Landing pages are one of the most important pieces of the online promotion puzzle.

When your audience clicks on an ad or link you should take them to a purpose built page (sometimes called a squeeze page) or dedicated micro-site.

If you dump them onto your website homepage, as many businesses do - it's like getting into a taxi, giving the driver an address and having them drop you off 'somewhere' on the right street.  For the visitor it's frustrating.  For you, visitors can end up wandering off track and you'll lose the sale. Just because big brands do it, that doesn't make it right!

We've listed the key things to consider when crafting a great landing page. There is one word of caution – what works in the context of one business won't work for another, so make decisions in the context of your own business and audience.

1. One Page. One Purpose

A landing page should focus on a single desired offer that meets a need of your audience.  The need that brought them there in the first place.  So if your Adwords ad text said "Affordable Garden Services", don't take them to a page with pictures of grass seed, planters and weed eaters.

Meeting their need may require visitors to contact you, buy something or sign up for something but focus the page on articulating your market's needs, how they can be met and building trust, rather than your needs which will be for the sale and which can led to self-promoting waffle and a large sign up form.

One would hope your audience needs and yours meet in a happy partnership!

Landing pages are the place where succinct and to the point content is especially important.

2. Think about their experience, and lead them through it.

People don't like being sold to, so don't scream BUY NOW to them like an out-of-control used car salesmen blaring into a microphone.

Lead them gently through the stages of buying:

1. Tell them what are you offering (confirms they are in the right place). This can be effectively conveyed in the heading so make it epic!  Don't hint and don't try and be clever.
2. Why they should be interested – state the benefits of using you as opposed to your competition so they want what you have to offer
3. Build trust and credibility  (see point 5 below) to help overcome any fears
4. Tell them what to do very clearly – click 'start', "call now" or 'sign up' for example.
5. Back it up by any garantees or warranties

Make sure you tell them what to expect next eg "You will get an email confirming your order with instructions on how to download your product".

I recommend adding incentives that are specific to a campaign, such as a free extra or a small discount.  You can also use the age-old advertising tricks of communicating scarcity ("only 25 spots available") or urgency ("offer ends Friday").

3. Remove distractions

Take your main website navigation off your landing page, it just begs for people to go and check out your resources section or other products.  And they might forget why they are there.

Add another page and link to it only if you really think more detailed information would be of benefit and help people make a decision. Technical specifications might be an example.

Detailed information can be useful in terms of increasing your Adwords quality score because it provides clues to Google about what your page is about, and shows how your site is unique and has something of use to the user.  However, it might be better to put the information on the same page if it will fit.

Just make sure it is kept relevant to the service or product they have been interested in. Include the same call to action as the first page.  Extra pages mean you're moving to micro-site territory, but a micro-site is still focused on one need and one solution.

If you have video on the page, it should still add to the whole experience and persuade the visitor that you have what they want. Again, it should be relevant to the specific product or service.  I have seen Ads declined because of too many video's on a page and not enough 'real' content ( which means text in Google's eyes).  Lots of video can signal spam or an obscured purpse so I'd stick to one quality, relevant video.

Don't be tempted to offer or promote other services - use another landing page and campaign to do this.

4. Make sure your call to action is clear

It's surprising how many websites hide contact details or buy buttons or don't "ask for the sale" as it used to be called in my sales rep days.

Tell your visitors what to do.  In big, fat text with a bright coloured button if that isn't too cheesy for your brand.

If you are going to need them to go through a number of steps to get the product or service, make it clear to them.  For example "Sign up in three easy steps".

Your call to action should be compelling, but not coercive, manipulative or deceptive.

Have a read of Effective Calls to Action for more on this topic.

5. Build trust

Include genuine endorsements.

Clear, relevant testimonials and quotes help build trust. But don't just use 'great product' or cheesy, over the top generic endoresements. Make them attributable and include real facts and actual customer experiences.

Sometimes referred to as 'social proof' you want to reduce people's fear about doing business with an unknown entity.  This fear is lessened if they know other people have gone before them and come out unscathed.  You can include Facebook likes, awards, certifications and client logos.

Trust is also built with a quality design, images and clear, error-free text.

6. Don't ask for more information than you need.

Short sign up forms generally work better, but see number 8 – you should test versions to see what works best for your audience, as one size does not fit all.

7. Be consistent

Use the same visuals and language you used in your promotions, ads etc.

This ties the experience they had before they clicked on your ad with the after-click experience.

There's nothing worse than expecting one thing and getting something completely different, and it's hard to get someone to come back from jarring, unfulfilled expectations.

Start with the headline that should be consistent with the one that caught their attention – it should use the same language and offer that was on whatever ad or promotion they have come from

8. Test and measure then test again

It's possible that this should be first on the list.

A/B and multivariate testing compares different versions of headings, text copy, images and calls to action to see which works best.

This takes the guess work out of what works for best conversion rates.

You'll get conversion specialists arguing tooth and nail about whether to include moving images, video and what headline will work better, but at the end of the day its the facts that won't lie and don't have an opinion.

And your business, customers and offer is unique so what work's will be too.

What some examples?

For some great examples  of landing pages – with comments and critiques, check out:

Unbounce: Beautiful Landing Page Design Examples

Sixrevisions: Designing Landing Pages