Landing page design is your first impression. First impressions are everything. With this attention deficit disorder society we live in, this is especially true. That’s even more so the case when viewing web pages. Upon landing on a new site, the average time spent is about 7-9 seconds before deciding to move on. For Internet marketers, this proves a tough challenge when creating a first impression on a landing page template.

Landing Page Design
That is why the design of a marketer’s landing page is very important. It must not only meet the, what I call “7-second eye test,” but also must captivate the visitor. The 7-second eye test is what I call when a visitor to a new site takes 7 seconds and scans the first page, scrolling up and down. Try this exercise for a minute. Go to Google and search any random topic. Click any of the links that you have never been before and see how long you spend on it before moving on or deciding to stay on the site. Make sure it’s a site you’ve never been before. Our mind adjusts quickly to the familiar. You’ll notice that you’ll spend very little time on it. Count out loud if you have to: “One-one-thousand, two-one-thousand…” You won’t get very far.

It all depends on the site. If you are looking for something in particular, you may stay longer. If the site looks like garbage, you may leave right away. Keep this in mind when designing your landing page. Reverse the roles and put yourself in the shoes of the random visitor to your landing page.

In order for you landing page design to attract the most visitors, you must use the sections of the page effectively. This doesn’t mean that you need to fill each white space with text or an image. It’s actually quite the contrary. Sometimes you can say a lot more with less. A lot of Internet marketers these days try to cram everything above the fold of the page. Because that’s the best real estate, right? Well it is, in a sense. But it doesn’t mean to try to fit as much stuff in there as you can.

It will make the page turn out way too cluttered. Hopping on that new site, you wouldn’t know where to begin. All that clutter is overbearing. Imagine having a desk covered full of papers and you’re trying to find one paper. Pretty ridiculous, right? Now try imagining that desk with just 1 piece of paper on top. The central focus of your eyes goes to that 1 piece of paper.

So with the 7-second eye test, consciously see where your eyes go to once the page is loaded. Probably at the top middle or top left first. That’s where you want to put your headline, right smack dab where the eye hits first. The visitor goes to your site, sees the page and instantly reads the headline. This is why you need to make the headline compelling and will make the visitor want to stay.

After the heading comes the sub-heading. Remember, people read from top to bottom and from left to right. After reading the headline, the eyes go to the right and see that there’s white space. Then the eyes go down and see beneath the heading which is the sub-heading. You either have a chance to add to your heading or if the heading wasn’t compelling enough, you have a second chance to lure them in. Keep this in mind when creating your landing page design.

For both the heading and sub-heading, the way it can be compelling is to be direct and clear. No fluff or anything that wastes the time of the visitor. State what you want or what you will provide. Then in the copy below, state how and why.

In the copy below, use bullet points to answer any how & why questions. Or in general, answer all questions the visitor may have asked. Use plenty of space in between the bullet points so that it can be easily scanned by the eye. It takes longer for people to read, so what they do is scan the page and skim the words. This is an important part of landing page design.

Finally, in the opt-in section of your page, tell your visitors what to do. Tell them to enter in their email and tell them they will receive the free videos, or free ebook, or whatever freebie you are advertising. Change the “Submit” button to: “Give me my free video, or my free ebook, or whatever.”


Landing Page Design Advice
Increase your landing page conversion rate. Check out these other WetPaint pages:
Landing Page Conversion | How to Write a Landing Page