If you are in the landing page business you should always read the PPCHero. I found this older but still great landing page informational post today.

TOPIC 1: Keep It Above the Fold, Stupid!

If you read many PPC blogs, you’re undoubtedly heard this mantra before: “Keep your calls-to-action, headlines, forms, buttons, images and everything else above the fold!” Excessive? Yes. Let me explain: Keeping important elements above the fold is a common tactic thrown around for optimizing landing pages, but for the uninformed it’s the impossible mission. From one level-headed marketer to another, let me lay it out… you can’t fit everything above the fold! What does that mean for you? You have to play it smart. Take stock of the design elements of your landing page and create a list of importance. Consider your target audience, and seriously think about what is most important to them. Taking the time to go through that process will guide you to an intelligent testing process.

All of that being said, the number one priority for your landing page’s design/layout is to have your call-to-action above the fold. This is a must. Your landing page will fail if visitors do not know what their next step is. If you do nothing else, this should be a priority. For some, this is contained in the headline. Simple. For others, your call-to-action is hiding within a button – so the physical button should be above the fold. When selling a specific product, I would strongly urge you to place the image above the fold. When running a strictly lead-generation campaign, I would strongly encourage you to test placing the lead form above the fold. I’ve tested this in a few industries, and it can certainly be a contributing factor in increasing lead-gen conversion rates.

TOPIC 2: Limit Navigation and Limit Confusion

This is probably one of the more debatable tactics for optimizing a PPC landing page. From personal experience, I can say that removing typical website navigation has increased conversion rates on my PPC landing pages. The idea is relatively simple. By removing navigation, you are creating a “sterile” conversion environment. In other words, you are in complete control of what the visitor sees, interacts with and hopefully this will lead them directly to the conversion. If your PPC landing page is just another page on your website – navigation and all – the visitor can browse the website as a whole. Which, in my experience, decreases the likelihood of conversion.

Like I said, this is a debatable tactic. So, in all fairness, I’ll present some of the counter-arguments. Some marketers say that if the website is created in such a way, it won’t matter if they stray from your landing page. The entire website should be designed for conversion, and the visitor will find their way regardless. Another argument is that by stripping a page of navigation, this can act as a deterrent to some visitors – almost leaning towards SPAM. In my experience, this hasn’t been the case, but it is certainly something that you should test.

As an alternative to both, you could create a conversion path. A conversion path gives the visitor options for navigation – all of which are under control in a more complex “sterile” conversion environment. Conversion paths are great for segmenting visitors into much more targeted landing page experiences that can have a truly positive effect on conversion rates.

TOPIC 3: Un-Clutter and Place Value on Whitespace

More times than not when I arrive at a landing page, I’m blown away by the amount of stuff on the page. Stuff is not only ambiguous, it’s bad for conversions. Take stock of the cacophony of design elements on your landing page and ask yourself what is truly important for the user and for the conversion. Chances are you’ll be able to remove a lot of stuff. Clutter on a landing page is confusing for the user and can keep them from finding relevant details and your calls-to-action. Additionally, PPC visitors are often times in a rapid-fire state-of-mind. This means that they’ve been searching through several of your competitor’s PPC ads and landing pages and have come to you for a second opinion (maybe you were #1, but just work with me here). If your landing page is a cluttered mess, they will only give you a few seconds of their time – if they don’t find what they’re searching for, they’re gone. Off to the next landing page.

Users scan the text and take away only certain elements that they use to make a decision if the page is relevant to their goal or not. Clean use of space allows users to scan and absorb key messages.

The design of your landing page should lend itself to quick and simple recognition of the “key messages.” If you have the perfect flash animation that you MUST put on your landing page – ask yourself, “Does this deter from the key message of my landing page?” If you answer yes, remove it and place a little more value on your newfound whitespace.

Technically Speaking, the PPCHero rocks with good information, so I know you will want to read the rest of the tips located here.