Shopify Landing Page Optimization: 6 Rules Every Online Merchant Should Follow

Learn about essential things every online merchant should remember when building a Shopify landing page

This post may serve as a good reference for any e-commerce entrepreneur who wants to increase the conversion rate of their store’s landing page. We cover a number of important aspects of the Shopify landing page creation process, starting from the research of the target audience and ending with the ongoing testing and monitoring of the finished product.

A Bit of Theory

Have you ever been in a situation like this? You’re walking down the street when suddenly you see something in a shop window that lures you like a magnet, something you’ve been wanting to have for a long time. You can’t resist the temptation, so you go inside and buy this thing.

E-commerce landing pages work in a way similar to shop windows. They are specifically designed to get online store visitors to perform a target action. For example, they can urge consumers to make a purchase or provide their email addresses through an appropriate call to action button.

You might wonder how a landing page differs from standard website pages. Actually, we can call each page of an e-commerce site a landing page. A visitor can click a link on social media, for instance, and open a product page, that is, land on it.

That said, a landing page is much more specific than the rest of the pages. The latter are intended to give information about your brand and offers to consumers at large. Even when a potential customer lands on a product page, they will not necessarily buy something.

A “true” landing page, on the other hand, is all about getting a visitor to perform one definite action. It assumes that the visitor is interested in this particular offer and is likely to respond to it by making a purchase, downloading a white paper, or in some other way.

A landing page is crucial for a higher conversion rate. That’s why it must be perfectly optimized from the sales and marketing perspectives to achieve its intended purpose.

Below, you’ll find 6 basic rules that every online merchant should observe throughout the process of building and running a Shopify landing page. Without these essentials, your chances of getting visitors to click the call to action button are very slim.

What You Should Do Before Drawing a Design and Writing the Content

Shopify Landing Page Optimization Rule #1: Gather Info About the People You Want to Buy from You

Some merchants start creating a landing page in Shopify only based on what they know about the market and the product’s features. A headlong approach like this is counterproductive. Before you even open up a text editor to write the content for your Shopify landing page, find out as much as possible about your potential customers.

Knowing key facts about the people you’re going to sell to, you are more likely to create a design and content that will bring up your conversion rate. You can go about this task in several ways:

• Have in-person or video Interviews with actual customers about their needs and how they meet them. For example, if you sell refrigerators, ask your customers what kinds of fridges they look for. What issues do they face when using them? What motivates them to prefer one type of product over another?
• Ask your customers to complete a survey with the same questions on your website. Promise a reward in return.
• Read what customers have to say about your product on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media. Note the language they use.
• Read reviews on specialized sites.

This information will help you come up with more effective content for your Shopify landing page. When a customer sees that the landing page “speaks” their language and offers viable solutions to their problems, you can expect more conversions.

To fine-tune your Shopify landing page preparation even further, create profiles of several imaginary customers. Answer at least these questions:

• How old is your typical customer?
• Do they have children?
• Are they married?
• Where do they live: in a large city or in the countryside?
• How much money do they earn?
• How much money can they afford to spend?
• How do they spend their time off?
• What motivates them to search for your product or service?

The profiles will help you be more precise in your content afterwards since you’ll be addressing these people specifically. Equipped with this data, you can get down to creating a landing page with Shopify in earnest.

What You Should Do When Drawing a Design and Writing the Content

Shopify Landing Page Optimization Rule #2: Use Custom Templates Built by Professionals

The first thing visitors to an e-commerce site do is assess its design. If it looks as if it’s been put together by an amateur, they will hardly stay there for long. Thus, hiring professional Shopify developers to build a landing page with Shopify’s templating language, Liquid, is wise.

It will cost you more, that’s true. At the end of the day, though, the benefits of a beautiful-looking and well-functioning landing page will outweigh any development expenses.

Shopify Landing Page Optimization Rule #3: Use a Headline That Tells Customers How Your Product Can Alleviate Their Consumer Pains

Visitors to an e-commerce landing page decide if they want to stay on it within a split second. If you don’t tell them how your product will make their lives easier straight away, they will close the page and look elsewhere. The best way to grab potential customers’ attention is with a good headline. It should be in large bold characters and value-saturated. Just mentioning a great characteristic of a product is not enough.

Let’s take the fridge example again. Many modern refrigerators have alarms that go off when the doors have been open for a specific amount of time. This is an especially useful feature for families with small children who may play with the fridge. An open fridge door brings up the temperature inside it, increasing energy consumption.

When writing the headline for the corresponding Shopify landing page, then, put an emphasis on this positive aspect. It’s much more effective than simply informing the visitors about the alarm system. They may not know what value it brings.

Shopify Landing Page Optimization Rule #4: Make Sure You Approach That All-Important Button the Right Way

You’ve guessed correctly. We’re talking about the call to action or CTA button. This Shopify landing page element clearly indicates if you’ve succeeded or failed. The more visitors click on it, the higher your conversion rate is likely to get.

Keep several important considerations in mind when adding a call to action button:

1. There should be no more than one CTA button per page. As we’ve said, one Shopify landing page is intended for one specific action. Two, three, or four CTA buttons will have visitors scratching their heads trying to choose from the offers.
2. A call to action button text must be specific and convey value to consumers:

   Wrong: “Buy” (vague, no value mentioned)

   Right: “Buy an energy-saving fridge for 20% off” (specific, communicates value)

3. A call to action button must be clearly visible on a Shopify landing page. Most frequently, this is achieved by means of contrast (a different color or font, a bold border, etc.).

A great example of effective landing pages that incorporate all these CTA principles is Factor75. Their landing pages make use of strong, value-driven call-to-action buttons that are prominently placed and easily noticeable. By clearly highlighting the benefits, such as customized meal plans and health-focused choices, Factor75 directs visitors seamlessly towards making a purchase, illustrating how user-centric design and specific value propositions can drive conversions.

Shopify Landing Page Optimization Rule #5: Avoid Heavy, Hard-to-Follow Content

The content should be all about the value that consumers can expect from your product. By this point, you’ve done research on your target audience’s behavior and motivations. You’ve come up with several profiles of imaginary customers. From reviews, you know the vocabulary your prospects typically use. Now, it’s time to add all this information to your content.

Tell the visitors what this product does, how it works, and what consumer problems it solves. Speak your audience’s own language rather than using technical jargon and complicated terminology.

In addition, make sure the content is easy to read:

• Use ordered or unordered lists when talking about the product’s strong points, for example.
• Ensure a consistent heading hierarchy (H3 follows H2, and so on).
• Use appropriate images to illustrate value.

Some people recommend making the content of a Shopify landing page as short as possible. This should not always be the case. For more complex products like refrigerators, you need to provide additional details. It’s more important to make the content clearly structured and value-focused.

What You Should Do After You Create a Landing Page with Shopify

Shopify Landing Page Optimization Rule #6: Keep Monitoring and Making Adjustments

E-commerce landing pages require attention after you’ve launched them as well. This is your brainchild, so you should constantly make sure it’s healthy and loved by the visitors. Even if your Shopify landing page’s conversion rate is quite high, there are always certain areas and elements you can make better.

To pinpoint such sections, consider heat mapping. There are several types of heat maps. Some show where users click. Others provide data as to their scrolling behavior.

Heat maps will help you answer many questions about your landing page’s UX, design, and content. For example, you may notice that most visitors leave the page without scrolling down to the bottom. Most likely, it means that the content in the upper part is not enticing enough. The monitoring process may include looking out for fraudsters, as most landing pages lead directly to your cart. Make sure you’re following merchant fraud prevention best practices to ensure you’re not losing your profits to thieves.

Conclusion

A Shopify landing page conversion optimization is a long and elaborate process that involves many variables. First and foremost, everything on your landing page, from the heading down to the call to action button, must serve one and only one purpose. Your prospects should know how your product can help them achieve their consumer objectives.

An effective Shopify landing page is impossible without a professional-looking design that follows the best UX practices. That’s what our expert Shopify developers are always ready to provide. With years of experience to our credit and in-depth knowledge of the current most popular e-commerce platform, we guarantee the highest quality of the end product.

Let’s get in touch!