To briefly explain the table, here’s how things go:
While a landing page is a standalone page built for a very specific goal, a website is a group of pages meant to bring exposure to your business online. A website can contain landing pages as well.
A landing page on a website can be temporary, depending on the goal you have with it (e.g., limited offers, temporary campaigns, contests, or various deals) or permanent (e.g., newsletter signup forms or membership plans).
A website is your business card where people can find all the information about your company, products, and services, while a landing page has the role of attaining immediate results and making people take action.
On a website, you basically invite people to your home. Here, you introduce yourself, offer help, create channels of communication, and build a trustworthy network of friends who relate to the same things. Out of these people, many become customers who pay for your services because they appreciate what you do.
On the other hand, a landing page does not focus on creating networks of people and long-term engagement. Its role is to simply bring results for marketing purposes.
Whilst a website grows organically with time and people are more likely to come back if they identify with your content, a landing page does bring awareness, but it won’t create a relationship with the reader.
Landing page vs website: Which one to choose?
The answer to this question will always be “it depends.”
Because it depends on what you are trying to achieve with your business.
To put it in a few paragraphs, here’s how you should choose:
? If you want to build an engaging community around your niche in the long term, you need a website first of all.
A website is your business card that contains all the elements that people need in order to trust you and pay for your services – details about your expertise, customer proof, social proof, community channels, contact, projects, etc.
Also, if your goal is to own a nice online presence and grow your business organically, but you don’t mind putting in the hard work to create quality content and deliver the best services, you should consider creating a site of your own.
Keep in mind that you can build landing pages on your website anytime you need to promote something, be it temporarily or for longer periods of time. A website is actually nothing but a collection of various pages.
? If you’re looking to only promote a campaign, a product launch, an event, or anything whose unique goal is to convert, you won’t need a full website. A good landing page will do.
You can create many landing pages if you plan to run multiple campaigns per year and recycle those that are repetitive. You can always customize old landing pages to match the current trends.
For a landing page to reach its goals, you can partner with similar businesses, post links on various sites, or create social media advertisements to reach as many potentially converting people as possible.
Conclusion on landing page vs website ?
That’s our take on how to differentiate a landing page from a website.
In short, while a landing page is a standalone page that is made to convert, a website is a collection of different pages (landing pages included) that are more likely to bring together loyal customers and people who are passionate about your niche.
Both landing pages and websites are important for a business to grow. They both contribute to the promotion of the business, effective marketing, building networks of followers/customers, and eventually monetizing your site traffic.
I could say that a business definitely needs both to be successful online – a website and a couple of landing pages as part of that website.
But what is your take on this landing page vs website question? Which one has proven to be the most effective for your business so far? Let us know in the comments section below.
