What Is a Landing Page? (And Does Your Business Need One?)
A landing page is a single web page built for one visitor and one action. Someone clicks your ad, email or post, lands on that page, and finds one offer and one button: call, book, or fill out a short form. Your homepage introduces the whole business. A landing page does one job. If you run ads, it is usually the page that turns clicks into leads, and it is part of building a website that brings in business.
You pay for the click. Maybe it is a Google ad, a Facebook post or a coupon email. The visitor shows up interested, and then lands on your homepage, with its menu, its slideshow and ten other things to read. Most of them leave without doing anything.
That is not a traffic problem. It is a “where did we send them” problem. Think of your website as your hardest-working employee. Your homepage is the front desk that greets everyone. A landing page is the specialist you put on one job: answer this ad, make this offer, get this phone call.
Here is what a landing page is, when you need one, and what goes on it.
What does a landing page do?
A landing page gets one kind of visitor to take one action. Everything on the page points at that action, and anything that does not help gets cut.
That focus is the whole idea. A homepage has to serve everyone: new customers, old customers, job seekers, vendors. A landing page knows who is coming (the person who clicked this ad) and what they want (the thing the ad promised). So it can skip the tour and get to the point.
The action depends on your business:
- Lead: fill out a short form for a quote, a consultation or a free download.
- Call: tap a phone number to talk to you now.
- Booking: pick a time on your calendar.
- Sale: buy one product or claim one offer.
Landing page vs. homepage vs. website: what is the difference?
Your website is the whole building. Your homepage is the front door. A landing page is a side door built for one group of visitors, usually people coming from an ad or email.
| Homepage | Landing page | |
|---|---|---|
| Who it is for | Everyone who finds you | People from one ad, email or campaign |
| Goal | Explain the business and send people to the right place | One action: call, book, buy or fill out a form |
| Navigation | Full menu | Little or none, so visitors are not pulled away |
| Message | Everything you offer | Matches the ad they clicked, word for word where possible |
| How long it lives | Always | As long as the campaign runs |
| How you judge it | Visitors find what they need | Percent of visitors who take the action |
A landing page is still part of your website. It lives on your domain and uses your branding. It just leaves the main menu out of the way.
When does a small business need a landing page?
You need a landing page any time you send paid or targeted traffic to one specific offer. The most common cases:
- You run Google or Facebook ads. Google looks at the page your ad points to. The quality of your landing page is one of the factors that decides whether your ad shows and where it lands on the page (see Sources). For more on this, read our page on running Google Ads that turn clicks into customers.
- You send an email or text campaign. A seasonal sale or a “book before the holidays” email deserves a page that repeats the offer, not a homepage that buries it.
- You serve different kinds of customers. A plumber might run one page for water heaters and another for drain cleaning. Each visitor sees only what they came for.
- You have one event or launch. A grand opening, a workshop or a new service gets its own page and its own sign-up.
- You want to test an idea. A landing page lets you try a new offer or headline without touching the rest of your site.
If you are only getting visitors from people searching your business name, your homepage and service pages can do the work. The landing page earns its keep once you start paying for clicks.
What should a landing page include?
A good landing page answers three questions fast: Is this what I clicked on? Why should I trust you? What do I do next? These seven parts cover all three:
- A headline that matches the ad. If the ad said “Same-day AC repair,” the headline says it too. Visitors check right away that they landed in the right place.
- One clear offer. One service, one deal, one free download. Two offers split attention.
- What they get out of it. Say how the offer helps them: cooler house tonight, a quote by tomorrow, a plan they can use. Features come second.
- Proof. Real reviews, a star rating, years in business, a short client story. Proof does the convincing you cannot do yourself.
- One call to action. One button that says exactly what happens: “Get my free quote” beats “Submit.” Repeat it down the page, but keep it the same action.
- A short form. Ask only for what you need to follow up. Name, phone and email are often enough.
- Fast on a phone. Many ad clicks happen on phones. If the page is slow or the button is hard to tap, the click is wasted.
Some pages also use a short video. It can help explain an offer, but it should never be the only place the key information lives, and it should not slow the page down.
Running ads to your homepage?
You did not start your business to build web pages. We build landing pages in WordPress that match your ads, load fast on phones and send every lead to your inbox, so the money you spend on clicks has somewhere to land.
1. Talk to a WordPress expert. 2. We build the page and connect your form and tracking. 3. Your ads get a page that works as hard as you do.
How do you build a landing page in WordPress?
You can build a landing page in WordPress with the block editor or a page builder. The parts that matter are what you remove and what you connect.
- Start from a blank or “no header” template so the main menu does not pull visitors away. Keep your logo so they know whose page it is.
- Build the seven parts above in order, top to bottom.
- Connect the form to your email and, if you have one, your CRM. Test it yourself before any ad goes live.
- Add tracking. Set the form submission or call click as a conversion in Google Analytics and your ad account, so you can see which ads bring leads.
- Check it on a phone. Load it on your own phone over cellular data, not office Wi-Fi.
- Decide whether search engines should see it. Ad-only pages often get a “noindex” setting so they do not compete with your regular service pages in Google.
How do you know if a landing page is working?
Watch one number: the percent of visitors who take the action. That is your conversion rate. If 200 people visit and 10 fill out the form, the page converts at 5%.
If the number is low, change one thing at a time and give it a few weeks:
- Make the headline match the ad more closely.
- Cut a form field.
- Move the proof higher on the page.
- Make the button say exactly what happens next.
Changing one thing at a time is slower, but it tells you what actually helped.
How we use landing pages on our own sites
We follow this playbook ourselves. When we run ads for our WordPress care plans, the ads do not point at our homepage. Each campaign gets its own page with no main menu, a headline that repeats the ad, one offer, and one button. The homepage still does its job for everyone else, and each ad gets a page built for the person who clicked it.
Not sure your site is ready for ads?
We will look at your site’s speed, forms, tracking and setup, then send you a free report with a recorded video walkthrough. No sales pitch required.
Landing page FAQs
Is a landing page the same as a website?
No. A website is all of your pages together. A landing page is one page on that website, built for a single campaign and a single action.
Can my homepage be my landing page?
It can, but it usually works worse for ads. A homepage has to serve every visitor, so it carries a menu and many messages. A landing page that matches the ad keeps the visitor focused on the one thing they clicked for.
Do I need a separate domain for a landing page?
No. Keep it on your own domain, such as yourbusiness.com/spring-offer. Visitors trust it more, and your tracking stays in one place.
How many landing pages should I have?
One per offer or campaign. If you advertise three services to three different audiences, three focused pages will usually beat one page trying to do all three jobs.
Should a landing page show up in Google search?
It depends on the page. Pages made only for ads are often set to “noindex” so they do not compete with your main service pages. A landing page built to rank for a search term should stay indexed and be written like any good page.
How long should a landing page be?
As long as it takes to answer the visitor’s questions and no longer. A simple offer, like a coupon, can be short. A bigger decision, like hiring a contractor, needs more proof and detail before people act.
Sources
- Google Ads Help, “Ad Rank: Definition”: support.google.com/google-ads/answer/1752122
- Google Ads Help, “About Quality Score for Search campaigns” (landing page experience is one of its three parts): support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6167118
Give your ads a page that does the work
Sending paid clicks to a page that does not match the ad is like hiring a great salesperson and seating them at the wrong desk. A focused landing page lets the click turn into a call, a booking or a lead, while you get back to running your business.
Talk to a WordPress expert about a landing page for your next campaign.
Keep reading: Can visitors tell what your company does within five seconds? | Is home page design relevant anymore? | The key principles of effective website navigation
Written by Jonathan Wofford, founder of Your WP Guy. Jonathan and the Your WP Guy team build, fix and look after WordPress sites for small businesses.