What Is a Landing Page, and Why Do I Need One?
A landing page is the first thing users see when they click on one of your advertisements. Rather than taking the user directly to the homepage, which is often cluttered with links and information, you can significantly boost your conversion rate by showing them a streamlined page tailored to the ad they clicked on. If you sent users directly to the homepage, they may be confused, which could lead to more bounces.
The landing page functions as a logical extension of the advertisement; it should match the language used in the ad, and act as the next stage in the conversion funnel. If you’re running multiple ad campaigns for different things, you’ll want multiple landing pages.
For example, take a look at Shopify’s homepage. It’s full of utility, with a menubar listing all the pages, a button to log in to your account, and some marketing material letting people know there’s a free trial available.
But their landing page looks very different. They’ve gotten rid of the menus, log in button, and all the clutter, and are focused directly on getting the user to put their email address into the box and press the button.
There are no distractions on this page, and there’s no way to leave it without going back or clicking “Start Free Trial.” This works very well as a landing page; it’s simple and gets the job done. As a rule of thumb, any page that cuts out the clutter of the main site and focuses on the call to action (In this case, the email address box) will make for a good landing page.
Elementor
Elementor is a native landing page plugin, meaning it integrates directly with WordPress and isn’t serving content from somewhere else. The core drag and drop editor of Elementor is free and open source. They provide additional templates and widgets if you want to buy them, but if you don’t want to pay for anything, you can still use Elementor to put together a great landing page without any coding knowledge.
If you’d like to dive into the details of your site, Elementor is open source and the HTML and CSS code it generates is easily viewable and extensible. You can build custom widgets, themes, and PHP hooks on top of what’s already there.
The paid version starts at $49 per year, and gives you access to 300+ paid templates and 50+ paid widgets, including WooCommerce. It does limit you to one landing page even on the $49 tier, but that’s to keep prices down for small businesses who probably don’t need more than that.
OptimizePress
OptimizePress is a plugin more focused on the analytics and marketing side of things. In addition to helping you to create landing pages, it can also create sales pages and membership portals. A/B testing is also available, and the built-in templates have already been tested and optimized to have high conversion rates, ready for you to modify.
OptimizePress costs $97, but that’s a one time fee, and it won’t expire after a year. One thing to note is that A/B testing is not included in the cheapest plan—you’ll have to pay $197 for that, which also lets you use OptimizePress on 10 sites.
Leadpages
Leadpages is an external service that has integrations with WordPress, so it’s not a native plugin like Elementor, but it will still work well alongside your site. You make the landing pages with Leadpages, and then use WordPress to host them.
Leadpages has integrations with Facebook Ads, allowing you to easily target your landing pages to your marketing material. Their basic plan comes in at $25 per month, and it features a drag and drop editor alongside 160 landing page templates. The “pro” version costs $48 per month, and allows you to run A/B tests and make sales from your landing page.
Instapage
Instapage is an external service, focused on A/B testing and conversion optimization. If you specifically want a plugin with good A/B testing support, Instapage is the best one for WordPress.
Instapage has a lot of features, including a full page builder with templates, A/B testing, analytics, and heat maps that can show you where users are clicking around on your pages. It also features realtime editing with multiple people and access to a large library of stock photos.
But, it’s the priciest plugin on this list, coming in at $99 per month on an annual subscription. They also offer enterprise pricing for those who need extra features.
