In online marketing a landing page, sometimes known as a lead capture page, is the page that appears when a potential customer clicks on an advertisement or a search-engine result link. The page will typically display content that is a logical extension of the advertisement or link, and that is optimized to feature specific keywords or phrases for indexing by search engines.

In pay per click (PPC) campaigns, the landing page will also be customized to measure the effectiveness of different advertisements. By adding a parameter to the linking URL, marketers can measure advertisement effectiveness based on relative click-through rates.

Types of landing page

There are two types of landing page, reference and transactional.

A reference landing page presents information that is relevant to the visitor. These can display text, images, dynamic compilations of relevant links, or other elements. Reference landing pages are effective if they meet the objectives of their publishers, which may be associations, organizations or public service entities. For many reference landing pages, effectiveness can be measured by the revenue value of the advertising that is displayed on them.

A transactional landing page seeks to persuade a visitor to complete a transaction such as filling out a form or interacting with advertisements or other objects on the landing page, with the goal being the immediate or eventual sale of a product or service. If information is to be captured, the page will typically withhold information until some minimal amount of visitor information is provided, typically an email address and perhaps a name and telephone number as well – enough to "capture the lead" and add the prospect to a mailing list.

A visitor taking the desired action on a transactional landing page is referred to as a conversion. The efficiency or quality of the landing page can be measured by its conversion rate, the percentage of visitors who complete the desired action. Since the economics of many online marketing programs are determined by the conversion rate, marketers constantly test alternatives and improvements to their landing pages. Some of the testing methods used are A/B testing and multivariate testing.

Search engine optimization

Every page of a site indexed by search engines is a potential landing page.

The goal of search engine optimization (SEO) is to leave few landings to chance. The content of the page and/or links to the page are optimized for very specific, carefully researched keywords and phrases. Those keywords and phrases that are of most value for "organic" or "natural" search engine optimization are those most likely to be used by prospective customers in their search engines. Good choices will cause the site to rank higher in search engine results.

For large websites covering many products or many topics, a single home page can't be optimized for every topic and still be relevant to all. A different approach is needed, a landing page that will not convert a visitor directly. A "hub" page is optimized for more generic, less targeted keyword phrases that have naturally a lower conversion rate than more-specific search terms. Hub landing pages serve as a "mini portal" within a site – the site establishes a number of virtual home pages, each for a broader topic.