Homepages vs. Landing Pages: 3 Things That Make Them Different
The term home page is one that you might be more familiar with, but when you throw in the term landing page, suddenly everything sounds the same. The thing is they aren’t.
If you are new to landing pages, have a landing page, but aren’t exactly sure what it’s for or need to build one for your site, on the last blog we talked about goals and guidelines for landing pages. But if you’re confused about the difference between a home page and a landing page, you’ll need some more details as to what they are and how they’re different. So let’s break it down into three main differences:
Audience
Your home page is where your visitors will get to when they go to your website, especially if they come from organic traffic, meaning that they found your site on organic search results. This type of user might not be looking for anything in particular. They are just browsing around, hoping to find something that interests them.
On the other hand, when we talk about landing pages, we are referring to a standalone page where your visitors will land after clicking on a call to action, whether it comes from a paid ad or an email marketing campaign. This type of visitor is further down the sales funnel and is more likely to convert.
Links
Homepages have links for all sorts of things: navigation, terms & conditions, social media, etc. That is how you help your visitors interact with your site. In contrast, the links on landing pages are meant to convert traffic. Landing pages rarely have links to anything else because you want your viewers to focus on converting.
Content
Your homepage will have a lot of different information about your business, and although you might use some of it on your landing page, its content should be strictly related to the service, product or offer that you are promoting. A landing page is a way to think ahead. When someone clicks on an ad or marketing email and gets to your landing page, you want them to think that is precisely what they need.
It comes down to purpose. You will use one for information, sources, and link ads, the other for conversion. Which one do you need?
