There are many factors that contribute to to a website visitor’s behavior. The following is a true story about the way visitors make their decisions online.

Suzyn the online shopper

Suzyn wanted to buy a doggy carrier online for her brother. Suzyn was internet savvy but didn’t know much about dogs or dog carriers. She visited pet forums and looked up user reviews to research the features she was looking for, and which brands were the most popular.

Having decided that she wanted a specific carrier, she then Googled the brand name and looked for potential sellers. A list of results presented itself to her. She clicked on one, but it directed her to the home page of a site forcing her to search again for the product she wanted. Too difficult. There were too many choices, and since she came here knowing exactly what she wanted - she was not in the category of a "browsing" customer. She clicked back to the search results. Suzyn then clicked onto a website where she was bombarded with banner ads, flash animation, and various other ads. Again confused and frustrated, she clicked back. Another looked unprofessional, and a fourth made it very difficult for her to ask the company a question. Click. Back. Click. Back.

She finally found what she was looking for: a clean, well-presented website that looked like it was developed by a company she could trust and engage with. The page she was presented with was clean, echoed the message that she had read at the SER (Search Engine Results) page, and it quickly presented her with the information she was interested in. She purchased the baby carrier off them. While most of the other websites stocked the product she was after, in similar price ranges, there were many other factors that affected her decision to purchase.

Landing page optimization is about finding out specifically what these factors are, and how to use them to your best advantage. It is not nearly enough to simply be there for your your website visitors to find; the online world is very competitive, and online visitors can be easily swayed. Changes that may seem subtle to you, such as headline size and colour, an easily visible phone number, position of the contact form, questions in the contact form, and many other subtle factors, can make a huge difference.

There are several factors that will increase landing page conversions, but they all boil down to one thing: reducing visitor anxiety. One of the biggest issues online companies have is being able to convince people of their trustworthiness.

When someone arrives on your landing page, it is too easy for them to leave if they are not happy with what they see. They need to be instantly reassured, and if your page isn’t doing this for them, they’ll be gone with one swift click of the mouse.

Here are some suggestions to lessen your visitor’s landing page anxiety:

• Keep them moving - make a compelling argument about why they should follow one more link
• Don’t overwhelm them - remove anything unnecessary that might distract from your primary goal
• Reassure them - make contact details readily available
• Give them what they asked for - when arriving from search results, the keyword used to get there should be featured prominently

And, as always, don’t forget to test.

The landing page is crucial to the conversion process. Don’t make it easy for visitors to leave.