What is a Landing Page and Why is it Important?

Creating an effective landing page is crucial for driving conversions and growing your business. With WordPress, you can easily build beautiful and functional landing pages without coding.

In this comprehensive guide, we will explore:

• What is a landing page and why is it important
• Essential elements of an effective landing page
• Step-by-step instructions to create a landing page in WordPress manually
• Using WordPress themes to build landing pages
• Top WordPress page builder plugins for crafting high-converting landing pages

So let‘s get started!

A landing page, also known as a lead capture page, is a standalone web page that is specially designed to capture leads or drive conversions. It is the page a visitor "lands on" when coming from an online ad, social media post, email campaign, or other promotional content.

The sole purpose of a landing page is to compel visitors to take the desired action, such as signing up for a free trial, making a purchase, downloading content, registering for a webinar, etc.

In contrast to regular website pages that offer extensive information, a landing page is focused and optimized for conversions. It contains relevant information about the offer, social proof elements, and a prominent call-to-action.

Here are some key benefits of using landing pages:

Laser-Focused Messaging

Unlike your homepage or product pages that have multiple goals, a dedicated landing page has a single conversion goal. This allows you to craft targeted content and design optimized to persuade visitors to convert.

Improved Conversion Rates

Landing pages remove distractions and focus solely on converting visitors. This results in higher opt-in and sales conversion rates compared to sending traffic to your blog or website.

Better Data and Insights

With separate landing pages for each campaign, you can easily track conversions to evaluate the performance of your marketing channels and campaigns.

Brand Building

Creative and well-designed landing pages that align with your brand identity can boost brand awareness and trust. Visitors who land on your page get a positive brand experience.

In summary, optimized high converting landing pages are indispensable for lead generation and sales. Let‘s look at how to create effective landing pages.

For your landing page to successfully convert visitors into leads and sales, it must contain these crucial elements:

Clear and Compelling Headline

The headline is the first thing visitors see on your landing page. An attention-grabbing headline clearly conveys your offer and benefit statement. Avoid vague headlines that confuse visitors about the offer or force them to think.

Relevant Hero Image or Video

Include a relevant and eye-catching image, illustration or video that visually represents your offer. This grabs visitor attention and keeps them engaged.

Succinct and Focused Description

Briefly explain your offer, product or service in a persuasive and scannable copy. Focus only on the most relevant information and avoid excessive details on a landing page.

Social Proof Elements

Build credibility by adding social proof elements like testimonials, customer ratings, reviews, logos of brands you‘ve worked with, etc.

Prominent Call-To-Action (CTA)

The CTA button or link should stand out and prompt visitors to take the desired action. Ensure it looks clickable and use action-driven button text like ‘Sign Up‘, ‘Start Free Trial‘, ‘Buy Now‘, etc.

Minimal Distractions

Remove any unnecessary elements like navigation links, excessive text or extra buttons. You want to minimize distractions that divert visitors away from converting.

Relevance

All elements on the page including images, copy, testimonials must be highly relevant to your offer so visitors fully understand the value proposition.

An effective landing page guides visitors through the conversion funnel and motivates them to take action. Now let‘s see how to easily build landing pages using WordPress.

The latest versions of WordPress make it easy to create custom landing pages without plugins using the built-in page builder – the block editor.

Here is a step-by-step process to build a landing page manually in WordPress:

Step 1: Create a New Page

First, log in to your WordPress dashboard and navigate to Pages > Add New. Then create a new page where you will build your landing page.

Step 2: Set up a Custom Page Template

Next, open the right-side menu and click on Templates from the Page tab. Then click the Add New Template button to create a custom page template for your landing page.

Give it a name like ‘Landing Page Template‘.

Step 3: Build the Landing Page Layout

After your template is ready, click the Launch Template Editor button. This will open the block editor where you can start designing your landing page.

Begin by inserting a cover block or image block. Then add a heading block for the headline and paragraph blocks for the description.

Continue dragging and dropping blocks to build the entire landing page structure. Add testimonials, buttons, opt-in forms or any other elements you need.

Step 4: Customize Blocks and Content

With the page layout ready, switch to editing individual blocks. Customize each block by modifying text, changing colors and styles, adding animations or effects, etc.

Ensure your headline is captivating and description succinct. Optimize blocks like testimonials and images as needed.

Step 5: Add Branding Elements

Don‘t forget to include your branding throughout the landing page. Add your company logo, brand colors, fonts, etc. to give it a consistent look.

Step 6: Preview and Publish

Once you have customized all the blocks, preview the landing page to see how it looks. If you are happy with the design and content, hit Publish to make the landing page live.

And that‘s it! Using the block editor you can quickly build custom, high converting landing pages without plugins. Next let‘s see how WordPress themes can help build landing pages faster.

Many popular WordPress themes include pre-made landing page templates or layouts that you can use out-of-the-box.

Here is how you can easily build a landing page using your theme‘s templates:

Step 1: Choose a Suitable Theme

First, pick a theme that specializes in creating landing pages. Popular multipurpose themes like Astra, GeneratePress, OceanWP, etc. also include landing page templates.

Install and activate the theme if you don‘t already have it.

Step 2: Create a New Page

Once you have installed the theme, create a new page where you will design the landing page. You can do so under Pages > Add New in your WordPress dashboard.

Step 3: Apply the Landing Page Template

Open the Page Attributes sidebar and look for the Templates panel. Browse the templates and select the one named as the landing page, lead generation page or equivalent.

If you don‘t see a dedicated landing page template, opt for templates marked ‘Homepage‘ or ‘Front Page‘.

Step 4: Set it as the Homepage

You need to set the new landing page as your homepage in order for it be the first page visitors see.

Go to Settings > Reading and under Front Page, select the landing page you just created as the static homepage.

Step 5: Customize the Page

With the landing page template added, you can customize it further. Most themes allow editing elements like the header, footer, colors, fonts, etc.

Tweak any sections or modules like headlines, descriptions, testimonials, forms, etc. Add your own images, text, videos as needed.

Step 6: Publish and Launch

Review your landing page and make any final tweaks. Then update and publish the page to make it live.

That‘s it! With modern WordPress themes, you can build and customize landing pages faster without relying on page builder plugins.

Next, let‘s explore some of the best page builder plugins for creating high converting landing pages.

Here are some excellent WordPress page builder plugins to help create beautiful, responsive landing pages quickly:

1. OptimizePress

OptimizePress is a popular drag and drop page builder used by over 300,000+ websites. It includes over 40 templates specially crafted for landing pages and lead generation.

The visual editor makes it easy to customize elements like text, images, colors, etc. without coding. You can add opt-in forms, social proof elements, videos and more.

OptimizePress seamlessly integrates with email marketing platforms. Pricing starts from $99 per year.

2. Thrive Architect

Thrive Architect is a popular landing page builder containing 250+ specialized templates for various niches.

It includes 50+ content modules to add elements like testimonials, countdown timers, stats bars, etc. Thrive Architect pricing starts from $67 per year.

3. Elementor

Elementor is the free page builder installed on over 7 million websites. It contains 100+ professional templates suitable for all types of landing pages.

You get access to unique content widgets like maps, forms calculators, sliders, tabs, accordions, etc. It offers seamless integration with 1000+ WordPress plugins.

The free version of Elementor is very capable for building landing pages. Paid plans start at $49 per year.

4. Beaver Builder

Beaver Builder is a user-friendly drag and drop page builder for WordPress. It is fully responsive and seamlessly integrates with themes and plugins.

The plugin offers a library of custom-built landing page modules that you can easily customize. Over 275,000+ websites use Beaver Builder to create WordPress landing pages.

Pricing starts at $99 per year. A lite version is also available for free.

5. Qards

Qards allows you to create stunning landing pages, sales pages, coming soon pages using a card style, grid-based builder.

Simply drag, rearrange and customize the cards to build a beautiful landing page layout. Over 150 cards are available for adding content elements. Qards integrates with all WordPress themes seamlessly.

Pricing for the Pro version starts at $69 per year.

6. WPOnePager

WPOnePager is a simple drag and drop landing page builder containing 130+ pre-designed blocks and templates that you can easily customize.

It allows adding animations, background images, shapes, slides, counters, accordions, tabs, carousels, and other elements for crafting high converting landing pages quickly.

WPOnePager starts at $39 per year for 1 website.

These powerful page builders make it easy for anyone to build beautiful, responsive landing pages that convert without needing design or coding skills.

An attractive, fast, and optimized landing page is crucial for turning your website traffic into business leads and sales.

In this guide, you learned:

• What is a landing page – A standalone page focused on getting visitors to take a specific action.

• Importance of landing pages – They increase conversions, generate leads, and provide useful data.

• Essential elements – Like headlines, hero images, concise copy, CTAs, social proof, etc.

• Steps to create WordPress landing pages manually, using themes and page builder plugins.

Some key takeaways:

• Use the WordPress block editor to quickly build custom landing pages without coding.

• Leverage pre-made landing page templates included in premium WordPress themes.

• Use drag and drop page builders like Elementor, Beaver Builder, Thrive Architect, etc. for easy customization.

• Ensure your landing page is optimized for your goal, be it email signups, software demos, ebook downloads, online course sales etc.

• Include only the most relevant information and make the CTA stand out.

• Maintain your brand identity and voice throughout the landing page.

• Reduce distractions and avoid generic stock imagery.

So go ahead, and implement what you learned to create high-converting landing pages that drive business growth!