For many years, I’ve been on panels where I comment on PPC landing pages volunteered by the audience. Given the wild popularity of these sessions, it’s safe to say that marketers are still way behind in their landing page improvement efforts. Often, they just need a push to get started down the right path.

Here, I’ll focus on several effective landing pages elements and provide examples.

1. Credibility Indicators

On landing pages, try including credibility indicators such as testimonials, reviews, awards, social media information (i.e. Facebook likes, number of tweets, etc.) and seller ratings.

Here are some specific ideas related to credibility indicators:

Use specific testimonials for specific products/services – these tend to convert best.

Use testimonials to reiterate your company’s core value propositions.

Couple a longer, extremely compelling testimonial at the top of a page with a couple of shorter ones (see nuts.com example below). Whether the top one is from CNN or NYT, or a particularly eloquent customer, depends of course on your business, track record, etc.

2. Add Elements To Your Existing Buttons

To improve conversions, add some extra pop to your existing buttons.

For example, instead of a simple “buy now” button, try dual buttons with options like “quick view” or “order now”.

If your online strategy is linked up to Facebook, try testing combinations of conversion buttons and “sign in with Facebook” buttons. Take a look at the following example:

3. Remove Page Elements

We usually try to add elements to pages. Instead, try removing elements that can decrease the chance of a conversion (you should always focus on your primary conversion event first).

Here are several examples of items you can remove:

Secondary and tertiary conversion events like newsletter sign-ups

Extra links on a page

The navigation bar

Reduce the number of words on a page (using bullet points can help with this)

In general, cleaner pages with less clutter tend to convert better than overly designed ones with a lot of images and text.

4. Calls To Action

I know, I know. This one is cliché and is often touted by many. But it’s not always the best strategy from a conversion standpoint to go right for the sale.

Is it possible to breakdown your sales process by collecting a little information at the original point of contact and ask for additional information in subsequent interactions?

Here are some examples of this:

Add to cart, then ask for personal user info.

Follow up with a phone call and ask for more information via form.

If requesting contact info (a lead), ask for the minimum amount of variables possible on the original lead form page and request more variables on the thank you page. Offer an incentive on the thank you page for people to give you additional details.

5. Try Different Wording

Different words evoke different kinds of emotions. Try different wording to try to improve conversion rates.

In both of the examples below, the companies use words other than “order now” to “ask for the sale”.

37 signals uses “see plans and pricing”

Crazyegg.com uses “show me my heat map” (as opposed to order now):

What are some effective landing page tactics you’ve employed for better conversions?

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.