A lot of metaphorical ink has been spilt discussing how to get a customer to click your ad or open your email. What to do after you get that click is treated as an afterthought. Yet it shouldn’t be. Up to 90% of visitors to post-click landing pages don’t convert, something that can get quite expensive if you’re paying for those clicks.

Minimum word count on a post-click landing page

The accepted minimum page length is 300 words. Any shorter and Google classifies your page as a low-quality source, something terrible for SEO. But that is for ordinary pages. Your post-click landing page is divorced from site navigation. In fact, it’s best to not have any navigation on your landing pages at all. A landing page should be focused on one goal: converting visitors into customers.

The length doesn’t matter as much as the offer. Marketing experts advise using as few words as possible to sell your offer but that doesn’t explain much. A general rule of thumb is to look at what you’re asking of a customer. If you’re selling 10-dollar t-shirts, then you can get away with a few lines. If you’re selling a 10,000-dollar piano, you better be prepared to write a small book.

This is because people take longer to consider more expensive purchases so it’s in your best interest to provide as much detail as possible. It’s not just product detail. Stuff like testimonials and reviews on a post-click landing page count towards the word count as well. The more the product costs, the more of these you will need.

If you have very long copy for a fairly cheap product, a customer might feel like you’re beating him over the head. And short copy for a pricey product doesn’t work as well because it doesn’t provide enough information to spur purchasing decision.

Lower the commitment

The fastest way to get people further into your funnel is to lower the time and financial commitment. Instead of selling a piece of software for thousands of dollars, offer a free trial. If you’re selling 10-dollar t-shirts, you don’t need a 3,000-word product description. You could still have one but the price and a few good pictures will do most of the selling.

The landing page should address objections and offer guarantees. Make the buying process as painless as possible and length (or the lack of it) won’t matter.