There’s a time and a place for sales pages and landing pages that drive traffic to your products, but there’s also a need for educating and informing your website visitors. And how you design these pages will determine how effective they are.
The Benefits of Informational Pages
In a web design world filled with courses and classes on designing sexy landing pages, developing informational pages probably sounds boring and clinical. But when you understand the specific advantages of educational pages, you’ll change your tune. Here are a few direct ways they benefit businesses.
- Establishes authority. When customers have questions, they go online for answers. If you don’t provide the answers, then your customers are going to go elsewhere to find the information – i.e. your competitors. By developing robust pages with helpful information, you can become the go-to source for knowledge in your niche.
- Reduces customer service volume. For every question that you answer via your content, you’re eliminating the possibility of another email, phone call, or instant message. This saves you time and money so that you can focus on the tasks that really matter.
- Enhances SEO. Informational content is rich in relevant topics and semantic keywords. As a result, the more you publish this type of content, the greater your website’s SEO becomes.
- Boosts sales. While not always the case, informational content often leads to better conversion rates and greater sales figures. That’s because customers like to purchase from companies they know and trust.
Every business will experience its own unique set of benefits based on their target audience. However, one thing is for certain. If you invest in well-designed and developed informational pages, you’ll gain far more than you lose.
3 Helpful Design Tips
Now that you have a pretty good understanding of the benefits of informational and educational pages, let’s switch gears and look at how you can actually design these pages and maximize your return on investment.
- Keep it Concise
Depending on the topic you’re discussing, there may be lots of content to cover. While the traditional approach is to throw all this content into a text box and let visitors feast on it, this is asking for trouble. The more concise and organized you can make educational pages, the more likely it is people will consume it.
This car accident page from Herrman and Herrman is the perfect example. Notice how the FAQ section features drop down buttons that display answers to each question. This allows them to convey lots of information without totally overwhelming visitors.
- Use Visuals
Text is often the best way to convey information, but it’s not the only way. Too much text will leave something to be desired. In order to improve your numbers and provide visitors with more value, include as many visual elements as possible. Video, pictures, and infographics are all effective.
- Incorporate a CTA
Education is important, but education without action ultimately means nothing to your website’s bottom line. That’s why it’s important to incorporate calls-to-action in your informational pages.
This page from Venturing is a nice example. Not only does it provide information for visitors, but it also gives them that next step by asking, “How will you lead the adventure?” and by integrating a “Find a Crew” button into the page.
Adding It All Up
At the end of the day, a website with informational content is going to do a better job of serving clients than one that’s self-serving and purely focused on selling. And the better you get at designing these pages, the more effective they’ll become. Start practicing today.