Good and bad landing page examples

Its always a good idea to check out your competitors landing pages to see what everyone is doing. The best way to stay current on the trends is to just browse ads in a certain niche. I was checking some of the ads on the first page Google results for the keyword”mortgage” the other day. You’d figure with such a competitive term and high dollar industry, these people would have the absolute best landing page. That is not always the case. Here’s an example of what I would consider 1 bad and 1 good landing page.

The bad:

This page is cluttered, unfocused, and leaves no clear call to action. There are a million links on the page to all the various lending programs, leaving the customer confused as what to do next. Although, it might get customers into the company’s sales funnel, I would assume this is a very low converting page.


click for full size

The good:

This page is very focused, its shows the current rate in large numbers, a big red “get started” button, a quick testimonial quote, even a smiling happy family with a dog. This page has all the factors which should lead to high conversion. A great landing page.


click for full size

So what do your landing pages resemble more? The good or the bad?

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Posted in Landing Pages, General by Chad on 05|14|08
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29 Comments »

Comment by Think Like An SOB
2008-05-14 16:18:20

Do you think that the “landing site” in example 1 beats 2 in Quality score and cpc?

Comment by Linda N
2008-05-16 18:45:27

Sometimes, it is important to write better creative for your ads and have people actually convert when they reach a landing page. don’t overthink SEO and forget the user experience.

if you get more clicks for good PPC creative, the landing page won’t be as much of a factor in PPC rank.

 
 
Comment by Shawn
2008-05-14 16:33:28

Nice. It blows my mind to see all the bad landing pages out there still…

 
Comment by David
2008-05-14 18:00:54

While the 2nd landing page is much better than the 1st how do they get a good quality score with barely any content on the page? Do you think they are paying a super high CPC or are they just keyword stuffing the metas, hidden text, or some other tactic?

Comment by Chad
2008-05-14 21:28:00

A company of this size probably has enough good quality score factors on the account level that lessens the negative impact of a minimalist LP.

 
 
Comment by Ariel Ozick
2008-05-14 18:16:29

@ TLA SOB

When the minimum cpc to get on the front page is $XX, I don’t think people even care about $10 minimum bids.

Chad - ping me when you get a chance.

 
Comment by ykw
2008-05-14 18:44:32

But this is not an affiliate LP is it? WOuld be great to see an example of a good affiliate landing page… like one of a single offer and another one of a comparative offer.

Just asking! hehe

Comment by Chad
2008-05-14 21:24:45

The concepts are the same though affiliate or direct merchant.

Comment by ykw
2008-05-16 09:07:56

I thought Aff LPs were meant to PRE-sell, be more of trustable independent page that recommends products. I get that it still must guide the user on what he has to do, but I thought aff pages should not be blatant sales pages… have I been totally misguided all these months?

(Comments wont nest below this level)
 
 
 
Comment by Juice,
2008-05-14 20:14:09

Huh, I guess I need to back and re-work my sites… definitly, clear call to action and unclutter site is a must.

 
Comment by Marc
2008-05-14 20:14:49

Both landing pages have phone numbers. What’s your opinion on that? That’s got to bleed off some conversions to to the phone.

Comment by Chad
2008-05-14 21:26:18

Well for a company doing mortgages a phone call might even be better for actually closing a sale. For most of us running affiliate offers a phone number would be a bad thing.

 
 
Comment by CPA Affiliates
2008-05-14 21:16:31

the more you can push a user thru the better.

 
Comment by zowoco
2008-05-15 02:09:15

It is good marketing to try and constantly improve one’s pages - try using four different with redirection urld and see which pulls the biggest response!

 
Comment by Iantrepreneur
2008-05-15 14:54:47

hmmmmm that is true I keep my LP very focus and short - I try to make sure the next click is to the merchant. but sometimes a lot look for information which is why I think the above one may do well but not as focused as the second one. I think its buyers vs info gatherers.

 
Comment by Mr MultiVar
2008-05-15 16:33:23

I need to use more happy dogs in my marketing as well as the smiling parents and children. Luckily I took some photos of a cute dog recently that I can use to produce some custom graphics.

Thanks for the tips.

 
Comment by Geld Lenen
2008-05-15 16:52:03

I think I fall under the “bad landing page”. But I always focus on traffic first and forget about conversions. I should use better landing pages!

 
Comment by Jason Tibbons
2008-05-16 00:58:16

It good to see your comments on some real world examples. Maybe next you could show us some of your best converting pages ;)

 
Comment by moves
2008-05-17 04:23:23

Great post Chad! It’s the first real example of landing page comparisons I’ve come across on an affiliate marketing blog. For a newbie like myself, real world examples are far more powerful than all the theories floating around on the net. I subscribed to your blog solely because of this post. Keep up the great work!

 
Comment by Niyaz
2008-05-19 06:46:15

Very Example. Nice Post CDF Network. I am new subscribed to this site, i am gaining my knowledge with very useful info. Need to know more number of landing page analyzing articles and examples? Can any one help me..? Need to execute best landing page to purse more conversion rate for my site?

Rock on CDF…

 
Comment by One Step To Fitness
2008-05-24 07:35:14

Great.Yes you have got it right.The landing page has to be dead right otherwise our competitors will steal the show.

 
2008-05-27 03:19:24

[…] at CDF Networks wrote a quick post about “Good and Bad Landing Pages”. Here are some tips you want to look for when you’re choosing an […]

 
2008-05-28 16:16:22

[…] Good and bad landing page examples […]

 
Comment by Student lenen
2008-06-07 13:02:00

Have to admit my landing pages don’t always look so professional, but indeed they always are focused, with the central action to be performed (i.e. click a certain button) in the middle of the page, highlighted. Nice examples.

 
2008-06-09 22:37:01

[…] last post with landing page examples was very popular, so I thought I would review some more pages in a different niche. By critiquing […]

 
Comment by Kyle
2008-06-10 16:40:37

Looks like Landing Pages are an area where most beginner affiliates need a lot of help. Thanks so much for these examples!

 
2008-06-26 11:41:05

[…] Good And Bad Landing Page Examples […]

 
2008-07-15 15:34:53

[…] Good & Bad Landing Page Examples […]

 
2008-08-15 17:39:41

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