Landing Page Vs. Homepage: What’s the Difference?

Landing pages and homepages are often confused for one another. In some cases, a homepage can be confused for the same thing as a landing page, and vice-a-versa. If you’re new to digital marketing or to website development and design, then you may be wondering what the differences are between the two, and why they cannot be one in the same thing. In this article, we’ll be explaining what each one is and which page you should be using when. Whether you’re developing a new website or are writing the content for these pages, this article should provide you with some much-needed answers.

What is a landing page?

A landing page is a website page that is often described as ‘stand alone’. It’s designed for a specific campaign, whether it be for the purposes of advertising or marketing. Essentially, it’s supposed to prompt action from the reader or visitor, so it will often contain something called a ‘call to action’ (CTA). A CTA might ask you to do one or more of the following things:

• Filling out a form
• Making a purchase
• Signing up for a newsletter

In addition for the purposes of advertising and marketing, landing pages can also be purpose-built to increase conversion rates, serving as a specific entry point for website visitors coming from various other points across the internet, whether it be via emails, adverts or social media.

What is a homepage?

A homepage is the main page on a website. It is often the first page you see when you click on a website URL. Otherwise known as an introductory page, this is the website page used to navigate through the rest of the website. As well as having links to other pages and products on the site, it can also take you to the company’s social media sites and to their other corresponding online entities. 

It’s considered to be the starting point for navigation, giving a simple and summarised overview of the business itself and what it can offer the visitor. Search results and SEO techniques are often employed to drive traffic to the homepage, among other relevant pages that might be present elsewhere on the same site. As a main page, its purpose is to draw the visitor further into the website, therefore reducing bounce rate.

Should I use a landing page or a homepage?

We’ve discussed the purposes for each page and what they’re specifically designed to do. If you’re looking to simply drive as much traffic as possible to a website, then write content for a homepage that is full of keywords and phrases and that has been optimised for SEO purposes. 

While you wait for the results, constantly monitor the page’s performance in terms of organic traffic and where it starts to rank in the search engine results pages (SERPs). This is a great way of knowing where to go next in your campaign. If it’s not working, then change something by way of SEO tactics. However, if it continues to perform well, then keep doing what you’re doing, but change tactics as algorithms change, for example.

When it comes to landing pages, seeing as these are designed solely for the purposes of advertising and marketing, you should write and utilise these if you’re looking to generate as many leads and conversions as possible, rather than for the purposes of generating organic traffic. 

It’s especially useful if you’re looking to get the visitor to do something for you, such as sign up to an emailing list or a monthly newsletter. From making a purchase to passing on their personal information, a landing page is something you should use if you want to encourage some activity from your website visitor for the purposes of lead generation.

Kumo is happy to provide a wide range of digital marketing services, such as content writing,  SEO, PPC and website design to customers throughout the UK. Regardless of the industry you work in, you can rest assured that we will provide a sterling experience with impressive results every single time. If you would like further information, get in touch with a member of our friendly, dedicated team today – we’re always pleased to hear from you.