Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content

68Writing Landing PagesLess Is So Often More

One rainy afternoon when my son Evan was three or four, I took him to one of those cavernous beachside arcades. I thought the flashing lights, buzzing action, and acres of games (Frogger, Galaxian, Donkey Kong, and so on) would thrill him and we'd pass a happy few hours there.

Instead, he stood tentatively in the middle of the arcade, bewildered and overwhelmed. After halfheartedly tossing a few skee-balls up a ramp, he turned toward me and asked, “Is that enough, Mom? Can we go?”

Website landing pages often look and feel like an arcade floor. Rather than inviting visitors in and directing them through the site, landing pages confound visitors—who, of course, then act like my son did and bolt for the exit (by way of the back button).

A landing page is where visitors often end up after being enticed there by a specific, targeted campaign—an offer for something desirable delivered via email, social media, or an ad. And often the page places that compelling offer behind a lead capture form, with the idea of converting visitors into leads that can be followed up on. A landing page should offer visitors a hyperfocused experience that delivers them to a specific page and gives them a clear path to follow.

The graphic that follows is an example of one done badly. I stumbled on this when I clicked on a sponsored Facebook ad in my feed. (Side note: Sponsored Facebook ads offer a great pool of candidates for the Landing Page Hall of Shame. ...