Website Builder Landing Pages Critiqued – Clean Landing or Crash Landing?
The market for website building templates is highly competitive, which is why we’re taking a look at some landing pages dedicated to the sectore – as requested in last week’s appeal for LP examples to be critiqued.
Each landing page will be looked at from the point of view of the user in order to determine whether the page delivers a clean, successful landing, or a bad one. Areas that require attention will be highlighted and suggestions for improvements will be made along the way.
WIX
1. Headline This is a nice, simple headline that gets straight to the point without dancing around the main issues. I know this landing page is relevant to my needs (building my own website) and I’m made aware of the main value-point (it’s free).
2. Subheader and bullet-points Having lead with the initial offer and main value-point, it’s nice to see that expanded upon in the subheader and bullet-points. It’s not exactly a comprehensive breakdown, but’s enough information to maintain my interest and keep me on the page at this point. I’m told how the product works, the features of the service and fundamental benefits – concisely communicated but not in great detail. I would have probably fleshed this section out a little more, perhaps talking how user-friendly the interface is and how simple it is to publish your own site (without the need for coding skills, etc.)
3. Image I’m going to come right out and say that I don’t altogether agree with this choice of imagery. It really needs to be a picture that communicates relevance and value – illustrating why the visitor needs this product. I’m a huge advocate for displaying your product in your main image in conjunction with people who represent your target audience. This helps visitors to resonate with the value of the product and recognize how it can be of use in a way specific to his or her lifestyle.
4. Button On first inspection, this is really effective CTA Button. The colour is eye-catching and drop shadow ensures it stands out against the background. However, I’m not so sure about the accompanying copy. Wouldn’t ‘Create Your Free Website’ be more motivational than ‘Start Your Website’. I also think the directional cue, accompanied with the text ‘Mobile Optimized’, is slightly misleading for people who may not be familiar with the term and what it means – why put it in conjunction with the CTA Button? Are you saying that the button takes me to a page that has been optimized for mobile, or that your users are able to create mobile optimized websites of their own?
5. Where’s your social proof? Besides the Facebook widget at the top of the page, there’s very little social proof on this landing page. It would be nice to hear from users who have used the product and had positive experiences – especially when you’re trying to get visitors to sign up to your premium version.
Our verdict Even though I would have done a few things a little bit differently (namely the inclusion social proof) this is still a clean, simple landing page that gets the job done. Clean Landing!
OXXY
1 &2. Fractured headline This headline is fractured, in that it starts off on one tangent and carries over to another. It finally arrives at an explanation to what the page is all about, but that explanation doesn’t come immediate enough. There’s a moment when the visitor is required to piece that information together for themselves and that can lead to confusion and frustration.
3 &4. So much clutter There’s a lot going on, on this page. It’s much too busy and as result there’s no real ‘focus’ on the offer being promoted. Much like the initial headline, it seems as though the designers have gone on one too many tangents in order to get as many things across as possible. The arrows and directional cues are particularly confusing, as it makes the overall navigation of the page indeterminable. I appreciate the creative element of the page design, but it really needs to be more central to the overall promotion.
5. Image I’m a firm believer in using people in landing page imagery, as it helps visitors connect with the product more easily, but I’m not entirely sure the main picture is all that effective. On the one hand, it helps to put the product into a context that similar users may recognize (a family putting together a family website) but I think the whole idea may be a little too abstract and lost on some visitors. I’d strongly suggest testing this theme against a more literal depiction of the product; using imagery to show people engaging with product itself – maybe including screenshots of the website they have created.
6. Are these tabs supposed to be clickable? The answer is ‘no’. I checked. And that’s a good thing – but they are a little confusing, and that alone can be enough to send your landing page visitors packing if they can’t figure out the important elements of your page.
7. CTA Button needs room to breathe Simply put, the CTA Button looks a little lost amongst all the surrounding clutter, even though it’s smack-bang in the middle of the page. If visitors have trouble locating your CTA immediately, they aren’t going to stick around long enough to source it for themselves. And even once this particular CTA is spotted, there’s too much going on around it. This doesn’t make for an appealing button to click.
Our verdict I think this is a classic case of design over pragmatics. The entire page is just too busy and I couldn’t image many visitors putting up with the confusion. I’m going to have to call this a Crash Landing!
Names.co.uk
1. Headline Here’s something a little different, but equally important if you’re going to want to build your very own website – a website name finder. The headline is pretty straightforward (as is the overall layout and navigation) which helps. But it would have been useful to include some auxiliary copy, perhaps a sub header, just to clarify why I’m here to search for a website name and the benefits of owning one.
2. Simple interaction User interaction is limited to searching for a website name and then clicking ‘search’. This makes it nice and easy for visitors to complete the required action on the page (with some effective CTA Copy alongside in the fields).
3. CTA Button There’s no missing this button, or misinterpret it’s function, but the color is the same as another element on the page. This needs changing right away.
Our verdict This is a very simple landing page, but that’s usually a good thing. Maybe a little extra information might help clarify a few things for people who generally aren’t in the ‘know’ would be nice. Clean Landing!
Next Week’s Clean Landing or Crash Landing Next week we will be critiquing landing pages dedicated to ‘Conference Call Services‘ so we welcome any example landing page examples for review. Please send the URL of your landing page examples to info@clickthroo.com.
Try the Clickthroo Landing Page Marketing Solution: Free For 14 Days (Landing page builder, integrated tracking platform, A/B split testing, traffic segmentation, template and image libraries, integrated traffic sources, optional affiliate marketing module, and much more…)
