Even with all the hype around social media sales and digital marketing, websites and landing pages still play an essential role in a company’s online presence. Ideally, there are critical strategies in designing a site, creating social media pages, and generating content that helps grow and engage your visitors with features.
Using a website and a landing page helps draw in traffic and spark interest in a product, service, or mission, giving more value to your brand. Landing pages are a great way to communicate a message in a simple, direct way.
Understanding how to take advantage of both tools is vital to building a great online and social proof brand.
Here are seven ways to differentiate between a landing page and a website to help businesses use both effectively.
What is a Website and a Landing Page?
Many people believe that a website and a landing page are the same. However, there are some crucial distinctions between the two. Understanding the difference can help you utilize each tool better to achieve your marketing goals.
What is a Website?
A website is a group of related web pages, usually including a homepage, typically hosted on the same domain. It’s typically used to provide access to information about an organization or individual, promote a brand, and may include pages dedicated to specific topics or product offerings.
Think of it as an online brochure for a visitor. It’s a place to learn about a company and its founding team, browse prices, and read a blog post. Each web page should be easy to navigate and understand for users.
Websites are best used for:
Share information with a large audience
Conduct transactions
Provide a user-friendly experience
What is a Landing page?
A landing page is a single page designed to convert visitors into leads or customers, making it a great tool for your marketing campaign. It typically has a specific goal, like getting people to sign up for a newsletter, or download an eBook with a single click.
To achieve its goal, a landing page usually includes action-oriented inbound marketing text, a picture of the product, and a form to fill out sales conversion. It may also include information about the offered product or service and persuasive copy, and calls to action.
While websites are often multi-purpose, landing pages are single-minded in their focus on conversion and driving sales.
A landing page should always represent your brand in its fullest form (in other words, don’t use it as an “about me” section of sorts), so this means including a picture or two and colors that help convey how you feel about your company’s values. This can make all the difference when trying to attract a certain demographic.
A landing page allows for more time-intensive copywriting without sacrificing content quality – which helps set up expectations accordingly and provides higher conversion rates.
This type of page is best used for:
Pay-per-click advertising
Promote lead magnets for more traffic
Grab the attention of a visitor
Attract different audiences
Landing Pages vs. Websites
A website is like a digital version of a brick-and-mortar business. It’s a place where people can learn more about your company, browse your product offerings, and (hopefully) make a purchase.
In contrast, a landing page is a specific page on your website designed to convert visitors into customers, boosting your traffic. Unlike your website as a whole, which is meant to be informative, this specific page should focus on a single call to action (CTA). It typically includes features like an eye-catching headline, persuasive copy, and a lead capture form.
In short, a website is where you tell people about your business, while a landing page is where you actually do business.
Here are a few differences between websites and landing pages.
Websites Tell the Corporate Story
Most businesses should use a website because they tell their story with social proof.
If a company wants a long-term online presence, it will be hard to build a lasting audience with just a landing page vs. the web. Leads and partners want to see a web page like a home page or product web page, implying that a business is established and reputable.
Another great benefit of websites is companies can include a Frequently Asked Questions web page (FAQs). This helps save time from having to answer the same questions repeatedly.
Full services websites are fantastic for customers or partners who want to see the company as a whole.
Websites Track Behavior to Increase Conversion
Companies can also use websites to their advantage to track user behavior. Web designers can see what links and what picture visitors click on the page design and what routes they take through the website.
Understanding visitor behavior can help companies build a website that effectively captures their interests. They can place products or pricing information in optimal locations with the most viewership.
Landing Pages are a Call to Action
One major difference between a landing page and a website is a CTA. When businesses design a landing page, they want to target users with a specific offer or product. They want the web page to be impactful. A landing page has to be well designed and just the right length for a page design.
A too short landing page can leave the visitor uncertain about the offer, while one that’s too long can muddle the message. The best landing pages are calls to action that trigger customers to click and purchase or go to other conversion forms.
They either get a potential customer’s information or guide a sale or business transaction from social proof.
How many landing pages should a website have?
According to Hubspot’s Marketing