6 Landing Page Tricks and Treats for Halloween

Landing pages, website adjustments and other marketing campaigns can be spooky, but they don’t need to be. You don’t need to let previous website mistakes haunt you forever.

Here are some tips to get the most out of your landing pages this fall by avoiding some of these scary occurrences:

1. Letting Your Website Become a Graveyard

The information you list on a landing page can become deceased if you don’t periodically check on it. Visitors don’t want to encounter a bunch of undead information when they access your landing page.

Make sure to revive your pages once in a while, especially if contact information has changed over time or offers expired. Outdated details and old links should be buried once and for all.

2. Sending Visitors Into a Haunted House With no Ways Out

Directing website visitors to a particular page and navigation are two critical concerns for design. Some brands skip landing pages and send users straight the the home page, which can be a scary experience, especially if there aren’t clear navigation bars.

Additionally, a critical Web design error is disabling the back button, according to Venture Capital Post. This will send potential customers running away, and they will most likely be too irritated to ever return to your site.

While some Web design professionals believe axing the navigation options on landing pages can keep people on the page, you need to run A/B testing to find out if this approach leads to a higher number of conversions.

3. Mummifying Your Old Website

If you’re completely overhauling your website to get better results, preserving pieces of the old site will only slow you down and prevent you from growing, an infographic from Wider Funnel stated.

Repackaging the same content from your former landing pages with newer tactics won’t improve conversion rate optimization.

This is just an undead website. Redesigns should be just that – making the site new again. Another form of mummification is clinging onto CRO tactics that you used to work but have been outdated for a long time.

The Internet is changing all the time and you need to keep up with new developments.

4. Spectral Calls to Action

There shouldn’t be anything transparent about a strong call to action. If your CTA looks like ghost, it could cause visitors to back away rather than follow it, Tim Ash pointed out.

No matter the occasion, the best practices for CTAs still apply:

• Use strong language.


• Communicate the benefits to visitors and make it visible.


• Each element of the landing page should have a purpose.

If customers arrive on a page that doesn’t have a clear next step, they may feel a little creeped out, and they’re more likely to leave rather than search around and find more ghosts.

Tone down the paranormal activity and write strong, direct CTAs.

5. Not Exorcizing the Clutter

One of the scariest occurrences of all is your pages becoming possessed by clutter and distractions. Bogging pages down with too much text, too many images and multiple forms can really frighten your visitors.

If you use search engine ads to hook your viewers, they will quickly run for the door if they encounter a cramped page.

Fortunately, you can fix this issue by adhering to landing page best practices. It’s important to remember that visitors don’t always want to read a ton of text when they first get to a landing page.

Limit it to the absolutely essential details of the offer and trim any excess. Bullet points can be highly effective for conveying the message. Use images judiciously and only include a maximum of one form per page.

6. Ghoulish Forms

While we’re on the subject of landing page forms, these can be a conversion killer if they aren’t utilized properly. Just like in a horror movie, there countless things that can go wrong with a form.

An increasing number of people surf the Web from their smartphones and tablets, so mobile-responsive forms are key for successful lead generation efforts.

Without this feature, you may see high abandonment rates, plus the lack of responsiveness can create a frustrating user experience. For example, mobile users may not be able to tell which field they’re in.

Another serial killer of conversion is lengthy forms. Only ask for the information you need to get in touch with potential customers in the future or risk losing them forever. The purpose of the form can dictate how many fields you should include.

For example, if it’s a white paper or e-book download, simply asking for a first and last name, email address and phone number may be enough information.

If the form is for a free product trial, you can request more information about leads. Asking for too much on someone’s first visit to your website is sure to scare them away for good. Another tip to keep in mind is longer forms tend to work best in a vertical format rather than horizontal.

Since it’s Halloween, it’s time to drive a stake through the heart of all your landing page issues to achieve better conversion rates. Don’t let small problems become a persistent haunting! A/B testing can help you find the best tricks to revamp your pages and increase conversions.

What are some other terrifying landing page problems? Tell us in the comments.

6 Landing Page Tricks and Treats for Halloween