How to Optimize Your WordPress Site to Have Multiple Landing Pages

multiple landing pagesWhen visiting a website, people don’t always come through the front door. They come through multiple back doors, side doors, basement doors, and windows that are also available. Every page on your site can act as an entrance through which people can come through to find the info they need. However, your WordPress site needs to be properly optimized in order for all of these doorways to act as effective landing pages.

In fact, you may be surprised to know that your home page doesn’t have as heavy an impact as a landing page as you’d initially think. This doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be optimized and that its purpose is diluted. It’s the front page of your site and what makes a first impression, after all, so of course it needs to be optimized. However, the information on it tends to be a summary of what the rest of the site contains. It is the individual pages within the website that house the information for specific topics. This is why Google indexes multiple pages rather than just the home page. This results in many pages from the website being found in search.

The issue, nonetheless, is that most pages are not designed to be landing pages. They are designed to be informational and lack some of the elements of the homepage that can direct visitors toward your sales funnel’s entry point. To put it more simply: Every page needs to be designed with the possibility in mind that it could be the first page any given visitor sees.

Include Homepage Elements on Every Page

What follows is a breakdown of how to take standard pages and posts on your WordPress site and modify them to act as landing pages:

Pushing Visitors Down the Conversion Path

5967520886_90a59fb68b_bWhen designing each page, you have to ask yourself if the content on the page is going to push the visitor toward conversion. As stated before, contact forms and social media needs to be available to them at all times. These are very valuable conversion tools. Other tools you may wish to integrate into your WordPress site include e-newsletters, ads, and even a blog that allows visitors to engage on a regular basis.

However, try not to sell them on what is being offered too hard because people tend to not like a hard sale. Saying something such as, “You have to click this link right now if you want the best product in the world,” doesn’t do it anymore. Just focus on being informational, offer a nudge toward your sales funnel, and let your conversion tools work for you.

A Note on Large WordPress Sites

If you have a very large website, you may want to slowly roll out these modifications. This will give you some time to do A/B testing. By testing the changes you make, as you make them, you’ll be able to see how tool placement impacts your conversions. If the visitors react in a negative way to the changes, you learn what not to implement on the rest of your site. If they react positively, then you know to move forward with that particular set of changes. Use the Google Analytics plugin and Google Webmaster Tools to track site performance.

Now, regarding blog posts: You may have many blog posts on your site. These show up in the search results just as pages do. Even so, blog posts tend to have the highest bounce rate. They are a necessary part of pulling visitors into your site. While they aren’t landing pages in the traditional sense, including your conversion tools in the sidebar area or below each post can maximize their effectiveness as such.

Conclusion 

All in all, every page on the website needs to be its own landing page in some form. Each page should be rich in information, contain all of the conversion tools that the homepage does, and it should have consistent navigation. Each page needs to stand on its own. When a page can stand on its own, how a visitor lands on your site won’t matter. What matters to them is they are given the information and tools that they need to make an informed decision about your products or services.

Do you have multiple landing pages on your site? If so, in what ways do you optimize each page to increase conversions? Sound off in the comments!

Image source: Steve Conry, Judith Doyland

Tom Ewer

Tom Ewer is the founder of WordCandy.co. He has been a huge fan of WordPress since he first laid eyes on it, and has been writing educational and informative content for WordPress users since 2011. When he's not working, you're likely to find him outdoors somewhere – as far away from a screen as possible!

7 Comments

  1. Mordechai

    How do I create and manage all the different landing pages and buyers journeys? Do I need a home page? I have several different audiences that I need to create copy for slightly differently. Sorry if I don’t know the ABC’s of this but any help will be appreciated.

  2. Andrea

    Do you need to have a plugin when creating a landing page, or can an actual “page” in wordpress act as a landing page? I am just confused about the plugin being necessary or not

  3. Jose

    I’ve heard that some folks don’t like to index pages, and like to just send all index juice to posts on WP. Does this make sense to you?

    Anyhow, when it come to pages, most sites don’t have too many do they? I guess it depends.

    Jose

    1. Tom Ewer

      Author

      Hey Jose,

      I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean…

      Cheers,

      Tom

  4. Reuben

    Thanks for this post. I have been having problems creating multiple landing pages. I always thought that they have to be special. Your post has just proved to me that every page on my site can be a landing page. I like the idea of putting a contact form on each page.

    Thanks once more for sharing.

    1. Tom

      You’re welcome Reuben!

    2. Prateek

      Even i was wondering how can i create multiple landing pages in wordpress. Now i understand that i have to create pages optimized for landing page but still i’m worried about the wordpress theme. Have to look for a theme which provides this kind of flexibility. Any suggestion in this regard is welcome though. Thanks

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