6 Alluring Elements for Creating a Landing Page on WordPress

Creating a landing page on WordPress is well worth the effort put into it. User make an impression of a website in seven seconds or less. In some cases, it takes about 50 milliseconds (0.05 seconds) for users to form a bad opinion of a web site. This is usually based on the design of the landing page. This leads to a high bounce rate (a high number of people leaving the site after looking at a page or two).

First, we need to get something clear; a landing page and a homepage are similar but not the same thing. A landing page is always the first page a user sees when they go to a website and is focused on advertising to the site’s audience while a homepage informs the user what the site is for and helps them navigate the site. A homepage can be the landing page, but a homepage can also be a separate page from the landing page.

I prefer to combine the two into one page so as not to aggravate users (who wants to go to a site where the first page they see is a form for subscribing to a newsletter for a blog or brand they know nothing about?) When I say landing page in this article, assume I mean a landing page that is also a homepage unless I say otherwise.

There are six main elements to creating an effective landing page on WordPress:

• Bold Branding,
• Easy Navigation,
• Delightful Design,
• Clear Call to Action,
• Socials/testimonials or blog posts,
• Helpful plugins.

Elements for Creating a Landing Page on WordPress

1. Bold Branding

The first element to keep in mind for creating a landing page on WordPress is branding.

• Bright and clear to look at and understand.
• Scalable (both up for signs and down for business cards).
• Unique yet recognizable (don’t just copy other people’s designs with a slight twist).
• Easy enough to draw (by an nonartist’s hand).
• Using 2 complementary colors with 1 neutral color.

For more on logos, see our post on How to Make a Logo for Free.

Make sure your brand’s logo is in the upper left of your site’s design and that it is big enough to clearly find on all pages. On the landing or homepage it should be used to help identify the site and its purpose combined with the motive statement.

Slogan and/or Mission Statement

A slogan is a catchphrase or memorable set of words that reflect a brand’s values and purpose and/or advertise their specialty. A mission statement is a declaration of what the brand hopes to accomplish or why they were formed. Both should tell something about the brand and why user’s should care about it or why they should trust them. Make it clear and honest at the least; bonus points if you can write it witty or humorously while advertising your brand.

2. Neat Navigation

The next part of creating a landing page on WordPress is navigation. Landing pages that are not homepages don’t have navigation. Homepages definitely have navigation elements since they help users get around the rest of the site. As such, making sure to make the layout and other navigation elements intuitive to users is critical.

A Clear, not too long Layout 

Whether we’re talking about the layout of a page or the entire site, a layout is the path a user travels to find what they are looking for (most of the time a user is on a site for a specific purpose rather than just curiously exploring). Find the items or actions that users most want to find or complete (possibly by using a red route matrix) and make sure that it is easy and clear for your users to find and complete them.

Honestly, yet Tantalizingly Described Blocks

No matter what your website is for there are a couple or a few pages that are either the most profitable or are most important for your users (or better yet, both). Make clear, honest, yet tantalizingly described blocks for your best pages to help guide users to them. Do not make them click-baity by overselling them or put advertising for them everywhere; that just annoys your users. Make it bold and clear to get user attention and understanding, but be respectful of their time and attention span.

Header and Footer Menus

A header menu should contain links to the most commonly used pages for a site. These include the:

• Homepage,
• About page,
• Contact Us page, 
• Product page,
• Blog or article page if a site has one.

A footer menu has links to less commonly used but still important pages. This includes, but is not limited to:

• FAQs page,
• Other Help pages,
• Careers page,
• Privacy policy page,
• Terms of Service page,
• Contact Us page. (some people only look at footer menus, skipping headers)

3. Delightful Design

The next element of creating a landing page on WordPress is design. 75% of users judge a brand’s credibility based on their website’s design. Don’t underestimate the power of brand recognition. Design your landing page based on your site’s value’s and purpose. Keep it as minimalist as you can. Minimalism in websites causes users to find key things easier and creates a more relaxed and comfortable feeling for users. Use the following design elements to make your design as delightful, minimal, yet functional as possible.

Layout

Images

It is best to use/make your own to avoid copyright and make your site unique.  Whatever images you use should be large and clear without being garish or overwhelming. If possible images, particularly cartoons and graphics should be flatter rather than 3D; this makes the image smoother and more a part of the overall design.

Colors

The best colors for a web design depends on accepted color theory, what the colors symbolize, the tone and personality of the owner/business, and the brand of the owner/business. A study done by the Seoul International Color Expo discovered that 93% of customers focus on visual appearance and about 85% of users said that color was a primary reason they bought something! Colors should reflect the brand, but it also should be used carefully since it will make customers decide whether they like and will use your website or not. 

Font

A font is the design or a consistent way that letters in words are written. The critical effects of the type of font that content is written in are: the readability of it, the tone and character of it, the mood or emotion of it, the personality, and the branding.  Picking specific fonts will build certain expectations, so pick one that matches your tone and your (or your businesses) personality. As long as it is readable, anything can go. Find a font that matches the color and character of the content and the products while matching your own unique personality. 

For more on fonts, see our post on Web Design Best Fonts for Users.

4. Clear Call(s) to Action

The next element of creating a landing page on WordPress is putting together calls to action. A call to action is a prompt for someone to do something. In marketing, calls to action are a form of advertising, like asking for users to buy something or subscribe to newsletters. To find a good call to action ask yourself what 1-3 main things do you want your users to do? Don’t try to get them to do more than that; it is very unlikely to happen.

For each call to action, make a block that has a fun picture and short sentence (no more than 8 words) that starts with an action verb like grab, claim, find, get, click, etc. Make the font easy to read, and add a button linking to where you want users to go. Pick a color that reflects the action: orange and red suggest urgency while blue and purple are more calming. If you’re not sure what color to use, 51.3% of landing page call to action buttons are green, so green is the norm to use.

5. Socials/testimonials or blog posts

Lastly, the final element of creating a landing page on WordPress is to add links to your brands social media pages and a spot for testimonials or reviews if possible. Strong Testimonials is a great plugin for this since it has the option to put them on a slide automatically based on how you organize the testimonials/reviews. If you have none, place your most popular blog posts or products here on a rotating slider with 3-4 items on a slide. 

Whether you add them to a block on the homepage and/or icons on your header and footer, make sure that the pages linked are active ones that you check and update often. If you don’t have enough social pages, just a facebook or instagram page with your email will work for this. At least put your socials in a header or footer to give your brand more credibility; most themes have an option to add links to socials into the header and/or footer, so it’s not hard or time consuming to do so.

6. Helpful plugins

The optional element of creating a landing page on WordPress is using plugins. There are a few helpful plugins that help you make and maintain your site, landing page included. These are a few I recommend if you don’t have any that came with your hosting company and you want more than the basic versions that WordPress’s software already comes with.

• Sliders – WordPress Carousel, Smart Slider 3, or Serious Slider. 
• Socials – Blog2Social, simple social media share button, or Revive Old Post.
• Optimization – WP-Optimize, EWWW Image Optimizer, or Smush.
• Security – Wordfence or Jetpack

Summary

It takes about 50 milliseconds (0.05 seconds) for users to form a bad opinion of a web site, usually based on the design of the landing page. A landing page is always the first page a user sees when they go to a website and is focused on advertising to the site’s audience while a homepage informs the user what the site is for and helps them navigate the site. A homepage can be the landing page, but a homepage can also be a separate page from the landing page. There are six main elements to creating an effective landing page on WordPress:

• Bold Branding,
• Easy Navigation,
• Delightful Design,
• Clear Call to Action,
• Socials/testimonials or blog posts,
• Helpful plugins.