At the core of every successful sponsored search or e-mail campaign stands a great landing page.   Designing a great landing page, however, is counter-intuitive to everything most website designers think they know.

If you want the highest conversion rate possible from your landing page, follow these absolute rules:

Designate only ONE purpose for your landing page.  Allow your visitors to take only one course of action such as request more information, subscribe to a newsletter, submit an inquiry, or make a purchase.  If you offer them a choice, chances are great that they will decide on neither and bounce.

• Answer these inevitable visitor questions in less than five seconds.

- What are you offering me?
- Why should I care?
- What do I do next?

You have six seconds to convert your visitor.  Do not expect them to stick around longer.

• Unless your goal is to repress response, don’t ask the visitor for more information than you need to begin the relationship.

• Keep both the offer and the response form above the fold.  This will increase the visitor’s ability to process your offer.  Adopt a side-by-side layout to ensure this occurs regardless of a visitor’s monitor size or settings.

• Your landing page is not a portal to your website!  The only link you should include is the one that links your submit button to your “Thank You” page.

• Be prepared to test.  Split-test your landing page constantly to determine the most effective mix of headline, layout, message, and call to action.

Ignore these rules at your own peril.  Clutter your landing page with too much information or too many options and you will scuttle your chances for success before the first visitor reaches the page.