Which one is better, a landing page or a homepage? Before we answer to that question, first we need to understand the difference between the homepage and the landing page.The most obvious difference between the homepage and the landing page is the navigation, the homepage does have navigation and the landing page doesn’t have any navigation. The second difference is that the purpose of the landing page is to compel your audience to perform a certain action, however the homepage is a front page of a business/corporate website. The term landing page is more popular among the marketers and when a business starts its digital marketing campaigns they start thinking about the landing pages. Both the landing page and the homepage serve different purpose and both are important for certain marketing tactic and strategies.
Usually when a business owner or manager thinks whether they need a separate landing page for a particular campaign or their homepage can also do well, they got confused. Our customers always ask us which one is better. For big enterprises and large businesses creating separate landing pages and maintaining them or paying additional cost for landing pages is not a big deal but mostly for small and medium sized businesses and enterprises spending additional on landing pages could be a bit expensive. And usually small and medium sized businesses have limited resources too so they also concern more about the extra cost. Although from a lay man’s prospective the landing pages and the homepage may look slightly similar with minor difference here and there, however from a technical and marketing stand point both are totally different. Here are some major key differences between the landing page and the homepage, but first let us define both webpage types:
What is a Homepage?
A homepage is the main page of a website. Let us take the example of our website, our homepage is www.rsiconcepts.ae and all other pages (About Us, Portfolio, Contact, etc.)would be called internal pages. The landing page can also be classified as an internal page, but usually the landing pages are not added to navigation or menus however all the internal pages must be added to some sort of navigation or menu. The homepage of a website gets the most of the website traffic from both organic/free and paid sources. The homepage is also the welcoming page of any website. A business website is its online business representation andthe homepage is its reception or welcome area where it should greet all its customers and visitors. It would be the very first interaction of your brand for most of your audience. The homepage should have a specific design and certain content. All other internal pages usually have one topic or subject however the homepage should list all important topics and subjects in it.
The homepage usually have all the important products and services offered by the business and it also have some details about the business itself. The homepage should also have to build the brand image so it includes all important things such as business partners, customer testimonials, case studies, news/blogs, business introduction, and other content which can convince the prospects to convert. In addition to that the homepage is used to present the full potential of a business or organization. In the online world the customers interact with a business very differently, when they land on a website they take inspiration from the design and then they go through the content and build a brand perception. This perception plays an important role in their conversion as well as building a brand reputation. That is why the homepage is used to provide all necessary information that can improve brand image and brand repute.
The homepage also act as a doorway to the rest of the website. According to states for an average website almost 70% of its website traffic lands on the homepage. So, along with convincing materials the homepage must also provide navigation, menu and links for the internal pages and content too. This will allow the visitors to browse the website deeper to reach to the very specific content or information they are seeking, which will obviously helpful in converting them. The homepage design also plays an important role in online branding and online brand identity. It also dictates the general design theme for the internal pages and online communication. The homepage of a website plays an extremely important role in building brand image and brand reputation in the digital world.
What is a Landing Page?
Unlike homepage a landing page is a standalone page, user land on a landing page through ads, social media, emails or any other channel. The homepage is a doorway to the business’s online front and provide access to information about the business or a general overview of the business, however a landing page is designed to provide information on a certain topic or subject to encourage a user to perform a certain actions, usually that action is also referred to as a conversion. The purpose of the landing page is to convert the visitors. Almost 99% of the time a landing page is intended to encourage user to perform a single action. That action is a considered as a conversion. This action could be a sing-up, request a quote, meeting request, purchase, subscribe or contact form. It depends on the nature and requirements of the business.
The only purpose why landing pages are build is to minimize the distraction and to increase the online conversion rate. Studies and researches have shown that when a person is given multiple choices it is much harder for them to take a decision. However, when a person is provided with only one option then it only depends on the sales pitch, if it is convincing enough the visitor will definitely convert. Another important factor that encourages the businesses to have landing pages is the human nature, it is human nature that if we are provided with too many options on a webpage we don’t choose any. For example, if you are offering a coupon on a subscription, and also asking your visitors to check your new products/services or to check your media center or LinkedIn, that is too many asking. In such case the user mostly don’t spend time in filling-up subscription form and instead click on any other link and got distracted from the primary CTA (call to action).
There are two types of landing pages based on their purpose. The one is lead generation landing page, the second is click through landing page. The lead generation landing pages are used to capture leads and to collect customer data. Businesses mostly use this lead data to get their sales team connected with the customers to initiate the sale and for marketing purposes. The click through landing pages have a CTA (call to action) which take the customer to a new page where the customer can perform the desired action, either it could be a purchase or a subscription or a registration, etc. It is extremely important that the conversion rate of the landing page is high, as almost all of the website traffic for the landing page will be coming from paid sources or due to digital marketing efforts, which also consume resources that is why usually the landing pages are designed for only one target and offer information on one subject only.
Major Differences between Landing Page and Homepage
Now that we learned that the structure of the homepage and the landing page are different, there are several other major differences which differentiate them as well as make them better at their relevant trades:
Goals and Objectives
Whatever page you have created or whatever purpose you have in mind, there is always a goal that every business or organization wants to achieve with their website strategy. As the structures of the landing page and homepage is different similarly the goals and objectives that one can achieve with both pages are also entirely different:
Homepage Goals and Objectives
- Explain the brand and educate the Audience about the brand
- Increase engagements and communicate with the audience
- Build trust, reputation and promote a positive brand perception
- Provide maximum details about the business and its products and services
- Promote brand’s vision and value proposition to the online audience
- Attract traffic and tap into the broader markets
Landing Page Goals and Objectives
- The primary goal of a landing page is to get online conversions
- Online lead generation or collecting lead data via online
- Product promotion and product awareness campaign
- Digital marketing campaign to support brand awareness efforts and viral marketing
These are the goals and objectives of the homepage and landing page. Obviously both serve a completely different purpose. It entirely depends upon your goal and objective that which page would be a better choice to achieve them. For example if you want maximum online conversions then chose a landing page if you want to promote the brand online and create more awareness of the business the homepage would be a better choice.
The Design
As the goals and objectives of the homepage and the landing page are different so the design and structure should also have to be different in order to achieve those goals. The design of a homepage is prepared to accommodate a lot of content and information. The landing page is designed for only a certain subject or a single topic hence doesn’t require to host a lot of information and various differentiating sections to accommodate different kind of information in different sections like the homepage. Here are the major differences that differentiate a homepage and a landing page:
Navigation
The homepage is providing a spectrum of information and content in it and it must have to be linked with the internal pages. A good user experience can only be ensured if a user will be able to access all the inner pages and content through a navigation menu or links from the homepage. This reduces the bounce rate as well as it also provide business a chances to let visitors access to different sections of their website and increase the chance of conversions.
However, a landing page doesn’t have a navigation menu or such links for the internal content. In fact the landing page is purposely designed to keep the user on that page and encourage them to convert of perform the action the page is designed for. That is why the landing page doesn’t have internal links or menus and navigation panes, as they can prevent user from converting and distract them to other pages.
Color Scheme and Structure
The homepage of any website is the page that not only set the standards for the all other pages but also have huge influence over the entire digital marketing campaign. The homepage usually follow the design structure, theme and colors of the log of the brand. That is a best practice for branding and marketing. The inner pages also follow the theme, color scheme, design and other visual aspects of the homepage, in fact whenever someone land on an inner page and they are also familiar with the homepage they can instantly recognize the website by just viewing it for a fraction of a second. That is why the homepage’s color scheme, design and other visual elements are designed with great care and are long lasting.
However, for a landing page there is no completion or ‘good practice’ to follow the homepage theme or any other existing web design. The landing page can have a completely new look and feel which is entirely different from the homepage or rest of the website and it could also be designed same like any internal page but without the navigation and internal links in it.
The Development and Programing
The programming and development of the homepage of a website requires intense care and precision. A business must ensure that the homepage of the website offers smooth and customer friendly user experience. The homepage of a website and also the inner pages are designed and developed in a way that they can also support mobile devices and smartphones. Such technique is called responsive website designing and development. Moreover the homepage and the rest of the website is also programmed to be search engine friendly (SEO friendly) to let the brand perform well in the online searches. It can attract a tons of organic traffic which is absolutely free.
The landing page however is not designed to attract search traffic or any such thing. These days since most of the internet users prefer to surf the web via their smartphone and mobile devices so having a responsive landing page could be very helpful. Since the landing pages are designed for lead generation or conversion purposes, so a landing page must have to load super quickly. In fact a landing page should be able to load much faster than the homepage.
The Content
The content of the homepage is extremely important as the homepage should provide information about all the important sections and also appealing taglines and highlights which can attract customer’s interest. The homepage have an upper section, also known as the hero area, which is the most important section and should have high-quality sales pitches and attractive taglines. Then the homepage should also have a short brand introduction, details of the major products/services or categories. Content to project the value proposition and explain the benefits of having business with the brand, etc. The homepage must also provide as many trust signals as possible to encourage new visitors to engage and interact with the brand. These days the textual content is not enough people prefer to have multimedia content as well, it is crucial to have appropriate photos and multimedia content.
A landing page is not like a homepage, the landing page only have one subject or topic. Rather than blending in a lot of topic the landing page only focus on one subject and build a customer journey. The page could start from introduction of the product or service, then value proposition, then what differentiate them from others and then CTA (call to action) to convert the visitors into a lead or sale. The landing page doesn’t have much content in fact it is always better to keep the content short and more precise. The main objective of the landing page is to keep the visitor engaged and take them through the customer journey phases to encourage them to convert.
Conclusion
The answer of the question that which page is better, a landing page or a homepage is very simple, both pages serve entirely different purposes so both are better for their respective utility only.That is the reason both the homepage and the landing page are designed and developed differently too. The homepage is a bit of an online brochure that summarize everything a business is offering and however the landing page only provide information about a single subject or topic and its purpose is not awareness or information but its purpose is to encourage the visitors to perform a certain action. This action could be the lead generation or online conversion. The homepage is a great choice to promote the brand for a large variety of audience and the landing page is used for a very specific targeted audience only. Both have different purposes and both are useful in different scenarios.
RSI Concept is a leading web design Dubai agency and we are helping our customers with their website and other digital needs. If you need to design a website or if you need a landing page or any other digital marketing related service or simply if you want to learn more, feel free to reach us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.
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