails to load in under 3 seconds, you are losing conversions & valuable customers.

There are several tools to check the loading speed of your landing pages, such as:

• GTmetrix
• PageSpeed Insights
• Pingdom

Ideally, your landing page should take 3 seconds or less to load entirely on the user’s browser. And if it is taking longer than that, then you need to fix it.

Some of the basics you can take to fix slow loading speed include:

• Using clean codes
• Using a CDN service such as Cloudflare
• Using WEBP images
• Optimizing scripts, CSS, & other files
• Moving to a fast web hosting company.
• Don’t use unnecessary elements

In a nutshell, having a slow landing page is one of the biggest mistakes that eat up your marketing budget and efforts.

Non-responsive design

Unless you don’t plan on providing a good user experience to ⅔ the global internet users, use a non-responsive website design. According to Similarweb, the traffic share of mobile devices is 66.34%, and the desktop traffic stands at 31.50%.

This means that a non-responsive design can close the doors to that 66.34% of the traffic. Not to mention this lack of traffic and poor UX also leads to a decrease in conversion rate.

You can use the mobile-friendly test from Google to check if your landing page design is responsive or not. And in case it is not responsive, getting the help of a web design agency can be a good idea!

Absence of social proof

No social proof is also among the list of common landing page mistakes… A good landing page must have social proof to help you establish trust and credibility.

Social proof can be in the form of a 3rd party endorsement or recommendation about your products/services. Depending on your business type, social proof can be in the form of the following:

• Reviews
• Video testimonials
• Star Ratings
• Awards
• Client List
• Influencer Endorsements
• Trust Badges

The inclusion of any or a combination of these can help you to boost your conversion rate.

For instance, adding genuine reviews from 3rd parties can help a potential customer make the decision about making a purchase. Upon looking at the reviews, they can gather inspiration from people who have already bought your product/service and had success.

You can include the social proof above the fold, below the fold, forms, thank you pages, and any place else where it feels appropriate.

Multiple conversion goals

If your landing page is not following a single or at least minimum conversion goal(s), it can also lead to a lower conversion rate. In fact, Unbounce recommends keeping a single conversion goal per landing page.

Adding multiple conversion goals means you want the visitors to make multiple decisions & the landing page should support all those possibilities. Ultimately, the web page may not look convenient and inviting, and the leads may not convert as desired.

In other words, the elements of your landing page should be about a single, well-defined goal.

Let’s take an example (again), it’s not really recommended to talk about your SEO services on a landing page that’s meant to convert, say, your video editing services.

For example, the Shopify homepage is laser-focused on getting users to sign up for a free service trial. In fact, the section just above the footer also includes a CTA button about “starting a free trial.”

Some of the common examples of conversion goals are:

• Newsletter subscription
• Buying a product/service
• Free trial signup
• Webinar/Seminar Registration

In short, pick one goal and ensure all the elements of your landing page are designed around that goal. These elements include text, images, CTA buttons, videos, etc.

A long-form

Once a user arrives on your landing page, you should aim to minimize the friction as much as possible. And one of the frustrating landing page mistakes for a visitor is a form with too many fields.

The sole goal should be a minimum of fields that’ll grab as much info about the lead as possible. Anything that’ll delay the conversion for unnecessary information might just not be good enough!

To make it easier for the user, you can also include a progress bar on the form that highlights the current progress of the user’s interaction with the form.

Long videos

Videos are a great addition to your landing page & do boost the conversion rate. According to Hubspot, around 30% of top-performing landing pages include videos!

However, one thing to pay attention to is the length of the video on your landing page. An ideal video should be short and to the point.

A good video should briefly describe your products/services and the problems that can be solved by using them. Anything else is just useless and can decrease the attention span of the visitors.

In fact, it can even make it difficult for a visitor to follow what’s being said!

According to Wistia, a 30 seconds video is ideal for an offer, and a 60 seconds video is exemplary for an explainer. For an overview or a testimonial, a 90 seconds video is perfect.

One thing to note here is that these are not fixed values & should be taken as blueprints, nothing more, nothing less! The thing to note is to avoid long videos and keep them short.

Unclear CTA

One of the most critical elements of any landing page is a call to action (CTA) button. But despite its importance, many businesses still mess it up a little.

A static CTA field that doesn’t switch color or interacts when it’s hovered over is a common mistake. Another mistake is to bury CTA buttons in an ocean of content… Here’s an example from our homepage:

Surprisingly, there are pretty straightforward yet overlooked guidelines to be bound by & embed apparent CTA buttons. Follow these recommendations to improve your landing page CTAs:

• Keep the primary CTA above the fold
• Use colors that make the CTA stand out from the background color (as long as the color’s harmonious)
• CTA should be present at multiple locations on your landing page
• Use text that makes visitors click on your CTA by creating a sense of urgency or explaining benefits.
  For example, “Sign Up Now,” “Get Ebook,” “Book a Consultation,” etc.

Outdated design

When was the last time you revamped your website!? If you haven’t renewed your website within the last two years, you may want to take a step back and check what your competitors are doing with their sites and landing pages.

Chances are you’ll notice that you’re left behind on a thing or two! And if so, that’s a good starting point for fixing a landing page’s errors!

With time, new design trends emerge, and there are even more variations depending on different industries. So, you must ensure that your landing page keeps up with the times by adopting a modern design.

No A/B testing

Not doing any landing page A/B testing is yet another common landing page mistake… You can’t just create a single landing page and then sit there and watch. Marketers are aware that anything can continually be improved. And the best way to improve a landing page’s performance is through A/B testing.

In short, A/B testing is the practice of creating 2 landing pages and testing both. Based on the collected user data, marketers can spot how to improve each single landing page and make it better. The process prolongs until a landing page staggeringly outperforms the other!

These A/B landing pages don’t have to be completely unique… You can change the arrangement or color of some elements and then compare the results from each landing page. For instance, place a CTA on the right side of one vs on the left on the other…

This process retains insight into which landing page is yielding the best results. However, the A/B testing is just the start of a lengthy process!

To get satisfactory results, assign enough advertising budget & time to get enough data. Some of the critical data to collect include form analytics, session recordings, heat-maps, and conversion tracking.

Ideally, the more traffic you can funnel through the A/B testing phase, the more valuable insights you can gain from this process.

Not using any headlines

On average, a user only spends 10-20 seconds on a webpage; this also holds valid for landing pages. To catch the attention of a visitor, make sure that your landing page includes a catchy headline!

In fact, one of the first things that users look at on a page is the headline. So if your landing page doesn’t have an engaging headline, it is high time you update it!

The color and the size of the headline should stand out from the rest of the elements present on the landing page. Similarly, the headline should provide a clear glimpse into what your landing page is all about.

Besides using a compelling headline on your landing pages, there’s one more thing to remember… The headline in itself should make the visitor eager to get more information about your product, service, mission, etc.

Inconsistent branding

To build a landing page that converts, you can’t overlook the importance of consistent branding…

Well, often will a landing page provide a great click-through rate and good engagement. But as soon as a lead moves on to the next step, those stats start dropping!

What could’ve possibly gone wrong!?

Well, many things, actually! Loading speed, errors, copies… etc. And solving these problems may cause a worse one: Inconsistent Branding!

Inconsistent branding, in our context, refers to the state where a website’s UI and concepts shift and change from page to page, resulting in a redundant UX.

So, when aiming to boost those metrics, ensure you’re overall consistent with a pre-established UI library. This would include the color scheme, content tone, sizes & avatar styles, and other elements of your landing page.

In short, a landing page should be an extension of your site in terms of branding, and so should each page in the digital customer’s journey.

Poor content

While you focus on layouts and visuals, the content remains king!

The use of irrelevant, poor, or AI-generated content is also at the top of our landing page mistakes list!

Ideally, the content on your landing page should be relevant and exciting to read. While AI excels in producing such content, it still lacks originality & Search Engines can detect AI-generated content, resulting in penalization and lower performance!

Put yourself in your client’s shoes and see through their eyes. That’s the best way to produce the most relevant content for them!

You can run the extra mile and ask older clients and/or people in your network about their take on the page’s content and overall design.

Roughly speaking, keep the following tips in mind:

• Use short sentences
• Avoid using too much passive voice
• Create variety in your sentences
• Avoid using difficult-to-understand words
• Keep text sizes readable

Including too many links

Your landing page’s visitors are, by default, internet users. And guess what, internet users’ are trained to have a very short focus span… Think about the TikToks and Reels and the infinite amount of actions they’re allowed to take in a spark of a second!

Internet users today are trained to click and interact quickly! But does this mean that your landing page should support too many links!?

Definitely not!

After spending advertising dollars, the last thing you would want is to divert the user’s attention or send them to a page that’s unimportant.

To squeeze the most out of visitors’ limited attention span, avoid including any irrelevant links on your landing page. Ideally, the ratio of links on your landing page should be 1:1 ratio with the number of conversion goals. And the best landing page shouldn’t support more than 1 to 2 goals max!

And while we are talking about not including too many links, remove the footer and navigation menu on your landing pages! This way, you can keep the visitor’s attention on your conversion goal!

For instance, if your conversion goal is to make the visitors buy a product/service, don’t include any links that send back to earlier stages in the pipeline, like a blog or testimonials page.

Landing pages are created to focus on a particular goal or a set of plans. And including any irrelevant or too many links can make it challenging to achieve the goals.

Not providing enough conversion paths

While it is a good idea to keep your landing page focused on a single goal, it doesn’t mean you can’t offer multiple conversion paths to the users.

For example, you can include a phone number on your landing page and a checkout page, or an online form. Most people will convert through the online form or the checkout page. But then some people prefer to make a call & discuss things directly.

So by providing multiple conversion paths to your leads, you can increase the chances of converting more users into customers.

Some of the ways through which you can provide multiple conversion paths are to include the following on your landing page:

• Phone number
• Email address
• Chatbot
• Live chat
• Form

According to one study, you can increase the conversion rate by 1.8% when you include a phone number on the landing page.

No visual hierarchy

Typically, users will not read all the content present on your landing page. Research suggests that only 16% of visitors actually read word by word! And the rest of the users usually skim through the content on your pages.

That’s why you need to include critical information in headings, subheadings, highlighted parts, and bulleted lists.

This way, users can retain vital information while skimming through the content. Generally speaking, the headings and highlighted texts can attract more attention as compared to regular text.

So, when it comes to communicating the core benefits and your unique value proposition, use the headings!

And since we are talking about making it easier for users to skim through landing pages, you need to stick to a strict visual hierarchy. This will lead to easier comprehension, which then leads to action from the users.

The best way to achieve optimal informational & visual hierarchy is to use Z-shaped or F-shaped layouts on your landing page.

Unnoticeable value proposition

The unique value proposition of your product/service should be noticeable right from the start… aBurying the value proposition is among the list of common landing page mistakes that can also affect your bottom line.

To get the most out of your landing pages, ensure you present your value proposition immediately!

Ideally, the value proposition should be at the most prominent location on your landing page (above the fold is best). And while you work on the location of the value proposition, it should be short, concise, & makes your product/service stand out.

Using the wrong colors

Using colors on your landing page should depend on your branding, gender preferences, and the industry. This allows you to communicate clearly with your target audience & eventually improve your conversion rate.

For example, the male audience loves colors such as black, dark green, and blue. On the contrary, the colors such as purple, orange, and brown are the least loved. As for women, the best colors are lighter green, purple, and blue.

Industries play a role in choosing a color scheme as well! Pets and Landscaping niches are better served with shades of green, while business niches are much more okay with orange and black vs white!

Conclusion

The primary pursuit of a landing page is to convert visitors into customers. But the common landing page mistakes mentioned above may hinder your business goals!

At Canadian Digital Consulting, we can help your business to get a great landing page that converts. Our expert team stays at the forefront of new design trends & also has in-depth knowledge of how different industries work. This helps us to create unique landing pages that can help you convert users into customers!