
Usually we celebrate the awesomeness of landing page design. But today we’re taking a stroll down scary street to look at some examples of how it shouldn’t be done. I apologize in advance if anyone takes offense – but really, your pages scared me!
Note: The majority of these pages were found by clicking on paid search ads, and most of them should really be using standalone landing pages specific to the promotion, rather than a homepage. I’ll give a couple of quick comments on each below the images. Yikers!! I’ll try not to be mean, but it’s scary out there.
If you do find yourself getting frightened, you can see some good examples of landing pages here.
1. I think my eyes are bleeding
Tips
Hire an effin designer. Stat… You’re business is clearly worth it in a monetary sense, so present yourself accordingly on the web. And please show some before and after examples of hair replacement. We may not believe you, but we certainly expect it.
2. That reset button is what I’d click
Tips
Unlock the potential for what? Living in a cul-de-sac in a Florida gated community? Be a little more specific about what the purpose of the page and offering is.
3. Sugar hermaphrodites?
Tips
I get that the hot women are there to help sell the idea (to the men) of using money to “get what you want”. But still, throw in a few statements of what the “service” provides. You’ll get more conversions if people know what to expect And maybe add a little class. #JustSayin.
4. Get a job!
Tips
Just looks like a curated site of scams. So yeah, my advice is to get a real job. Sorry.
5. The internet makes money for you!
Tips
Building a site that has the potential for someone to become a “member” does zero for your chance at making money. You still need a business plan/idea. The design is all over the place here and rife with cheap stock imagery. If you want people to sign up to build sites through your service, show them some examples/previews to get them excited.
6. Arrrrg navigation!
Tips
Landing pages shouldn’t have navigation on them! If you’re paying for ads then you should be thinking in terms of campaigns and promotions – so keep your landing pages focused on those single objectives. This is lazy advertising. People will just wander all over the place with those 450 links and never achieve your conversion goals.
7. War and Peace
Tips
To quote Steve Krug – “Take your copy, cut it in half and remove 50% of what’s left”. JASON! We need your knife again.
8. Waterproof phones only
Tips
Goggles? Wetsuit? Rake? Scuba gear? That’s all I’ve got.
9. Where’s the value proposition?
Tips
This page looks like Vegas. Waaaaay too much to do! I’ll say it again. Keep it simple, focused and use one landing page for each product. Sales will cometh. Promise.
10. These are not the droids you’re looking for
Tips
This is just dumb. If you don’t “know” that you have something in stock, don’t pay to advertise it!
11. Doctor’s waiting room?
Tips
WTF. This is like a 1996 flash splash page. Just load the site already. Don’t make me wait. Slow sites lower conversions. Don’t believe me? Read abut how faster sites convert better here.
12. Is this for kids making money?
Tips
I hit the back button the moment I saw this site. Then I came back to look at it for this post. It’s beyond confusing. First off, I’d remove the banner looking thing at the top of the page as it looks like an advert which will make people gloss over it. And it has the most important info in it! What the site is actually about.
13. Who eats electronics to lose weight?
Tips
Stop bidding on irrelevant keywords…..
Scared yet? If you’re cowering under a blanket, you might want to check out these great landing page examples for some comfort. And if you’ve seen some shockers on your travels, please share them in the comments – we can all learn something from looking at bad examples.
Comments:
tapan
Nice overview Oli,
One request though, can you please take a quick glance to this site http://www.ezmaal.com it’s an online shopping site. Want to know what the site is missing?
Oli Gardner
Thanks Tapan.
Couple of things. Firstly, analyzing a *site* can take weeks – We deal with landing pages wihich are stand along promotional specific pages designed to help reinforce the buying power of a product (in an eCommerce scenario like yours).
So I’ll just offer a few quick notes:
1. The images on the site loaded really slowly – so much so that I gave up and hit the back button (that could be my internet so don’t take that for granted) but lots of people might be experiencing that. (note: not so bad on second visit, but keep an eye on it).
2. No core value statement – what is this site? what are you selling/doing? Why should someone care? Make it really clear with a bold headline. You include more details in your page title (SEO) than on the actual page.
3. Very unfocused. You are showing a bit of everything. If you are going to send ad traffic (or even social traffic) – send them to a page about one thing – not 100.
That’s my 15 minute review. Hope it helps.
Cheers
Oli
tapan
Thanks a LOT :) Really appreciate your feedback.
I didn’t thought that you’ll answer me back but really it was very helpful. Going to discuss all your above points with my seniors & will definitely try to work out on the answers of your questions.
It means a lot to me sir.
Ted Kolovos
Oli, I really enjoyed these!! Great idea for Friday the 13th.
Btw, I felt really compelled to press the reset button because it just looks cool.
Oli Gardner
haha – glad you enjoyed it. Was fun to write. #reset
Rachel Poling
Ooooh, my eyes! My eyes!
Oli Gardner
oh the burn!!!!
Justin
Lmao. These are great examples of the typical website design strategy of throwing a bunch of c!@$ on a page and hoping it leads to business without any real logic or forethought to how a real person might actual engage (or not) with the site.
Ocha
How do you make that Friday 13th music sound in a comment. Some of these landing pages sure deserve it.
Oli Gardner
that would’ve been soo good
semanticlayout
Excellent collection of worst landing pages, I do believe that way of presentation is very important on the web.
Get A Record Deal
Number 10 looks like an Adsense Arbitrage site. This is where they would buy a lower valued “Renault” click from Google ADWORDS that would lead you to a page that just has a bunch of higher value “Renault” ads from Google ADSENSE. Being that you didn’t find the info you was looking for, you may be inclined to click on one of those ads.
=PROFIT
So yeah it looks ridiculous but people make money from it.
By the way you are wreaking havoc in the serps for Landing page examples…u got the first FOUR spots. Good job
Patrick
As a wet behind the ears ‘n00b’ marketer Oli, these sites are a great example of what NOT to do. Absolutely invaluable and totally appreciated!
If it’s not too presumptuous, i’d love for you to cast your eye over my latest site – I’m getting a fairly poor conversion rate from it……
http://www.howtocombatcoldsores.com
Thanks!
13 посадочных страниц, которые напугают вас до смерти! | Весь интернет в одном блоге
[…] сегодня мы прогуляемся по улице ужасов и рассмотрим статью из блога Оли Гарднера с обзором посадочных страниц, которые, по его мнению, […]
Thumbs Down: 37 Posts About Cruddy Marketing (and What You Can Do Better) | Complete SEO Marketing News
[…] 11. 13 Landing Pages to Scare the Crap Out of You […]
George
Wonderful examples. Here is another beautiful landing page that I found interesting:
http://www.dealhijack.com/deals.html?signup=1
US Joomla Force
Make your images relevant to your content, Be consistent, Use proper grammar and marketing terms, use clear conversion strategy, know your targeted keywords, place important things above the fold.
http://www.usjoomlaforce.com/joomla-upgrade-migration.html
35 Beautiful Landing Page Design Examples to Drool Over [With Critiques] | Unbounce | IT Lyderis
[…] 13 Landing Pages to Scare the Crap Out of You on Friday the 13th | Unbounce says: April 13, 2012 at 12:30 am […]
www.prestamossinproblemas.com
Hi, I desire to subscribe for this website to obtain newest updates, therefore where can i do it please help out.
free meditation austin
Hello There. I discovered your blog using msn. This is an extremely neatly written article.
I’ll make sure to bookmark it and come back to read extra of your
helpful information. Thanks for the post. I will certainly comeback.