What is a landing page and do you need one?

Someone quoting you for ads keeps saying you need a landing page. You already have a website, so it sounds like being sold a second one.

Here is what a landing page actually is, when a small business genuinely needs one, and when your existing site is fine as it is.

What is a landing page?

A landing page is a single page built to get one specific action, with no menu, no distractions, and one offer. Someone clicks an ad or scans a code, lands there, and either books, calls, or fills in the form. That is the whole job.

A website explains your whole business to anyone who arrives. A landing page persuades one kind of visitor to do one thing. They are different tools and most businesses eventually need both.

What are some landing page examples?

A landing page example for a small business is a page like “Free roof inspection this month” that an ad, a flyer or a QR code points to, with one form and nothing else. Other common ones:

• A plumber’s “Same day drain clearing” page for a Google Ads campaign.
• A restaurant’s holiday catering order page linked from a mailer.
• A dentist’s new patient special page with a booking form.
• A gym’s free week pass page shared on Facebook.
• An event signup page printed as a QR code on a poster.

Each one matches a single promise to a single action. That is what separates a landing page from the rest of your site.

How is it different from a normal page on my site?

Three differences do most of the work.

• No navigation. There is nowhere else to click except the button. That sounds restrictive and it is exactly why it converts better.
• One offer. Not your six services. The one thing the ad promised.
• Built to be measured. Because traffic comes from one source, you can tell exactly what a lead cost you.

Send ad traffic to your homepage instead and visitors browse, get distracted, and leave. You still paid for the click.

When does a small business actually need one?

You need a landing page when you are paying for traffic, running a promotion, or pushing one service hard. If you are not spending money to send people somewhere, you probably do not need one yet.

The clearest cases: you are running Google or Facebook ads, you are printing flyers or vehicle signage with a QR code, you are launching a seasonal offer, or you have one high value service that deserves its own pitch. Everything else can live on the main site.

What does a landing page cost?

A landing page for a small business typically costs 600 to 1,500 dollars as a one time build in the US, with simple template pages for less. The price climbs with more sections, longer sales copy, custom forms, and a second version built to be tested against the first.

You can also build one yourself. Most website builders, including the one your site probably runs on, have a landing page template, and a simple page with one headline, one offer and one form takes an afternoon. If you would rather have it built and wired to your ads, our standard landing page runs $850.

Compare that against what you are about to spend on ads. If you are putting $1,000 a month into ads and sending it to a homepage, the page pays for itself in a month or two just by wasting fewer clicks. A one time page is usually the smallest line in an ad plan.

What has to be on it?

Six things, in this order: a headline that repeats the promise from the ad, one line saying who it is for, proof, the offer, one form or phone number, and a second button lower down for people who scrolled. Anything else usually cuts your conversion rate.

Match the words to the ad exactly. If the ad says same day drain clearing in Greensboro, the page headline should say the same thing, not “Welcome to our plumbing services.” Mismatched wording is the most common reason a page with good traffic produces nothing.

How do you know if it is working?

Track one number: how many visitors take the action, as a percentage. A local service landing page usually converts somewhere between 5 and 15 percent of the people who arrive from a well matched ad. Under 2 percent means the page, the offer, or the audience is wrong.

You need tracking in place to see that at all. Google Analytics is free and can count form submissions as conversions after about an hour of setup, or our analytics and tracking setup handles it for you. Our post on turning website visitors into booked jobs covers the same idea across the rest of your site.

Target Marketeer builds and runs marketing for small businesses nationwide, based in Greensboro, North Carolina, and we build the page and the ads together on purpose, because a page nobody sends traffic to is just an expensive brochure. You can see the range on our website design and development and paid advertising pages.

Quick answers

Can I use my homepage as a landing page?

You can, and it will convert worse. Homepages exist to serve every visitor, so they give people a menu of options at exactly the moment you want them to do one thing.

Does a landing page help my Google ranking?

Not much on its own, because these pages are built for paid traffic rather than search. If you want to rank, you want a service page on your main site, which is a different build.

Do I need a separate landing page for each service?

Only for the services you actively advertise. One page per campaign is the rule, not one page per service you offer.

Can a landing page live on my existing website?

Yes, and it usually should. It sits at its own address on your domain with the menu hidden, so it keeps your branding without competing with your other pages.

How long does one take to build?

About a week for a standard page once the offer and photos are settled. The standard landing page includes the layout, the copy structure, and the form wiring.

If you are not sure whether you need one page or a whole site, the plan builder asks a few questions and prices both.