Before you create a landing page for your site, ask the following questions: what is a landing page, and why do you need one?
Simply put, a landing page is a standalone web page linked from your primary site. Landing pages are most commonly used to collect visitors’ contact information or to promote a specific product or service.
All landing pages have one thing in common: a call to action. The purpose of a landing page is to persuade your site visitors to perform some kind of action, such as signing up for a newsletter, downloading an eBook, or booking an online appointment at your hair salon.
When designed well and linked to throughout your website, landing pages can help increase your conversion rates and turn casual visitors into dedicated followers or customers.
Now that you know what a landing page is and why it’s important to have one, it’s time to create one.
How to create a landing page on WordPress.com
The easiest way to create a landing page is by making an entirely new site that consists of a single static homepage. This will serve as your landing page. By creating a new website, you’ll keep the landing page separate from the rest of your content, have more control over who accesses it, and can give it a unique theme that stands out from your other pages.
Follow these five steps to create your landing page:
Step 1: Create a site and choose a theme
Create a new site by going to My Sites and selecting Add New Site from the bottom of the side panel. Configure this site with a title, domain name, and theme, just as you did with your original website.
When picking a theme for your landing page, use the “one page” filter to display themes that work especially well for single-page websites.
Step 2: Delete unnecessary content
Most WordPress.com themes include placeholder content, such as pages and posts. Since you only need one page, remove the placeholder content that you don’t plan on using.
Go to My Sites, Pages, and click the three dots next to each page name to reveal more options. Then click Trash. Repeat this process for any posts that you want to remove.
Step 3: Make your page static
To make the homepage of this new site a static landing page, open your site Customizer and click the Homepage Settings tab.
Select the radio button next to A static page, and make sure that your homepage is selected under the Homepage dropdown menu.
Step 4: Edit the appearance of your landing page
Under Pages, click the three dots next to your homepage and select Edit. This will open the page editor, where you can add content such as text, contact forms, or images.
Make sure your landing page has the look you want by selecting a page template under Page Attributes. The template you choose will depend on the options available in your theme.
Step 5: Drive traffic to your landing page
Once your landing page is created and published, make sure people can easily find it. You may want to include a call to action button on your homepage that links back to it. You can also insert a link into your site’s copy, or promote it across social media marketing campaigns. While you don’t want to be too pushy, making sure that your site visitors find your landing page with ease is key for driving traffic to it.
Using plugins to create a landing page
The above method for creating a landing page is a straightforward process, but can take time to complete. Those who have WordPress.com plugin-enabled plans can use certain plugins to create landing pages.
If there is a page on your website that you like the look of — perhaps you think your current homepage would look great as a landing page as well — you can duplicate that page and adjust the content accordingly.
Page duplicator plugins such as the Duplicate Post plugin allow you to quickly clone any pre-existing page from your website, which can then be modified to fit the needs of your landing page.
If you don’t want to create an entire new site for your landing page but still want it to feature a unique layout, you can try a page builder plugin, such as Visual Composer.
Page builders enable you to quickly modify a page’s structure, look, feel, and functionality without writing any code. These plugins feature drag-and-drop interfaces that modify your WordPress.com Business site beyond what your theme originally allowed.
No matter what method you use, creating a landing page is an efficient way to convert visitors into customers. Creating a landing page for your site will equip you with a great tool for growing your blog or business.
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