Summary What's the Difference Between a Landing Page and a Home Page? (with Sam Woods) (Youtube) www.youtube.com
1,291 words - YouTube video - View YouTube video
Sam I think that's a great way to burn money. It's like just piling up together and lighting a fire and then watching it.
n/a A common problem that I see Sam is, I'm sure you've seen it a lot too is People drive, PPC ads, emails, all of these different places, Facebook ads, they drive them to their home Page.
Sam Right.
n/a It's shocking actually to think people still do this, but I'd love to hear your thoughts and have you kind of work through The difference between a landing page and a homepage so we can better understand when you need to use a homepage. But you need to drive traffic there, if ever, and when to use a landing page. So can you help us out with that?
Sam Yeah. To start, I would say don't ever, And this is my opinion, but I think it's valid. Don't ever drive paid click traffic or anything like that to a home page only and then leave it at that. I think that's a great way to burn money. It's like just piling up together and lighting a fire and then watching it.
Sam So stop doing that if you are doing that. Let's not do that ever again. And it's important To just understand, difference between a homepage and landing page often comes down to what purpose they serve and who it is that's coming there and why they're showing up. There's there's there's different, you know, different backgrounds, different intents, different sources in terms of where they're coming from. Often, some land a homepage probably from searching in Google, but so they're looking for information at that point or maybe asking a question.
Sam Whereas a landing page, usually, people are right there because they clicked on an ad or they clicked on a specific call to action email or maybe even a social media status update. But there's more specificity to that as opposed to a General searching for a software. Right? Or searching for a a CRM software. If that's what you're searching for, then you're you have a broader intent for what you're looking for.
Sam Okay. Some people landing on a home page. They might know you, but probably not. And people end up on a landing page probably do not know who you are, but they responded to something That they saw, and so there's a specificity to what they're looking for.
n/a Okay.
Sam So purpose and goal of who you are, that matters a lot. So the first thing I talk about is audience and purpose and goal. And with a landing page, it's even just a the the name of it, landing page, people land it because Say you respond to something, and they're looking for something that's specific. So situations where you could use a landing page are things like, signing someone up for a course, a mini course, there's an opt in, so they wanna become a lead or they don't wanna become a lead, but for you, they become a lead. Yeah.
Sam They don't have that in mind. I'm gonna be a lead.
n/a It's gonna be a lead.
Sam Yeah. But they there's something on that page that's, that is very focused. Like, there's an offer of some kind to do something. And so you're either looking to generate leads yourself, maybe you're trying to sell a product even. This is common for, like, ecommerce.
Sam You wanna have a very dedicated product page. Or you have, you know, some of the goal in terms of, expressing a very clear benefit of what they should do now. And so that sounds a bit vague, but what I mean There is maybe you're selling an ebook, or maybe you want some to get something for free, and so you have a compelling offer where someone is responding to what led up to it, and they land on that page, and they're expecting to see something very specific. Whereas a home page, it's people tend to have broader expectations when they land when they land on a home page. Right?
Sam They're looking to answer questions. Maybe they have several questions as opposed to 1 single thing that they come there within mind for. And so there you have a bit of a leeway in terms of just what comes with a home page, but you still want to have clarity on value prop, clarity on, why they should care about your page. Right? So just keeping in mind where your audience is coming from, the purpose for the why they're there on that page, whatever page home Home page tends to have multiple avenues someone can go to as opposed to 1 single thing.
Sam And that leads me to next point, which is navigation and along And with that also content. So landing pages should have very little navigation involved. You know, you're not looking to have multiple links Elsewhere, you wanna have less navigation, maybe not even a header at all except possibly a logo. The footer should be very clean as well and, at most, Have a policy link or, you know, terms of service link. And the content on these pages, this comes down to a bit of a layout as well, but the content On a landing page, it tends to be very center focused on the page itself, so there's not a whole lot of visual distractions either above or on the sides.
Sam Whereas a home page could present more content sections to it that addresses different aspects of what you're offering, Whereas a landing page will have very specific, you know here's headline, sub headline, body copy, and possibly a form for a call to action. Right. Which That 4th point too is call to action and of itself. On a landing page, it should only be 1 singular call to action for whatever it is. Click to download, fill something out or click through to go to next, next step.
Sam A home page tends to have several possible calls to actions. You should still have clarity on What someone should do on a home page, but given that you have a header, you have links to the header, you have, different sections, there are more ways that someone can go on a home Page as opposed to 1 singular next step. Right? So there's more more room for people to go wherever they want to go. And this is also where you need to guide them through as well.
Sam So not don't neglect a home page because it's a home page, and you figure, oh, there's gonna be a bunch of stuff on it. You still want to have clarity In terms of captions people's attention and then moving them through to the next step, whatever that is that you want them to do and to go to. So for a home page, it might be that you wanted to visit another page. Maybe you wanted to go to a pricing page or benefits page. Maybe you wanted to take a specific call to action, but that might not necessarily be Geared towards buying right now, there might be a need for to nurture them, for example.
Sam Maybe he wants to watch a video, or maybe he wants them to just read the content that's on there, as opposed to a landing page is very geared towards a specific outcome right now and as soon as possible, and how they move through the next part of your funnel. Just understanding where the page fits in helps you know what the difference is between, a landing page or a home page.