SES San Jose 09 - 7 Deadly Sins of Landing Page Design

On Day 2 of Search Engine Strategies San Jose , one of my favorite sessions featured Tim Ash.

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Tim Ash is the President and CEO of SiteTuners.com . He is also the author of Landing Page Optimization: The Definitive Guide to Testing and Tuning for Conversions . Ash always has great sessions and this was no exception.

In this session, Landing Page Testing and Tuning , Tim Ash discussed the problems with many landing pages. I have included Tim’s list below

7 Deadly Sins of Landing Page Design :

1. Unclear Call To Action – Many pages are just confusing. The user is not sure what to do.
2. Too Many Choices – Too many choices leads to decision paralysis.
3. Asking for Too Much Info – Ask for the minimal and let them move forward.
4. Too Much Text – Tim gave CanyonTours.net as an example of way too much info
5. Not Keeping Your Promises – Promising one thing in an ad, but sending the user to an unfulfilled promise only creates a frustrated customer.
6. Visual Distractions – want to be distracted check out NewYorkBarbells.com
7. Lack of Trust – Users like to know they are dealing with a reputable company. Placing trusted partnerships and recognition on a site is imperative. However, the placement of these is also important. For example, smartbargains.com has a list at the bottom of the site that includes BizRate, Verisign, and Better Business Bureau. All great things to have, but unfortunately the user will never see it.

Of course as these examples were mentioned we all laughed, but the truth is we are all sinners. It’s easy to point a finger at the extreme cases, but as we look at our sites we know we do these things too.

In this session, Tim Ash helped us all look into our sinful souls.

More From John Ellis

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• 5 Guideline for Campaign Landing Pages

Tags: landing pages, san jose, search engine strategies, SEO, SES