What is a landing page?
By Ash, Founder, HosteazePublished 2 min read
The short answer
A landing page is a standalone web page built around one goal, such as booking a call, claiming an offer or joining a mailing list. It's usually where an ad, email or social post sends people. Unlike a homepage, it has one message, one main button and very few ways to wander off.
Think of a landing page as the doormat for one particular invitation. Someone clicks your ad for a free boiler check, and instead of dropping them on your homepage to hunt around, you send them to a page that talks only about the free boiler check and has one big button to book it.
What's the difference between a landing page and a homepage?
Your homepage has to serve everyone: new visitors, returning customers, job hunters, the person looking for your phone number. A landing page serves one visitor with one intention.
| Homepage | Landing page | |
|---|---|---|
| Goal | Point people to the right part of the site | One action, such as book, buy or sign up |
| Audience | Everyone | People from one ad, email or post |
| Navigation | Full menu | Menu often hidden or trimmed |
| Message | Who you are and everything you do | One offer, explained well |
| How long it lives | Permanent | Often as long as the campaign runs |
The homepage still matters, of course. Our guide to what makes a good homepage covers that side.
What should a landing page include?
- A headline that repeats the promise from the ad or link, in similar words.
- A short explanation of the offer and who it's for.
- Proof: a few real reviews, a recognisable client, a guarantee you actually offer.
- One clear button, repeated if the page is long, with a specific label like "Book my free check" rather than "Submit".
- A short form asking only for what you need. Every extra field puts some people off.
Keep it fast and readable on a phone. Google's own advice to advertisers starts from the fact that many visitors arrive on a mobile, where a cluttered page is hard to use.
Why do landing pages matter for Google Ads?
Google Ads gives each keyword a Quality Score from 1 to 10. It's worked out from three parts, and one of them is landing page experience: how relevant and useful your page is to the people who click your ad. Google's own example is a "discount shoes" ad promising 20% off, where people should be able to find and buy the shoes at that price on the page they land on.
Send that click to your homepage and the match is weaker. That's one reason whether Google Ads is worth it often comes down to the page behind the ad, not the ad itself.
How do I know if my landing page works?
Measure the share of visitors who take the action, known as the conversion rate. A landing page should beat your general site figure, because everyone on it arrived wanting the same thing. Our guide to what counts as a good website conversion rate gives realistic benchmarks and how to track them.
More plain-English guides are in Email and domains.
Frequently asked questions
Is my homepage a landing page?
Loosely, any page someone arrives on is a landing page, and analytics tools use the term that way. In marketing, though, a landing page means a focused page built for one campaign. Your homepage serves everyone, so it usually makes a poor one.
Do I need special software to make a landing page?
No. Any website platform can make one. In WordPress it's a normal page with a simpler layout, often with the menu hidden. Dedicated landing page tools exist, but a page on your own domain does the job for most small businesses.
How many landing pages should I have?
One per offer or audience you advertise to. A plumber running separate ads for boiler servicing and emergency callouts should send each ad to its own page, so the page matches what the person clicked.