Building a Landing Page vs Website

PPC

Isaac Payne

4/17/20253 min read

Everybody talks about how websites are crucial for running a business, large or small. After all, your website is an expression of your brand, and it’s where you can engage customers, provide information, offer services, etc.

But, once you start running advertising campaigns (whether on Google, Facebook, or in-person platforms), you will hear about landing pages. What are they, and what’s the difference between a landing page and a website?

A landing page is designed to hone in on a single idea or purpose, like getting people to sign up for your newsletter or schedule a call. A website is much more broad, and encourages free-form navigation.

I’ll take a look at the key differences between a landing page and a website below, as well as give you some tips on how you can use landers to your advantage as a small business.

What is a Landing Page?

A landing page, also known as a lander, is designed as the destination for leads who have clicked an advertisement. They’re often only a single page and are hyper-focused on a single call-to-action.

Landing pages should have a single kind of customer in mind, and all the content should be tailored to them.

For example, if I wanted to sell new windows to homeowners in Western New York, I’d make sure that all my content is focused on things like:

  • Increasing home value

  • Reducing heating and cooling costs

  • Increasing overall comfort

Being able to get as specific as possible for your audience is key to a successful landing page. In this example, appealing to the specific weather/climate in WNY is a great way to connect with your desired audience.

Anatomy of a Landing Page

If you look at a landing page for a product or a service, what are the key characteristics? All good landing pages follow this format:

  1. Compelling Headers - Your headline should grab your user’s attention and communicate the value proposition in as few words as possible.

  2. Short, Sweet, Benefit-Oriented Copy - Your text should be focused on how your offer helps the user. Highlight benefits with bullet points or short paragraphs.

  3. A Single CTA - Don’t distract leads with more than one CTA. Have one form with as few-fields as necessary to collect user information.

  4. Clean Design - You should aim to keep the user focused on the offer. Any images, design elements, or other media should work toward that goal, and ditch the superfluous stuff.

  5. Optimized for Mobile - Something like 65% of people who click on a Google Ad are on mobile, so make sure your lander is optimized for smartphones.

Where You Should Build a Landing Page

Now, let’s get technical for a minute. You can create landing pages in a few ways, but they all reach the same goal.

  • You can create a page on your website that is unlisted, meaning visitors to your site cannot access the page through navigation.

  • You can use software platforms dedicated to creating landing pages, such as Carrd or ConvertKit.

Which option is better? Well, it really depends on your goals and your budget. If you’re using a simple website builder like Squarespace or Hostinger, you can quickly create non-indexed landing pages, meaning Google and other search engines won’t recognize your page.

However, your website’s main header and footer still appear on the landing page, possibly distracting visitors.

On the other hand, dedicated landing page software can be pricey and can limit what features you can use behind paywalls.

In my opinion, if you’re running a few ads and you already have an easy-to-use website, building landers on your website is the best option. If you’re running numerous campaigns and want to collect all the data, using a third-party platform might be more your speed.

A Landing Page Is for 1 Kind of Visitor, A Website is For All Kinds

All of this was a long-winded way to say that landing pages are distinctly different from websites because they serve a singular purpose: converting leads.

Websites are your business’ brand image, hub of information, and virtual storefront. Anyone can come and go as they please to your website.

Landing pages are attached to advertisements, and are designed with a single customer in mind, and the content reflects that.

If you want to learn more about how to craft a winning landing page for your business, shoot us a message! We love chatting about all-things marketing.

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