Website vs Landing Pages: Which One Do I Need For My Business?
Websites and landing pages both have their own distinct purpose within the online ecosystem - so you may be wondering which one your business needs?
A website typically serves as an online hub for your business, where visitors can learn more about what you do, read blog posts or case studies, and get in touch with you.
While a landing page is designed to generate leads and ultimately make sales for a specific offer.
In this article, we'll cover the purpose of, and key differences between, websites and landing pages and help you determine which is right for your business.
What your website does for your business
In today’s digital world, almost every business needs to have a website. A website is a proverbial front door to your business, where potential customers can find you and learn more about what you offer.
Your website serves as the online storefront to your business, allowing interested people to learn about what you do, what you offer and eventually purchase from you. Your website may be very simple with just the key information needed to get an interested person into a sales conversation. Or you may want a more robust website that does the hard work of attracting the right potential clients to your business, nurtures their interest in your offers and ultimately converts them into paying clients.
A website is made up of different pages - such as your homepage, about page, contact page and sales pages. These are typically all linked together through your navigation.
However, you may also want to isolate a specific page - like a newsletter sign up page or sales page - that serves a very specific purpose to remove any distractions that might get in the way of converting a lead. This is what landing pages are all about/
What a landing page does for your business
Landing pages are much more targeted than your website because they show only people information about a specific offer and only offer one Call to Action.
This is perfect if you are looking to get people to give you their email address in exchange for a lead magnet and don’t want them wandering around the rest of your website before they finish signing up. Of if you’re promoting something paid, having a more focused space for an interested person to learn about your offer and make their purchase in a contained page will be more effective than when offered alongside all of your other offers.
Do you need a separate landing page builder or can you use your website?
With all of the options available to entrepreneurs these days, it can be confusing to know if you need a separate landing page builder or if you can simply create a landing page on your website.
If we break down what a landing page actually is, it’s simply an isolated page with no top navigation and often no footer. It may or may not be hosted on it’s own domain and will likely link to either your email marketing software or checkout software depending on if you are sharing a free lead magnet or selling a paid course or digital product.
With those considerations in mind, you can likely create your lead magnet within your existing website!
This not only saves you the additional cost of a landing page builder but also the time and effort to set up a separate system to house your landing pages.
How to create a landing page on your Squarespace website
Starting with the website builder you already use, such as Squarespace* you'll want to create a dedicated page for your new free or paid ofer.
Then you’ll need to design the page, add in compelling copy and graphics.
If you are creating a landing page for a free lead magnet, you’ll need to embed the sign up form from your email marketing software directly into the page.
If you’re selling a paid offer, you’ll want to connect all of your buttons to the checkout page you’ve created in your checkout software.
Then you’ll want to remove the header and footer from that specific page.
In Squarespace* you'll simply select the gear icon next to your desired page, click over to the Advanced tab, and then copy in the following piece of custom code (You may need to upgrade your Squarespace plan if custom code snippets aren't included in your current plan):
<style>
#header, #footer-sections { display: none
}
</style>
And voilà! You’ve created a landing page in your Squarespace website!
Not sure if Squarespace is the right fit for your business? Check out this article where I compare the the top website platforms!
Final Thoughts
Having a strategic website for your business is basically a non-negotiable in today’s digital age, but you don’t need to have a separate landing page platform as well. You can create compelling, converting leading pages directly in your website!
