Your website can be a powerful tool for generating business and keeping your customers informed - a 24/7 salesperson who attracts and nurtures leads and helps the sales team to convert them into customers. But what’s the difference between landing page vs website? We hear this question all the time, and it’s easy to understand why.
After all, what is the actual difference between two apparently interchangeable online pages aside from what we call them?
It’s all down to what they’re designed to do. Focus is the main difference between a website vs landing page.
Both types of pages work together to produce the results you want. But, if you’re developing your plan, which one should you use to drive maximum sales?
It is important to note that both landing pages and website pages have very different purposes for the buyer’s journey.
What is the difference between a landing page vs website page? Do you know when you need to use a landing page instead of your main web page?
We’ll discuss the similarities, the differences and give you insights into when to use which.
Your website is a series of interconnected pages with business information. Company websites usually describe what a business is, what it does, and what goods and services are available. It can also house specialized pages such as your company blog, login page, forum, or unique features. The main purpose of a website is to identify and clarify your organization or company or give users access to a service.
Describe your company, products and/or services.
Has several pages linked by a navigation menu.
May provide a feature or service, e.g. online shopping, customer service or access to data.
A landing page is designed to explain an offer—maybe a discount, an ebook, or a free trial—and invite visitors to claim it. Although it is linked to the website, it highlights important conversion-focused elements and does not typically have navigation buttons or other links. The main aim of the landing page is to drive sales or to gather leads.
Describes an individual offer, product or service;
Typically there is no navigation menu.
Uses a form through which visitors can claim an offer and become a lead.
With the About Us page, Mission, Values, Locations, Contact Us, and other sections, you can explain, in your own words, what your company is and what it’s all about. Consider all the common questions that a customer may have about your business. This is the place to react to them.
Your website helps you to arrange information in a way that makes sense. All the information would be stacked on a single landing page, and users would probably not scroll to the bottom of the information. The key is to structure your web content in a customer-centric manner. Note, what makes sense to you does not make sense of your target market. Some user testing can help you decide which pages you want to go to.
Users looking for general terms such as “landscaping,” “dentist”, or “blue dresses” may need more detail before buying. Maybe they’re not sure exactly what they need or what’s accessible. Through your website, you can show what you’re selling in-depth and inspire consumers to dig deeper.
Keep in mind that the purpose of the website is to educate, not necessarily to sell— that’s the task of the landing page. It’s best to make the website useful and informative.
Related: Landing Page vs Product Page Debate: Which is Better?
Here are a couple of examples where you would need a website and what this section of your website might look like.
E-commerce: Like aisles in a supermarket, various pages in your online store organize your items by brand or category. You can also define each category of products and answer questions or highlight key features.
Providing Services: Users can find what they’re searching for more quickly with dedicated service pages. This also makes the message simpler and ensures that every service gets the attention it deserves.
Different Locations: When each location has a page on your website, visitors can learn more about the location nearby without creating a separate search. Using location-specific keywords on the right pages also helps to boost your Google ranking.
Your website helps you to highlight your company’s culture, mission, values and style. The voice of your brand as well as the design of your website should work together to ensure that the ideal customer feels connected to it.
Although this can be done with a single page, it is more difficult to construct a concise message. With a website, you can share various messages, such as your mission or beliefs, on dedicated pages while maintaining a consistent theme throughout the platform.
Mission: Your company’s goal. Example: solve a problem, help people live a happier life, or have a wonderful experience.
Values: the ideals or ethics that govern your business. Example: sincerity, perseverance, loyalty, hard work or integrity.
Culture: What it’s like to work with your business. Example: casual or formal, fast-paced or relaxed, familiar or hierarchical.
Style: The company’s environment or attitude. Example: modern and enjoyable, academic and insightful, prestigious and serious.
Search engine optimization—helping users find the best search queries for your business—is an integral part of most business websites. It’s ineffective to target several keywords on a single page, so it’s ideal to have multiple pages to target the most important keywords in your industry. Each page should have a dedicated keyword so that users can find it more easily while searching.
This is a big advantage of the website when it comes to choosing between the website and the landing page.
Location keywords: for brick and mortar sites, use location-specific keywords to boost local SEO.
Company or product keywords: do your research to find out what questions potential customers use to find products or services like yours and build pages around them.
Q&A: Your website is a great place to inform your consumers about your product or service, and answering popular questions is a great way to do that. These long-tail keywords typically use “who, what, where, where, why, or how,” and they’re a great place to start new websites that have trouble competing on broader keywords.
Google judges pay-per-click (PPC) ad quality partially on their relevance to the linked website, and a unique landing page built around the ad would be more relevant than the General Services or Products pages.
This ensures that the search results appear higher and gives visitors what they’re looking for. You can use PPC ads and a dedicated landing page for any of the following offers:
New Product: Target specific keywords in your PPC ad and create a landing page for your new product or service. This helps you to jump-start sales by showcasing this product or service exclusively.
Discount: Customers searching for a specific price are likely to respond to cost-related keywords and a discount landing page.
Event: While it is also advisable to highlight an event on your website for your current customers or fans, the landing page will reach users who are looking specifically for an event and may not be searching for your company.
New location: This can also be attached to your homepage, but adding a landing page with a PPC campaign would make the new location more accessible right from the start.
Your lead magnet can be any kind of helpful material or content gated with a form. The user fills out the form on the landing page, including at least their name and e-mail address so that they become a lead, in order to see the deal on the attached thank you page. This is why a landing page could also be called an opt-in page or a lead capture page.
Develop your landing page specifically for the lead magnet, with a focus on content, form and keywords. Send a landing page link to your current leads as a lead nurturing strategy, or use it with social media, targeted organic keywords, or PPC advertising to generate new leads.
With a landing page, you don’t need to update the whole site with any new content provided. Here are some of the content deals or lead magnets that you may use:
Webinar: Answer customer questions with a panel of experts or your own staff in a live or pre-recorded broadcast.
Ebook: Share your business experience with an insightful electronic book.
Free Trials: With a free preview or limited service offering, you will generate valuable, high-quality leads.
Guide: Take new leads through a complex issue, step by step.
Checklist: Include all steps or elements required to complete a project or task.
Without navigation buttons, links, blogs, or other distractions, the landing page holds and guides a visitor’s attention better than the entire website. When a user hits the landing page, they can only complete the offer or return to the search results.
Since the landing page is just one page with one purpose, it’s a lot easier to test than the parts of your website. Some organizations test two or three different landing page versions; others test 40 or 50. With the right tools, you can constantly evaluate your page, making it as user-friendly and persuasive as possible.
Every type of lead page, landing page or squeeze page can and should typically be tested, evaluated and constantly improved. This is particularly true if the goal of the lead page is long-term or if it is not performing as planned. Here are some aspects of your page that you may want to test:
Copy: The text on the landing pages is typically short, but the text should be carefully chosen. Adding a bit more detail, removing unnecessarily wordy text, or having an action-oriented copy can change the page’s impact.
Personalization: Pages that tailor content to existing lead details typically has far higher conversion rates.
Voice: Depending on your audience, making your page more casual or professional, light or serious, informative or general can make a difference.
Media: Inserting or modifying an image or a video will alter the conversion rate. For example, pictures with people’s faces seem to inspire more confidence than those without them. Landing pages with videos tend to do better than those without videos.
Keywords: Choosing the right keywords can influence how many people see the page and whether the landing page is important. Test various keywords in ads and create SEO landing pages to analyze higher traffic and conversions.
You don’t have a single greeting for every person you meet, and you shouldn’t have a single page for all your customers. Although your website stays basically the same, you can build unique landing pages that cater to certain market segments. Bear in mind that the content, the offer, the inspirational landing page design and the ads you select will dictate the effectiveness of the page on the new market.
Area: Landing pages dedicated to a particular location will make it easier for customers to find you in that area.
Demographics: age, interest, education, and other factors may influence what products or services customers are looking for and what types of landing pages they could engage with.
Price: Some consumers are looking for quality, regardless of cost, while others are shopping for price alone. The right landing page will help you reach groups and point them to the right items, services or content.
If you’re still deciding about landing page vs. website, consider using both. An excellent website can help you establish a professional online presence. However, if you want to generate leads, a great landing page is the key. At Apexure, we can assist you with creating high-converting landing pages, websites and more. Contact us today!
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Founder & CEO of Apexure, Waseem worked in London’s Financial Industry. He has worked on trading floors in BNP Paribas and Trafigura, developing complex business systems. Waseem loves working with Startups and combines data and design to create improved User Experiences. Read more
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