Difference between Home Page, Landing Page & Squeeze (opt-in) Page
As you dig deeper into your online marketing campaigns, you’ll stumble upon various web pages. These web pages are built for the specific purpose, each with its own objective and goal. The best web design & marketing campaign maximize the use of these pages to generate leads and ultimately boost sales. In this blog, we will try to differentiate between the Home Page, Landing Page and Squeeze / Opt-in Page.
What is the Home Page?
The Home Page (also refer as homepage ) is the front page of your website that loads up when you enter your domain name in the web browser address bar. It is the main page that provides a starting point for your web visitors to browse your website. This default page contains hyperlinks & navigation menus to different sections of the site.
Most servers load homepage as index.html or index.php file on the root directory of a website. The popular CMS platform like WordPress gives priority to the filename such as frontpage.php to be acknowledged as a home page.
Since it is the first point of contact between your customers and your company, it should contain all the important information and links to guide them towards your business goal. The information like clickable phone number, email, contact address, value proposition, unique selling proposition, competitive advantages, clients reviews and testimonials are important components of the modern homepage.
Your homepage should load within 5 seconds. You should also enable Page Cache to avoid slow loading of your main page. Using a lot of images and especially the big banner or background images without proper compression will slow down the loading speed of your homepage. Use correct headline tags ( h1, h2, h3 etc ) and researched keywords throughout the page to rank higher on the search engine.
Example of the homepages are
What is the Landing Page?
Unlike homepage, your landing page is more specific and build with a focused objective. For example, when you see an advertisement on Google and you click on them, the destination page ( of that particular ad ) is called the landing page. A good landing page will have a strong Call To Action ( CTA ), an opt-in form ( to capture visitors’ email ) and a well-written content.
The landing page should be free of distractions and should be thoroughly tested ( Split test or A/B test ) before implementing them on your marketing campaigns. In order to avoid distractions, most of the marketing gurus remove the navigation bar from the landing page. It is to ensure that when someone lands on that specific landing page they will follow your desired Call To Action ( CTA ) instead of surfing around your website and getting sidetracked from the main objective.
Tracking your landing page and accurately measuring the performance, behaviour, acquisition and conversion helps to streamline your ad or marketing campaigns. The main purpose is to figure out, who followed your Call To Action and who exited the landing page without any actions. Once you can track these indicators, you can modify your marketing campaigns to minimize your bounce rate.
What is the Squeeze or Opt-In Page?
Opt-in page or squeeze page is a form of a landing page that captures your leads’ email addresses and names. The ultimate goal of the opt-in or squeeze page is to collect as many email addresses as possible in exchange for a freebie, such as white papers, tutorials, courses, templates, guides and e-books. The most successful squeeze page offers something valuable (often known as the lead magnet) in return for an email address. Your lead magnet should have high value, promises one quick solution and it should be instantly accessible.
These unique pages are commonly used in lead generation marketing strategy and often contain sales pitch, one powerful Call To Action ( CTA ), and short & precise offer. Just like a landing page, this opt-in page or squeeze page doesn’t have navigation menu to avoid user distraction.
The persuasion technique and design of a squeeze page should be subtle and focused on the single goal to collect email addresses. Using the split test ( A/B testing ) and optimizing the page based on the analytic data are the most effective strategies in running a successful squeeze page.
Example of opt-in or squeeze page:
https://customizepress.ca/seo-content-optimization/
Update – Canada Anti-Spam Law (CASL):
Starting 1st July 2014, Canada Anti Spam Law ( CASL ) requires express consent from the recipient to receive all forms of electronic messages including emails and text. If you are using the forms to collect user data, you will have to provide clear information and double opt-in with the confirmation-link before adding them into your subscriber list. Law also requires you to have a visible “unsubscribe” button on every message you sent to the subscriber. Therefore it is your obligation to ensure all the forms embedded on your landing page are compliant with the new Canada Anti-Spam Law (CASL).
There are 2 types of consent required by CASL,
Express Consent: When you receive a direct permission from the recipient to email them, it is known as express or explicit consent. You should document all the express consent ( obtained through form or confirmation link ) to prove that you have permission from the recipient. This consent is valid until the recipient withdraw their consent and request to receive no more messages from you. The request should be as simple as clicking an ‘ unsubscribe’ button embedded on your email.
Implied Consent: If you have an existing relationship with the recipient you can still send the electronic messages without their express consent. The implied consent applies for both existing business relationship and non-business relationship. Click on the link to learn more about the CASL.