If you’re new to coaching, the terminology can make you cuckoo at times, right?
This post will tackle the difference between a landing page and a squeeze page.
Generally speaking…
A LANDING PAGE is a point of entry into your website and it’s not always your home page.
A home page is a landing page but it’s not likely the only landing page you’ll have on your website.
It used to be that the home page was considered a virtual front door to a website… the point through which all visitors passed, but that is no longer the case. People come to your site from various sources and for different reasons and they will either land on a landing page or a squeeze page.
Let’s say someone hears about you and they decide to do a Google search of your name and they click on a link that lands them on your website’s home page. What makes this a “landing page” is that the visitor has options to go to other pages on your site.
You may have an optin box on your home/landing pages (and I hope you do!) but that’s not the same as having a page that is dedicated to one thing and one thing only: getting someone to opt in. That kind of page is called a “squeeze page.”
A squeeze page focuses on a single core (free) offer. It is short and to the point. Text is minimal and there are 4 main elements: There’s a headline, an offer, an optin form/box, and a call-to-action, or CTA button like, “click here” or “send me the download,” or it may have a 2-step optin like the one HERE, where you click the button and then enter your name and email. Bottom line: there’s only one option available to the visitor.
An optin box is the area of a page where people can enter their name and email in exchange for a free offer you’ve made them.
Generally speaking…
A SQUEEZE PAGE is one that gives a visitor to your site only one option: to opt in to receive your free offer in exchange for their email address.
Once again, a squeeze page (because you’re trying to “squeeze” information from a website visitor, like their name and email) has no other elements on the page that would distract a visitor from doing The One Thing you want them to do… get on your list.
A HOME PAGE can (should) have an optin box on it, but it’s not considered a squeeze page because it has other links that visitors can also click in the nav bar or elsewhere.
Now, brace yourself: all pages are landing pages.
Wait. What?
I know. Stay with me…
A squeeze page is a landing page. A landing page might be a squeeze page.
Finkel is Einhorn. Einhorn might be Finkel.
(If you got that reference to Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, I’m impressed. You must have had teenagers when that movie came out.)
Think about it this way: whenever someone lands on a page on your website, it’s technically a landing page, right? But it’s not necessarily a squeeze page (if it has more than one option for a visitor to your site).
The point is: a squeeze page has a very specific job to do whereas a general landing page may have several jobs (opt in box, bio, program offerings, blog post headlines, etc.).
The more jobs you give to a page, the more likely your website visitors won’t know what to do and they’ll leave without having taken any action at all.
Let’s Review
So… squeeze pages are landing pages but a landing page that gives someone more than one option is not a squeeze page… it’s a landing page with an optin box, among other options, and is therefore not a squeeze page.
That’s why it’s so important that you give each page on your website a job to do.
Your About page is going to be a landing page since it will have a navigation bar and/or links to other pages on your site, just like your Blog post pages.
Here are some examples:
HOME PAGE/Landing Page
LANDING PAGE with OPTIN (not a squeeze)
SQUEEZE PAGE (1-step optin)
To conclude:
This is the language of the online business world. Words and phrases are often used interchangeably. What you need to know is this:
1. Keep your landing pages focused with as few distractions as possible.
2. Create at least one squeeze page so that you can send people to that page to make them an offer they can’t refuse. For example, on the blog posts of my legal website, coveryourassetsonline.com, I include a link to this page or any other free offers I may have.
3. When creating a squeeze page, make sure the optin box appears “above the fold“; you don’t want visitors to have to scroll down to find it.
Questions? Come on over to the Gutsy Facebook group for coaches and let’s discuss!
(Notice the optin box, below? Make sure you have one of those, too.)
