Creating a Landing Page without a website is doable and sometimes even preferable
Published by Incomedia in Web design · Monday 20 Nov 2023
The toolbox of every great artisan contains items that he simply cannot do without: a carpenter needs a saw, the painter uses a paintbrush, a tailor requires a needle, etc. It's the same thing for those who work in “digital”. There are essential tools that you simply must know how to use. And when working on the internet, Landing Pages are important.
Landing pages are useful in a thousand different ways and can really make the difference between a failed, mediocre or successful campaign.
The good news is that with a bit of effort and by following some well-established good practices, you can easily create excellent Landing Pages, and you can do so despite not having a corresponding website.
So let's proceed step by step and see how to create effective Landing Pages, without a website.
Before we begin: What is a landing page?
As the name suggests, a “Landing Page” is a web page that a user arrives at after a click-on-a-link. There are many types. For example, you may have found an ad, seen a banner, read an article or opened an email. Whatever the starting point was, the fact is that at a certain point you found a link and decided to click it, thus arriving on the Landing Page.
And this is where it all begins, because each Landing Page has the very specific need to gather a new lead (i.e., contact info including the email address of a potential customer) or to sell a product or service.
This is why landing pages are so important. Their task is to lead the visitor and help him perform an action to then transform him or her from a complete stranger into a contact or, even better, a customer.
As such, nothing on a Landing Page can be left to chance. Text, images, colors, graphical elements, spatial arrangements...everything must be designed to be so compelling that it leads a user to take the desired action.
We talked at length about Landing Pages and the various types that can also be identified in the article entitled, "How to create a Landing Page".
Is it possible to create a landing page without a website?
Now that you understand what a Landing Page is, you may have already thought of several different ways to use it. The point is that you may not yet have a website, perhaps because you are just beginning, and you need a campaign with an associated Landing Page to understand how to best structure your online business.
Can a Landing Page be created separately from a corresponding website? The answer is yes. Landing pages can be stand-alone pages, i.e., landing pages that can exist independently.
Having answered this question, let's take a look at the steps you need to follow to create and go online with a truly effective Landing Page, i.e., one that's capable of achieving the expected results in terms of conversions.
Define the Landing Page's objective
A Landing Page must have a single and clear objective. In other words, it needs to do one thing, and one thing only, but it needs to do it really well. So start by asking yourself, “Why do I need to create this Landing Page? What do I want the user to gain through it?”. You may, for example, want to add a special offer, aim for a direct sale, gather registrations and contacts or increase engagement on your social networks.
It's important to clearly identify this objective because you'll need it to be able to construct a targeted message and achieve the results you desire.
Identify the target audience
Now that you know what you want to achieve, you'll need to find the best way to do it. Obviously, there are many "ways" to create a Landing Page. Think about how much the page can change based on the colors, images and words you choose as well as how you decide to arrange these various elements.
Among the many possibilities, the best way will depend on the audience you're targeting. Only by knowing the needs, tastes, languages and topics of interest of the people you want to speak to, can you manage to get on the same wavelength and create a message that's capable of engaging and convincing them.
Choose the tool to create your Landing Pages with
Landing pages are still web pages and, as such, are essentially made of HTML code and style sheets. Obviously, when you create your Landing Pages, it's not at all necessary for you to have HTML knowledge. You can simply choose a service that allows you to create websites and web pages visually.
There are specialized services for Landing Pages, but you can also use software like WebSite X5. It allows you to create everything from a single web page to a showcase site, blog or online store.
With WebSite X5, you can create as many projects as you like, so if you prefer that your Landing Pages are independent from website, you can do it. Simply create a new project for each Landing Page.
Once you've discovered the potential of WebSite X5, it'll be easy for you to move from the first Landing Page to more complex projects. You'll be able to manage everything with extreme simplicity.
Find the most appropriate Template
All website creation services suggest to start by choosing a template: a predefined and professionally predesigned Template which can then be freely customized by inserting your own content.
In general, templates are a good way to quickly start off on the right foot and achieve the final result faster and with less effort. Nothing stops you, however, if you prefer to start from a blank page and to create your Landing Page in a completely original way.
Starting with one of the WebSite X5 templates is a great way to create your Landing Page
Enter the contents of the Landing Page
At this point, you are ready to begin to customize your Landing Page. It's good to know that by analyzing Landing Pages that work, you begin to see that they're made up of a series of recurring elements.
LOGOS - Create a sense of trust and credibility. People need to know who they are connecting with, and by adding a logo you will help them understand this.
TITLES and SUBTITLES - By position and appearance, this is the first text that the user will read. Look for the best formula so that they're consistent with the ad the user clicked on, are capable of immediately responding to their needs and are engaging enough to encourage them to continue reading the page.
FEATURED IMAGES or VIDEOS - After the title, these have a prominent position, so your hero image (or even better) the video that presents your product or service must be relevant and look professional.
REGISTRATION FORMS - On Landing Pages whose goal is to gather leads, a contact form is what you'll need to focus your user's attention on. Make their life easy. Make sure the form is at the top of the page, that it's clearly visible and, above all, that it's easy and quick to fill out.
BUTTONS (CALLS TO ACTION, CTAs) - This is the mechanism through which you'll explicitly ask the user to do something. Insert your CTA in a button that stands out in terms of shape, color and size. Position it carefully within the page (perhaps in several places), and carefully compose the text.
BENEFITS - As Philip Kotler explains, your users care about the hole, not the drill it takes to create it. Don't just describe the features of your product or service. Focus on the benefits that people will achieve from it. It's only in this way that you'll convince them that they need it.
REVIEWS - Knowing the opinion or user experience of other customers, helps overcome any final reservations before making a purchase. For this reason, reviews should always be included. You don't need a lot of them, it's more important that they're well done.
SOCIAL MEDIA BUTTONS - On their own, social media buttons have no effect on a Landing Page's result. However, you should still include them because through spontaneous sharing, you might reach other audiences that are potentially interested in your offering.
To finish out this list of elements that need to be included on an effective Landing Page, there's one that's better not to include: the navigation menu. If you're creating a Landing Page without a corresponding website, the problem does not exist; there is no navigation menu. Otherwise, make sure that the menu is not visible on the Landing Page. It only provides an easy escape route for visitors.
Optimize the Landing Page
Optimizing a Landing Page means taking action on two fronts: SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and mobile viewing.
When it comes to search engine optimization, you should apply all the basic optimizations to your Landing Page that you would apply to any web page, including taking care of headers and titles, working on descriptions and the ALT of images and keywords, etc. Ultimately, a Landing Page that's well-positioned from an organic point of view is an advantage because it allows you to reach a potentially wider target audience.
However, as far as mobile is concerned, you'll need to remember that not everyone will be viewing your Landing Page from a desktop. Therefore, ensuring that the page is always quick to load in addition to being perfectly displayed and functional during navigation, is necessary for its success.
Publish the Landing Page online
Now that your Landing Page is ready, all you need to do is publish it online in order to launch your campaign.
To do so, you'll need to have a Web Hosting service that provides you with server space for your page files. You also need to activate a domain .
The good news is that if you've decided to use a specialized service or a site builder to create your Landing Page, you most likely don't need to worry about these more technical feauters because these tools already include a hosting solution.
WebSite X5, for example, offers a free domain and free hosting for one year. It's a tailor-made and already fully-integrated service that's designed to allow you to go online immediately with just one click.
Monitor performance
As we've said, each Landing Page has a target: lead a person to perform an action, converting them from a simple user to a contact (or lead, i.e., a user whose email is known) or a customer (i.e., a user who has completed a purchase).
The number of conversions therefore represents each Landing Page's success. The greater the number of conversions, the greater the effectiveness of the Landing Page and, ultimately, the success of your campaign.
With an online Landing Page, therefore, your goal becomes to improve your conversion rate.
How do you do this? A common method is through A/B testing (or split testing). It essentially involves creating two versions of a page that differ by a single variant that are submitted to a similar audience for the same period of time. It takes consistency but, you'll be able to check several elements and progressively increase your Landing Page's conversion rates.
In closing
As you now understand, creating a Landing Page is both a "creative" and a "strategic" job. It's important that your page is aesthetically pleasing and in line with the ads that lead to it, but it's just as important that it's effective in leading people to conversion.
Adopting an appropriate creation tool will help you greatly. With WebSite X5 , for example, you use Templates, customization options and objects to insert any type of content, from videos to online forms, download buttons and sharing tools. You'll also benefit from the integration of all e-commerce tools and the availability of an integrated Web Hosting package.
WebSite X5 is the perfect solution for creating your stand-alone Landing Pages. Why not give it a try?